Cold North Wind Inc, & Paperofrecord.com

Cold North Wind Inc, & Paperofrecord.com

History

Cold North Wind, Inc. (CNW) was created in 1999 and has since been considered a worldwide pioneer in technology. The mission of CNW has been to bring archived historical newspapers "back to life" via the internet for use by libraries, consumers, and anyone with the desire to reacquaint themselves with the past^[1] Along with other media and technology functions, CNW is the parent company of paperofrecord.com (POR), a fee/membership based website featuring over 21 million archived newspaper images from around the world.^[2]

POR was conceived in 2001 at a local Ottawa Mexican restaurant by R.J. (Bob) Huggins and the team at Cold North Wind, Inc. its parent company. With such an interesting conception, there can be no doubt that the journey would be just as interesting for CNW and POR. Beginning in Ottawa Canada, POR now spans the United States, Mexico and Europe, with newspapers from big city to small town participating in this endeavor.^[3] As the concept evolved the idea was further developed and it was established that such a wide base of archived newspaper article images would be a valuable tool for historians, scholars, educators, and genealogists. Time has proven that there is a great demand for such a resource as POR. This collection of newspaper article images has helped put history back into the hands of those eager to learn. With the creation of POR, CNW found a creative way to bring revenue and new life back into the world of the newspaper, which is the original form of news media.

Branching out in the technology realm, the team at CNW took on the task of digitizing microfilm newspaper article images, and making them user friendly over a computer. The result was a technology developed by CNW which automated the process, making it relatively simple to complete. This technology made CNW/ POR the first company in the world to digitize an entire newspapers history, beginning with the Toronto Star and its 110 year history, which was "…archived in less than four months".^[4] Immediately following the Toronto Star was the Globe and Mail.

Newspapers have documented the world’s greatest events, tragedies, and stories, and are by far the most longstanding source of news and information. Because newspapers are so long standing, there is a great deal of vital information to be gleaned. The POR vision statement says it best; “Just to give you some context on how society has gathered our daily information for the past five centuries. The Internet is but a very small child with its commercial adoption in the early 1990’s. Television is introduced to our living rooms in the nineteen fifties and changes forever our world view. Radio broadcasts dominated our information gathering from the 1920’s through the birth of television”.^[5]

In 2006 Google along with the shareholders of Cold North Wind, Inc. reached an agreement to privately sell POR to Google. The sale remained confidential until 2008 when the news was then publicly announced. The sale was seen as a positive step for POR due to Google's large scale and resources.^[6] Google offers a news archive search independently; however, the addition of the material found on POR certainly broadened their scope of archives. The journey to stability in the transition period was not always smooth, but in the end, the newspaper archives were made available as they were originally intended.^[7]

Features

CNW and POR have taken the newspaper archive world by storm and offer a unique opportunity for members to glimpse history in a new way. The archived newspapers feature unusual historical facts and figures from around the world. CNW worked with the National Archives of Canada and created an online archive featuring portions of former prime minister "…William Lyon Mackenzie King's diaries", as well as working toward an online version of the Canadian Historical Dictionary.^[8]

Branching out, CNW and POR have attracted users from all over the world, which unites society with history in a user friendly, cost effective manner. POR has been a consistently growing source of knowledge, images and information, and is widely used. Genealogy is one of the most widely applied uses of POR, as it offers great insight into the lives of previous generations. Among the other prolific uses for the database are sports media and author publication.

Newspapers have long been an excellent source of sports news coverage, covering many major historical sporting events, Olympic Games, etc. The archived information available on POR offers users access to this information at their fingertips. Books such as The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games, Opening Day: The story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season and many other books feature references to POR for its usefulness and insight.^[9]

For authors, POR is a consistent source of information that may not be easily achieved otherwise. POR has been referenced in many published books and articles illustrating its wide applicability and usefulness. Among books published that feature the usefulness of POR are historical, genealogical, and more. Books such as the Reference sources in history: An introductory guide, Chocolate: history, culture, and heritage, Ontario’s African-Canadian heritage: collected writings by Fred Landon, 1918–1967, and many others. The primary sources used are for historical and genealogical purposes, but there are many other uses.^[10]

POR allows members to access some of the world's greatest historical archives. Not only are article images available for newspapers currently in circulation, but POR offers a unique opportunity to visit the past through newspaper archives such as The Washington Star, which has been out of circulation since 1981 ending its 130 year long run.^[11] The Washington Star covered major events in American history including the Civil War and both World Wars, which are highlights for historians and scholars.

Thanks to the pioneering of the people at CNW/POR, people from all over the world can now search for newspaper article images online at their convenience. This ability is in stark contrast to typical library reference methods where the individual must search through multiple microfilm and paper reference sources, and may or may not find what they are looking for. This technology opens a great window for advancement in the digital archive form of media.

Along with receiving various acknowledgements for their work, CNW and POR was nationally recognized in 2002 with a national E-content award. Such recognition has further established CNW and POR as leaders in the archival arena.^[12]

References

1. ^ (http://www.itnewslink.com/article.php?id_article=6713).
2. ^ (https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp)
3. ^ (http://www.brucegillespie.com/Articles/Allthenewsthatsfittoscan.html)
4. ^ (http://www.brucegillespie.com/Articles/Allthenewsthatsfittoscan.html)
5. ^ (https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp)
6. ^ http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2053117/Google-Buys-Digital-Historical-Newspaper-Archives-from-PaperofRecord.com)
7. ^ (http://www.blog.historians.org/news/771/paper-of-record-disappears-leaving-historians-in-the-lurch)
8. ^ (http://www.brucegillespie.com/Articles/Allthenewsthatsfittoscan.html)
9. ^ (http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=paperofrecord.com&btnG=Search#q=paperofrecord.com&hl=en&prmd=ivnsfd&source=lnms&tbm=bks&ei=UAceTr66Hcv_sQKkr9TDCA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=7&ved=0CBQQ_AUoBg&prmdo=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=ab5d2971f87bd149&biw=1252&bih=596)
10. ^ (http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=paperofrecord.com&btnG=Search#q=paperofrecord.com&hl=en&prmd=ivnsfd&source=lnms&tbm=bks&ei=UAceTr66Hcv_sQKkr9TDCA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=7&ved=0CBQQ_AUoBg&prmdo=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=ab5d2971f87bd149&biw=1252&bih=596)
11. ^ (http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/Digest/Cold-North-Wind-to-Digitize-The-Washington-Star-Archives-17117.asp)
12. ^ (http://www.obj.ca/Other/Archives/2002-03-26/article-2148349/Cold-North-Wind-snags-national-e-content-award/1)

External links

Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

PaperOfRecord: https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp

Google Books featuring paperofrecord.com: http://www.google.com/search?q=paperofrecord.com&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1

StayCreative, Inc: http://www.staycreative.ca/portfolio.html