Bringing a Piece of History into the Digital Age

The town has a rich news history, with various newspapers that date back as far as 1859 helping paint a picture of what is and what used to be.

That history will forever be preserved in digital media, thanks to a new database provided through the Southington Public Library website. The digital program provides detailed copies of all available newspapers dating back to the first known copy of “The Southington Press” right through the latest versions of the Southington Observer, Record-Journal and other local papers.

Susan Smayda, director at the , said the project is something the library was excited to unveil last week and she hopes the collection will continue to grow.

“This is the type of stuff that intrigues me. It’s the type of thing that librarians live for,” Smayda said. “There are some gaps left to be filled, but there are many newspapers and so much history already loaded into the system.”

The library first took on the digitalization process just over a year ago after the reader-printer died. Rather than simply replacing the printer, Smayda said. With the help of donations from the Friends of the Library program and writer, photographer and historian Liz Kopec, the library was able to fund the $10,000 project.

But the problem was that aside from the microfilm there were few historical newspapers until Kopec, who is working on a project looking at Southington’s war history, pointed library staff to the Southington Historical Society.

The historical society, after some nudging, provided a number of newspapers including several from the World War II era. The collection includes papers from 1940 and 1942, Smayda said, but there are still gaps in the timeline.

“There isn’t anything from 1900 to 1920. We don’t know for sure what existed, but we are hopeful that we will be able to fill some of the gaps along the way,” she said.

The library is one of the first in the state to move to this digitized format. Kopec said it’s an important way to catalogue the rich history in town.

“The reason we have many of these papers is because Edna Wood would load the giant red volumes into her car and kept them safe,” Kopec said.

Te collection also includes an abundance of newspapers donated by Anthony Urillo, the founder of the , who died in late 2011 before the new digital database could be unveiled. Family members including his daughter Stephanie Urillo, a member of the Southington Town Council, said he would be proud to see the way the papers are being catalogued and forever preserved in history.

Jennie Urillo, Anthony’s wife, said late last week that she was in awe to see what has been accomplished and her husband would have been to. She remembers the way Anthony Urillo would take copies of the Southington Observer to the library to make sure their records were complete.

“He was a lifelong member of the Southington Historical Society,” Jennie Urillo said. “This is something he envisioned, having all the newspapers available for future generations. This is history.”

To see the new database, click on the link provided.