By VICKI BROWN
vbrown@lowcountry.com
Colleton County Memorial Library has recently finished digitizing former newspapers that were once published in Colleton County, giving readers the ease of reviewing former news articles, obituaries, announcements and more.
“I am pleased to share with you that our entire collection of Microfilms for The Colletonian and The Dispatch (Former newspapers in Colleton County) have now been digitized and uploaded to Digital Reel,” said Colleton County Memorial Library Director Carl Coffin. “The Colletonian is digitized, years 2010- 2018, and The Dispatch is now digitized, years 1998-2010. These newspapers are non-existent today, and it is nice having these available for patrons to research.”
Both of these newspapers were privately-owned papers in Colleton County.
A project at the Colleton County Memorial Library also digitized issues of The Press and Standard, and other Colleton area publications/newspapers, dating from the late 1800s through 2015. This was completed in 2016 and is available online for the public. Now, the digitization has been updated up to year 2018. The issues are available on-line through the library Web site, www.colletonlibrary.org.
Coffin and his staff begin working in June 2015 with BMI Imaging, which scanned all of the library’s microfilm and transferred the images to a platform called Digital Reel. The program brings up each page as a PDF file, which can be cropped, blown up, printed, emailed, sent to Facebook or saved to a computer. Access is available through any digital device and there is no log-in when accessed through the library’s webpage. Images are in black and white. Those familiar with photo editing programs can edit images and search for them.
“It’s very user-friendly for any-one who knows how to navigate the internet and is familiar with the pdf format,” Coffin said. For those who aren’t, free training is available by visiting or calling the library.
Anyone can access all the county's history and newspaper articles from their home computers. Some issues from the late 1800s and early 1900s are available, but in most cases, only a few papers remain from the early years.
The Press and Standard is continuous from 1906 through 2018.
Surviving newspaper issues are:
The Press and Standard - 1891-1892, 1895-96, 1900-02, 1904-2015; The Colleton and Beaufort Sun - 1860; The Colleton Democrat - 1879, 1880; The Colleton News - 1908, 1909, 1910; The Colleton Press - 1881-82, 1884, 1888, 1890; The Colleton Standard - 1889, 1890; The Greenville Evening Sun – 1908; The Walterboro News - 1874-76; The News and Courier - 1892, 1898; The Southern Star – 1887; The Sunday News (Charleston) – 1910; and The State – 1891.
