The new, improved Otago Witness illustrated supplements are coming to a screen near you! The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust will replace murky, low-quality digitised photographs with high-quality scans from the original paper copies, preserving their historical value. The supplements, filled with significant images of places, people, and events, offer a window into New Zealand's past, making them a valuable resource. While Papers Past will soon integrate the new images, they will also be available on the Trust’s Recollect site.

The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust is digitising historical newspapers in partnership with the National Library of New Zealand and NZMS. The Marlborough Express, which holds a rich history dating back to 1866, is one of the newspapers being digitised.

In this blog, Steve Austin, the former Executive Director of the Marlborough Museum, highlights the importance of historical newspapers as the "first draft of history." Digitisation not only preserves these newspapers but also makes them more accessible to researchers, students, and family historians.