Organizations like newspapers attempt to record history as it happens. Paper, however, has a tendency to disintegrate over the years if not properly stored.
Much of that history is stored on media like microfiche, but even that requires someone to go to a particular physical location in order to look through it.
An initiative from the Arizona State Library is attempting to digitize as much information as possible as it pertains to the life and times of the Grand Canyon State and keep it stored online.
The Arizona Memory Project isn’t just looking at newspapers but rather a collective database of information about all aspects of the state’s past, including photos, oral histories and other archived information collected by numerous organizations across the state.
Those groups include universities, museums and historical societies.
Many organizations, like the Beaver Creek Preservation and Historical Society, don’t have a large presence online.
It’s partly because the people who tend to focus on collecting local history may not be comfortable trying to use computers, as some of its own board members admitted at their Friday, July 10, meeting.
Help is available, however.
Devon Artrip, a librarian at the Beaver Creek School and public library, told the group she would be available to help them get connected with the project.
Artrip used to work for the Boys and Girls Club but has moved on to her new position since that agency closed its doors in the Verde Valley.
The memory project currently has more than 100,000 items digitized and online available for viewing and the number is only growing.
The collection includes everything from mining to military history, from the pre-territorial period to the present day.
Even contemporary documents about things like the infamous incident at the OK Corral are in the archives.
Artrip said the collection has been accumulating for around eight years.
“There are photographs, maps, many things stored online,” Artrip said.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, July 15, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
