Many people and organizations have assisted with OurOntario/OurDigitalWorld efforts to surface community newspapers over the years and any list is bound to miss important contributors, but here is a partial attempt to pay homage to some specific individuals:
→ Katharine Ball, (now retired) librarian at the Leddy Library put in endless hours collecting, documenting, and scanning Essex County newspapers. Much of the content here is directly connected to Katharine’s hard work, and the volume of her efforts is so staggering that it will take a lot of time to bring it all together. Katharine has also put many newspapers into the University of Windsor’s Institutional Repository and the Internet Archive.
→ Laurie Brett, former publisher and 4th-generation editor of the Essex Free Press, was the first person to ever fund a community newspaper digitization project when what was then OurOntario needed a champion to work through a pilot project with the Internet Archive. Laurie has contributed many volunteer hours into the quality control needed for scanning media as fickle as microfilm, and her encyclopedic knowledge of local history and newspaper publishing has been invaluable in navigating the ebbs and flows of southwestern Ontario historic news coverage.
→ Jess Posgate, Project Coordinator of OurDigitalWorld (ODW), has guided newspaper projects across the finish line for both INK and ODW’s other newspaper initiatives. Walter Lewis and Diane Bédard, the developers behind ODW, have fuelled most of these efforts with their skill and dedication. ODW has become a powerhouse in newspaper digitization and demonstrates the tremendous value of a small but agile team.
→ Loren Fantin, former Executive Director of ODW and now Special Projects & Strategic Initiatives Lead at Internet Archive Canada. Loren represents not one, but two critical organizations for supporting the digitization of newspapers and kept the lights on for ODW through many funding challenges.
→ David Hutchinson, of the Essex County Branch of Ontario Ancestors, has been a patient supporter of this project, and has not only contributed to the digitization process, but has lent his van and his muscle to moving physical newspaper collections from publisher sites to the University of Windsor Archives.
→ Sarah Glassford, Archivist at the University of Windsor, stepped up to put the weight of Archives and Special Collections behind the INK newspapers, and with the strong support of Selinda Berg, University Librarian, has made it possible for both digitized and physical newspaper collections to be preserved for future generations at the University of Windsor.