Waupaca library to digitalize newspapers
By James Card
Jim Olsen, the treasurer of the Waupaca Area Public Library Foundation, retired from his position after 33 years of service.
He was the first treasurer of the foundation when it was started in 1989. He made his retirement formal during a board meeting on Jan. 10.
“It’s unbelievable for anybody on any board, said Vance Linden, foundation president. “Thirty-three years is unreal.”
A courthouse once stood where the library and city hall offices exist today. It was an architecturally beautiful building but in great disrepair.
This led to a heated civic debate about taking on enormous renovation costs to save the courthouse or to simply raze it to build something new.
“I was just going through some of the old treasurer reports that I have. When you look back and see what happened with the old library, and the city wanting to remodel the existing courthouse which had so many problems … the original goal was to get $300,000 just to build the library part,” said Olsen.
Olsen worked at First National Bank as a senior vice president for 43 years – right across the street from what would later become the library.
The foundation ended up raising more than $600,000 for the new library. They used the extra funds to build the children’s department.
“So that was really the best part of the whole program because this was going to be a basement with nothing in it. There was going to be a library upstairs but because we raised all this money, the children’s area and the exhibit room got started,” said Olsen.
Olsen departs from the foundation that now has over $1.6 million in raised funds.
The Waupaca Public Library Foundation is a non-profit corporation created to manage and safeguard all donations given to the Waupaca Area Public Library and to develop programs to promote the growth and public awareness of the library.
Nick Burington will be the new treasurer. “I have big shoes to fill,” he said. “Maybe I can make it to 35 [years].”
Burington has lived in Waupaca for 25 years and has a wife and son. He previously worked with Olsen at First National Bank, later worked at Bank First and now works at Bristol Morgan Bank in Fond du Lac as a credit underwriter.
Jump starting digitalization
Waupaca Area Public Library received a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council to digitalize the first 90 reels of old newspapers that date back to 1870. The Wisconsin Historical Society has started the process this month.
Also a private donation of over $6,000 was recently given to the library to digitalize more newspapers. There are a total of 270 reels earmarked to be converted into digital format.
In digital form, a library user will be able to efficiently review and search these old newspapers.
Currently in reel format, the reel must be loaded onto a viewer and the pages of the newspaper must be manually scrolled through to locate information of interest.