Amateur Newspapers: A Digitization Project

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Renee DesRoberts, archivist at the MacArthur Public Library in Biddeford and longtime Maine Memory Network contributor, joins us to talk about the library’s recent launch of Amateur Newspapers from the Walter Perkins Collection, a major digitization project and online exhibit.

The library’s amateur newspapers collection—defined as a historical periodical largely motivated by a rage to publish (rather than for profit) and created primarily for the pleasure of both reader and writer—showcases a variety of amateur papers collected by a Biddeford boy in the late 19th century. Renee will discuss how these early efforts mimic today’s emphasis on the democratization of information in the form of self-publishing and use of social media.

Speaker: Renee DesRoberts