Illinois paper receives grant to continue digitization project

When older documents are lost or ruined, the information they contain may be gone forever. With this in mind, many archive foundations, libraries and newspaper providers have begun initiatives that capture record books and old issues and store the files on an electronic document management database.

This strategy can preserve older data that isn't present anywhere else, allowing for the preservation of the primary source. Moreover, researchers at any location can access the files remotely online.

According to the Illinois State Journal-Register, the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project was recently given a grant to continue the digitization of early volumes of the Sangamo Journal, the Journal-Register's predecessor. The initiative is being undertaken by workers at the University of Illinois's Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection.

Part of the motivation behind the the project is the fact that the paper was published during the life of Abraham Lincoln, and many believe he may have sent in letters anonymously, the news source explained.

"The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is the ideal organization to assume the responsibility for preserving this precious, irreplaceable, but hard-to-find archive in the most accessible possible format," historian Harold Holzer said in a news release, the Journal-Register reported.

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