Grants available for digitisation of South Australian community newspapers
The State Library of South Australia is celebrating the first success story of the Community Newspaper Digitisation Project with the Port Lincoln Times 1955-1965 and 1992-2002 now available on Trove. This was made possible by the Port Lincoln History Group with co-funding from the Libraries Board of South Australia, who recognise that newspaper digitisation and delivery online through the National Library’s Trove platform is highly valued by the public.
Applications are now open for the second round of matched or co-funding grants that the Libraries Board of South Australia has committed for 2023-2024.
The Libraries Board is funding an annual Community Newspaper Digitisation Project as a three-year pilot, which began in July 2022. The Board has committed up to $50,000 each year for three years to pilot an annual grants program in which they will match, or co-fund, community funding to increase South Australian newspaper content on Trove.
This is the first time since Commonwealth funding for newspaper digitisation ended in 2017 that the State Library of South Australia will be able to support a scheduled newspaper digitisation program.
Geoff Strempel, Director State Library of South Australia says,
“Newspapers hold the stories of the past and present day and are a rich source of information. In 2020-21 there were 4.6M page views of South Australian newspaper content in Trove, so supporting increased access is important.”
“Supporting the Community Newspaper Digitisation Project creates further opportunities for the community to discover and access the newspapers of the state. It also allows us to reach out to the community to help us identify newspaper titles for digitisation.”
In celebrating the digitisation of the Port Lincoln Times, the Library will share some of the gems uncovered which are now publicly available thanks to this project. One such story reported on Tuesday, January 27 1998, was The World Tuna Tossing record being shattered by Commonwealth gold medal hammer thrower Sean Carlins by tossing the tuna 37.23 metres.
The grant process for the second round of matched or co-funding grants is open to any individuals or organisations that have a keen interest in seeing more South Australian newspaper content available through the Trove platform. A panel of digitisation and collection specialists from the State Library of South Australia will independently assess each application based on the assessment criteria.
Applications are now open and close at 5pm on Friday 28 April 2023.
For full details of the application process visit Community Newspaper Digitisation Project.
Media enquiries
Lucy Guster
Manager, Engagement and Marketing
State Library of South Australia
Mobile 0409 091 829
Email lucy.guster@sa.gov.au