South Milwaukee wants to digitize its newspapers to preserve the city's history. But it needs $15,000 to do it.

An effort is underway to save the first draft of South Milwaukee’s history.

More than 100 rolls of 35mm microfilm containing South Milwaukee newspapers from 1892 to 2006 are currently not readable.

The reader and printer at the South Milwaukee Public Library, 1907 10th Ave., failed and the South Milwaukee Historical Society is working with the library and a local business owner to save the city’s history.

Instead of purchasing another reader, the society and library have chosen to instead invest in digitizing the newspapers which will allow patrons easier — and searchable — access.

Jay Benkowski, the owner of Benkowski Properties, has partnered with the library and society to match all new donations dollar-for-dollar with a goal of $15,000, of which about $5,000 has been raised.

“My desire is to see this happen this year,” he said. “If you’re not willing to protect your history, who will? We’re putting them on CD, we’re not getting a piece of outmoded tech to replace outmoded tech. The reader is also more expensive and couldn’t be supported going into the future.”

The full digitization effort will be done by the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison. Library Director Kathy Manning said she recently learned the originals of the microfilm are kept there and South Milwaukee only has copies.

The idea

Steve Schreiter, a co-curator of the South Milwaukee Historical Society, said the idea came after a member of the society informed him the microfilm printer and reader at the South Milwaukee Library was no longer working.

The decision was made to try and save the newspapers through digitization. After reaching out to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Schreiter said in he learned optical character recognition could also be applied, which makes the newspapers searchable.

Schreiter sent out two grant requests — one to the Bucyrus Foundation and the other to the We Energies Foundation to fund the project.

Both were rejected.

The sad news was shared in the society’s newsletter and soon after the society received two $1,000 donations. The society’s board of directors chose to allocate just over $1,000 raised during a “Christmas Tea” fundraiser toward the project as well.

Schreiter said South Milwaukee Mayor Erik Brooks contacted the historical society months ago to draft a history of the city possibly for the municipal website. Schreiter said the society agreed to do it for nothing and Brooks made a $1,000 donation to the society, which went toward the project bringing the total, with a few other donations, to around $5,000.

Schreiter, who is currently working on a history of the South Milwaukee Yacht Club, said newspapers are a great primary source for information and tremendous for genealogical work.

He said the end goal is to have the discs available at the library and historical society.

Those interested in donating can make out and send checks to the South Milwaukee Historical Society, 717 Milwaukee Ave., South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

All donations over $250 will be acknowledged by a letter.

Contact Erik S. Hanley at (262) 875-9467 or erik.hanley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley.