Digitization Project -- "About This Database."

In 2000, Garrett Public Library received a federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant for a pilot digitization project. A major component of this project was the development of a database containing full-text obituaries from the local newspaper, The Garrett Clipper. With the Clipper’s gracious consent, a decision was made to scan the actual obituaries from the paper. The Library had clipped and saved these obituaries from the late seventies to the present, and they became the initial entries for the database. Current obituaries will be scanned directly from the Garrett Clipper’s homepage. Scanning the actual obituary not only preserves the original appearance but also lessens the potential for misinformation from inputting errors. Interpretations of actual birth and death dates are left up to the reader.

The Garrett Public Library is grateful to the Indiana State Library Development Office for their administration of the LSTA grant, to The Garrett Clipper for permitting us to scan the obituaries, to Curt Witcher, Manager of the Historical Genealogy Department at Allen County Public Library, for volunteering untold hours of additional advice and assistance, and to Technology Specialists for their gracious donation of further time and expertise in developing the Web interface for this database.