Neason: How Tom Tryniski digitized nearly 50 million newspaper pages in his living room
From Alexandria Neason at Columbia Journalism Review on February 8, 2018:
Tom Tryniski does not lock his doors. He spends most days sitting in his living room in Fulton, New York, 30 miles northwest of Syracuse, in front of two jumbo computer monitors, looking something like a security guard, but friendlier. He appears young for 68 — skinny, with a head of white hair and an energetic demeanor. He wears a uniform of jeans and a slim-fitting T-shirt, but no coat in the chilly fall air. When we talk, he is almost always smirking.
There are few newspapers left in his community; the Fulton Patriot closed in 2010, and The (Oswego County) Valley News, is printed just twice weekly. And yet Tryniski’s living room is drowning in newsprint, home to millions of pages of newspapers from all over New York, and the country, and Canada, stretching back to the 19th century. Every day, he sits in front of his surveillance-style monitors, shoulders hunched forward, face burrowed into the blue glow of the screen, scanning newspapers from microfilm into his massive online repository, Fultonhistory.com.
Read the full article here: https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/tom-tryniski-fultonhistory.php
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Originally published: February 8, 2018. Last Updated: February 8, 2018.