SmallTownPapers is an online gateway to newspapers from small town America – past and present. Working with publishers from across the country, the company digitally scans current and archived newspapers and then provides online access. Through the SmallTownPapers website, the newspaper archives can be searched by keyword or phrase and viewed as originally printed. SmallTownPapers, Inc. is based in Seattle, Washington.

Q: What is SmallTownPapers?
A: SmallTownPapers, Inc. is a Seattle-based company dedicated to creating searchable digital copies of newspaper archives from small community newspapers across the United States. SmallTownPapers works with publishers to create high quality scans of printed newspaper archives then make them searchable and accessible online.

Q: How is SmallTownPapers different from other digital newspaper archives?
A: A traditional searchable archive is a text file and provides the reader with the ability to search published articles (text). SmallTownPapers creates images of superior quality by scanning directly from the printed newspaper pages. Viewers see the newspaper just as it was printed and can search for any term appearing on the page in articles, photographs and advertisements.

Q: Who is interested in accessing the SmallTownPapers archives?
A: The archives of newspapers from America’s small towns possess incredible value to researchers, genealogists, historians, governments and legal professionals.  SmallTownPapers creates high-quality images of the newspapers and places them in an internet accessible digital archive that is completely searchable. Millions of pages of information can be accessed from a single source.

Q: Aren’t these newspapers creating their own digital archives?
A: While many small newspapers now create digital files going forward, SmallTownPapers works with publishers to digitize their historic archives.  SmallTownPapers provides the technology and production services that publishers can use to place their archives online.

Q: How many newspapers have their archives available on the SmallTownPapers website?
A: Currently there are more than 300 newspapers from 48 states represented in the SmallTownPapers Collection.

Q: Which newspapers can place their archives on the SmallTownPapers website?
A: The newspapers must be small community-based publications serving a certain geographic area, and the newspaper must produce its own content.

For more information contact SmallTownPapers.