Bellaire Library to Debut Digitized Newspapers

“A good newspaper is never nearly good enough but a lousy newspaper is a joy forever.” — Garrison Keillor, 1990
With a clever invitation that evokes olfactory memories of old and borrowed books, the Bellaire Library will host a “Meet and Greet” with the 2015 Board Members of the Friends of the Bellairy Library.
The event is Wednesday, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the Bellaire Library, at 5111 Jessamine.
The library also will debut the digitized versions of old Bellaire newspapers, which has been a joint project between the Bellaire Historical Society and the Friends of the Library
The library’s extensive microfilm collection of the seven Bellaire newspapers that covered the city from 1944 to 1990 has been digitized by the University of North Texas’ “Portals of Texas History,” project.
The Bellaire Historical Society originally had the old newspaper clippings put on microfilm, under a contract with the Texas Department of Corrections. Inmates at the Wynne Unit transferred the papers to microfilm.
The Bellaire Library has been planning a major “roll-out” of the records, along with a guide to using it, for several months.
Bellaire resident Lynn McBee, the secretary of the Historical Society, says there are several reasons why the history of a community is important.
“One is to appreciate the accomplishments of the past; to avoid making the same mistakes we’ve made before, and to have a sense of belonging and roots that tie a community together,” McBee says.
Doug Christians, president of the Bellaire Historical Society, is the owner of a software development firm. Christians has lived in Bellaire since 1995.
“The best part about the newspaper project is that all of those stories and photos will be available online, so people can use the modern conveniences — without having to go through microfiche. There are a lot of people today who don’t even know what that is,” Christians said.
The University of North Texas’ website explains the digitized Texas newspapers’ project.
“The Texas Digital Newspaper Program coordinates with multiple partners, including public libraries, publishers, historical and genealogical societies, and universities, to represent and preserve Texas history through digitized newspapers. This collection begins with pages from 1829 and continues through the present.
“A large portion of the newspaper content in this collection comes from the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Digital Newspaper Program, and the rest of the content is digitized through the active support of individual groups interested in preserving and providing access to community newspapers from across Texas.”