This week, big news for research geeks like us: The Wisconsin Historical Society has finished renovating a gorgeous new reading room at its historic headquarters (map) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. We’ll be among the many stopping by to bask in that calm, air-conditioned space.
But today Executive Director Andy Hall and I took a field trip to a less-feted section that may be an even greater help to investigative journalists and other diggers. It’s the low-ceilinged, dim, homely cave of wonders where the Wisconsin Historical Society compiles archives of a few hundred Wisconsin newspapers, and of newsletters from all over North America.
Ron Larson, a staffer there (and soon-to-be blogger for WisconsinWatch.org), says the newspapers are all eventually transferred to microfilm, not digital formats, because microfilm is still considered a more reliable archiving medium. But there’s a huge backlog of papers to film — which means that some of this material is available only on paper.
It’s a story trove, and a good reminder (especially for those of us who have digitized our lives) that not everything is on the Internet.
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
