Library puts local history online

Social media provides a look into the past as far as the Internet is concerned, but researching beyond the start of the 21st century can be a bit of a challenge.

At the Thompson Falls Public Library, information has been available in the form of newspaper on microfilm. The technology, now outdated, allowed patrons to look through specific years of publications, but wat not searchable and finding exactly what you needed could be tedious. And with outdated operating systems on computers, the technology could not be updated.

Lynne Kersten with the Thompson Falls Public Library announced recently that microfilm available at the library is now available online. The library to date has received almost $10,000 in grants from the Frisbee-Morbella Foundation to complete the project. The latest grant of more than $7,000 allowed the library to put microfilm through 1963, including issues of the Sanders County Ledger, online at montananewspapers.org.

Along with viewing each edition and specific pages of newspapers, the website allows users to search by city, date, or key words.

"It's great for the library and users," Kersten said. She said they no longer can print from microfilm due to computer upgrades and outdating microfilm readers, but with the new website, people no longer have to come in to the library.

Kersten said the library receives a lot of requests for research, including obituaries and business information. With the montananewspapers.org

information free and online, information is more readily available to the public.

Kersten said the project includes sending microfilm to the Montana Historical Society, which contracts a company to digitize the information. The project for the Thompson Falls Public Library took about three months to complete.

The online newspapers are also available through the Thompson Falls library's web page, thompsonfallslibrary.org.