Eric Weig and Mary Molinaro attend conference on preserving born-digital newspapers

Eric Weig, digital library services librarian in the Special Collections Research Center, and Mary Molinaro, Data Research Center director, attended “Dodging the Memory Hole: Saving Born-digital News Content.” The meeting of newspaper publishers, journalists, media representatives, and library specialists took place November 11-12 at the University of Missouri.

Eric presented his research in preserving born-digital newspaper content. Mary serves as an advisor to the National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored Chronicles in Preservation project that led up to the University of Missouri meeting. 

The Reynolds Journalism Institute sponsored the conference which brought together experts to develop tangible strategies for preventing loss of born-digital newspaper content. As today’s newsrooms move to a completely digital environment, the news stories and photographs that document our world are increasingly at risk of being lost to future generations.  

Both Eric and Mary have extensive experience in the preservation of born-digital newspaper content and UK Libraries is a leader in preserving the current newspaper content in Kentucky. Other states, including Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, and Wisconsin, are extending efforts to preserve current newspaper content and have adopted preservation strategies used by UK Libraries. Eric and Michael Slone, a programmer in the Special Collections Research Center, developed UK's processes as part of their expanding Paper Vault system.