As part of the “preserving today for tomorrow” motto at the Laguna Woods History Center, two volunteers spent nearly two years scanning and digitizing 40 years worth of newspapers for the nonprofit’s archives.
From the community newspaper’s beginning as Leisure World News to the current Laguna Woods Globe, residents Melissa Chan and Lee Bevilacqua scanned more than 2,000 issues for digital use.
“The fact that it will be useful made me think it was a good idea; it will be so useful for anyone who wants to check into the different issues or articles,” Bevilacqua, 99, said. “There’s a lot of information there.”
Bevilacqua added that she hopes residents can use the information as a sort of “historical textbook” while doing any research at the Laguna Woods History Center.
“We were proud to be a part of it because we accomplished something after so many years of doing it,” she said. “It was getting a little boring at times but we survived it.”
Dean Dixon, CEO of the Laguna Woods History Center, said that anyone can now come to the nine workstations to look at the digitized newspapers. However, they are still in the process of organizing the 2,000-plus PDF files, he added.
To keep up with the weekly Laguna Woods Globe editions, Dixon said, volunteers download the PDF files of the newspaper from the Orange County Register eEdition website.
“We don’t think of (newspapers) as something to be kept, except this wonderful information in these documents are too valuable to lose,” Dixon, 72, said. “The nature of the paper, literally, is that over time it turns into powder, falls apart and can’t be used. So getting a jump on that process we decided to digitize.”
The History Center was founded in 1977 as the Leisure World Historical Society and moved to its current location at 24266 Calle Aragon in 1997. Aiming to appeal to younger residents, the center underwent a $12,000 renovation and a name change in 2015.
With the digitization project, the center continues to modernize.
The scanner and software cost the nonprofit $9,000, but were necessary to be able to scan the large files of the newspapers, Dixon said. Initially, he said, he thought the project of scanning the newspapers would take at least five years.
“Our volunteers are extremely dedicated,” he said.
