WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.020 So I want you to picture a highly specific scenario 00:00:03.020 --> 00:00:07.519 for a second. OK. Imagine holding a direct, like 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:10.320 a physical connection to the year 1738 in your 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.519 hands. Oh, wow, 1738. Right. So we are talking 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.839 about the era of powdered wigs. The Enlightenment 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.940 is in full swing. And news is only traveling 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.649 as fast as a horse could gallop, basically. or 00:00:24.649 --> 00:00:27.309 a ship could sail. Yeah, pre -industrial. Exactly. 00:00:27.789 --> 00:00:29.870 And usually when we think about interacting with 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:32.850 a primary source from that far back, the image 00:00:32.850 --> 00:00:35.750 that comes to mind is, well, it's quite intimidating. 00:00:36.189 --> 00:00:38.539 It is. You picture the white gloves. Yes. You 00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:41.539 picture yourself in this, like, heavily air -conditioned, 00:00:41.579 --> 00:00:43.960 subterranean vault of some elite university. 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:46.219 You're wearing the white cotton gloves, you're 00:00:46.219 --> 00:00:48.320 speaking in hushed tones, and you're basically 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:50.280 terrified to breathe too heavily on the parchment 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.659 just in case it crumbles into dust right in front 00:00:52.659 --> 00:00:55.060 of the archivist. Which is a very real fear with 00:00:55.060 --> 00:00:57.719 paper that old. It really is. Yeah. But what 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:00.159 if, instead of that highly restricted environment, 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.289 you were just sitting in your living room? You're 00:01:02.289 --> 00:01:04.650 drinking your morning coffee, and you are simply 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:07.549 clicking a mouse to scroll through the exact 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:10.230 same historical document. It completely flips 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:12.450 the traditional script of historical research, 00:01:12.609 --> 00:01:15.109 doesn't it? It really does. Because that image, 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:17.849 that shift from the vault to the living room... 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.359 captures the fundamental shift we're looking 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:22.939 at today. You aren't just looking at old paper 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:26.280 on a screen. You are looking at the democratization 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.480 of information. I like that phrase, democratization 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:33.519 of information. Because historically, the documented 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:36.519 primary source past was strictly guarded. It 00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:39.340 was entirely the domain of gatekeepers. Right. 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:42.140 If you wanted to read an 18th century broadsheet, 00:01:42.299 --> 00:01:44.480 you needed the academic credentials to get into 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.000 the library in the first place. Oh, you had to 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.579 know somebody. Exactly. or you needed the financial 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.620 resources and just the sheer free time to travel 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:55.359 across the globe to wherever that physical piece 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:57.659 of paper was housed. Yeah, which most people 00:01:57.659 --> 00:02:00.060 just don't have. No, they don't. So what we are 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:02.980 exploring is how that geographical and institutional 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:06.379 barrier has been entirely dismantled. And that 00:02:06.379 --> 00:02:09.060 is exactly our mission for today's Deep Dive. 00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:12.120 We are unpacking the Irish newspaper archives. 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.120 Often referred to as the INA. Right, the INA. 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:17.969 We're looking at some really rich materials we 00:02:17.969 --> 00:02:21.689 found, unlocking 250 years of history with this 00:02:21.689 --> 00:02:24.009 digital collection of Irish newspapers. It's 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:26.870 a massive collection. It is. It's recognized 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.229 as the world's oldest and largest digital archive 00:02:29.229 --> 00:02:32.379 of its kind. And we want to figure out how this 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:35.620 massive online database actually came to be. 00:02:36.099 --> 00:02:38.500 How it fundamentally transforms the way we access 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:41.379 Ireland's history, the culture, and even just 00:02:41.379 --> 00:02:44.800 the highly granular details of daily life spanning 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.120 over two and a half centuries, right up to the 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:49.789 present day. It's an incredible timeline. Okay, 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:51.969 let's unpack this because before we get into 00:02:51.969 --> 00:02:53.990 the tech behind it, we need to talk about the 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:56.030 sheer footprint of this collection. The scale 00:02:56.030 --> 00:02:58.629 is what makes it such a formidable tool. When 00:02:58.629 --> 00:03:01.090 I was looking at our sources, the logistics alone 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:03.409 made me pause. I don't blame you. Based on the 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:06.150 core information, the INA is a commercial online 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:09.330 database of digitized newspapers. But the defining 00:03:09.330 --> 00:03:12.189 metric here is the timeline. Right, the 1738 00:03:12.189 --> 00:03:16.330 start date. Exactly. It spans from the year 1738 00:03:16.330 --> 00:03:19.569 continuously up to the modern era through 2025. 00:03:20.179 --> 00:03:22.759 That's, I mean, that's just wild. You are talking 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:26.159 about a continuous, unbroken textual record of 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:28.360 more than two and a half centuries. An unbroken 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.680 record. Yes. And to your earlier point about 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:33.460 the footprint, it isn't just a digitized version 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:36.060 of one or two national papers of record. Like 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:37.919 it's not just the big Dublin papers. No, not 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.199 at all. The archive encompasses roughly 260 different 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:45.360 newspaper outlets. 260. Yes. Printed all across 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.300 Ireland, but importantly, it also includes publications 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:51.599 printed abroad by Irish diaspora. 260 different 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.919 titles. That is an almost unfathomable amount 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.719 of ink and paper. And human effort. Yeah, human 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:00.060 effort. When you step back and think about the 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:02.780 eras covered there, you've got small rural towns, 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:05.419 major industrializing cities. You've got the 00:04:05.419 --> 00:04:08.400 shifting of political borders, the famines, rebellions. 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.479 The founding of the republic. Exactly. All the 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:12.240 way into the modern tech boom in Dublin. It's 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.039 a massive historical dragnet. But I have to ask, 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:18.339 what does having 250 distinct publications actually 00:04:18.339 --> 00:04:20.649 give us? What do you mean? Well, what does that 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:23.230 give us that a few major national papers wouldn't? 00:04:23.589 --> 00:04:26.410 Ah. What's fascinating here is the difference 00:04:26.410 --> 00:04:29.610 between macro history and micro history. Okay, 00:04:29.949 --> 00:04:32.410 macro versus micro. Right. The macro history 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:35.509 is what you get in a textbook. or even in a major 00:04:35.509 --> 00:04:38.290 national daily paper. The big headlines. Exactly. 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:40.709 The national paper tells you that a treaty was 00:04:40.709 --> 00:04:43.670 signed in London or a new tax was levied in Dublin. 00:04:44.050 --> 00:04:46.490 It gives you the broad strokes of geopolitical 00:04:46.490 --> 00:04:48.689 shift. The stuff you have to memorize for a test. 00:04:48.990 --> 00:04:53.230 Exactly. But 260 regional and local papers give 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:55.730 you the microhistory. The ground level. It shows 00:04:55.730 --> 00:04:58.509 you the immediate downstream effects of those 00:04:58.509 --> 00:05:00.629 macro events on the ordinary citizen. Oh, that 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:02.990 makes sense. You get the daily commerce, the 00:05:02.990 --> 00:05:05.800 shifting price. at the local cattle market, the 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.139 birth and death notices. The local political 00:05:08.139 --> 00:05:10.720 disputes. Yes, and even the local gossip. It 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.459 is the granular texture of how people actually 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:15.660 lived, what they feared, and what they valued 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:20.160 on a random Tuesday in 1845 or 1916. It's the 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:23.019 texture that I find so compelling. It's the arguments, 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:26.040 the cultural quirks, the things that never make 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:28.660 it into the history books, but completely define 00:05:28.660 --> 00:05:31.720 an era. Absolutely. In fact, I found this brilliant 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:34.860 example hidden in our source material. It's an 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:38.600 article by Dara Kosyada. Of the linguistic debate? 00:05:38.819 --> 00:05:41.860 Yes. The INA was actually used by a journalist 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:45.060 to settle a massive ongoing linguistic debate 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:48.319 in Ireland. Specifically, the debate over how 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:50.759 to spell the word crickick. That is a perfect 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:53.480 illustration of how a digitized archive changes 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.060 research. So for a bit of context for you listening, 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:58.639 the word crickick is ubiquitous in modern Irish 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.470 culture. It generally refers to news, gossip, 00:06:01.709 --> 00:06:04.610 fun, or a good time. The common greeting is, 00:06:04.730 --> 00:06:06.949 what's the crick? Right. And if you go to Ireland 00:06:06.949 --> 00:06:09.410 today, or even an Irish pub in New York or Sydney, 00:06:09.990 --> 00:06:13.430 you see it's spelled C -R -A -I -C on chalkboards 00:06:13.430 --> 00:06:15.629 everywhere. It looks inherently traditional. 00:06:15.829 --> 00:06:17.490 It does. It looks like an ancient Gaelic word. 00:06:17.790 --> 00:06:20.069 Precisely. But linguists and historians have 00:06:20.069 --> 00:06:22.410 long debated its actual origin. Right, because 00:06:22.410 --> 00:06:24.569 there's a competing theory. Yes. A prominent 00:06:24.569 --> 00:06:27.110 theory is that it was originally just the English 00:06:27.110 --> 00:06:31.480 word crack. spelled C -R -A -C -K, meaning a 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:34.279 joke, a chat, or a boast. Which was widely used 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:36.420 in Northern England and Scotland, right? Exactly. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.459 The argument goes that this English word was 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:42.660 adopted into Irish culture in the mid -20th century, 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:47.079 and then it was subsequently given a Gaelicized 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:51.339 spelling, C -R -A -I -C, to make it appear more 00:06:51.339 --> 00:06:54.480 authentically, traditionally Irish. So they essentially 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:57.100 retrofitted the English word to look Irish. That's 00:06:57.100 --> 00:06:59.339 the theory. But how do you actually prove that? 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:01.300 Because before a digital archive, I imagine you'd 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:04.399 just have academics arguing over their own subjective 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:06.360 memories. Or you'd have some poor grad students 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:09.040 spending three years in a basement. Yeah. Manually 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.800 reading thousands of physical pages hoping to 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:14.939 spot the word. Exactly. The manual search methodology 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.500 for a linguistic shift like that is almost impossible. 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:19.259 You just can't read enough pages fast enough. 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:21.920 Right. But with the INA, the methodology completely 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:24.459 changes. You have a search bar. The ultimate 00:07:24.459 --> 00:07:27.339 tool. The journalists could query both spellings 00:07:27.339 --> 00:07:30.899 across millions of pages of print media and just 00:07:30.899 --> 00:07:33.180 filter by decade. Oh, that's brilliant. They 00:07:33.180 --> 00:07:36.959 could track exactly when the CRACK spelling was 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:40.000 prevalent in certain contexts and pinpoint the 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.819 exact decade when the CRAIC spelling began to 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.620 emerge and eventually dominate the print landscape. 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:51.000 It turns 250 years of subjective cultural memory 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:55.209 into an objective searchable, quantifiable data 00:07:55.209 --> 00:07:57.850 set. It does. I love that. It takes this highly 00:07:57.850 --> 00:08:01.189 abstract linguistic concept and provides hard 00:08:01.189 --> 00:08:03.790 printed proof. And it really connects back to 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:06.490 you, the listener. How so? It proves that this 00:08:06.490 --> 00:08:08.889 kind of database isn't just some sterile playground 00:08:08.889 --> 00:08:11.170 for academics writing peer reviewed papers that 00:08:11.170 --> 00:08:13.250 no one will ever read. It's a highly practical, 00:08:13.629 --> 00:08:15.889 modern tool. Very true. You can use it to settle 00:08:15.889 --> 00:08:18.009 a pub debate about the origins of a slang word. 00:08:18.290 --> 00:08:20.250 You can use it to trace your own family tree, 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:22.689 looking up marriage announcements from the 1800s. 00:08:22.189 --> 00:08:24.970 hundreds. Irish genealogy research is a huge 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:27.750 use case for this. Huge. It takes the esoteric 00:08:27.750 --> 00:08:29.870 concept of history and makes it incredibly functional 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.830 for everyday curiosity. And we shouldn't gloss 00:08:32.830 --> 00:08:35.190 over the technological leap required to make 00:08:35.190 --> 00:08:37.649 that functional curiosity possible. You mean 00:08:37.649 --> 00:08:40.269 the search function itself. Yes. You mentioned 00:08:40.269 --> 00:08:43.070 typing a word into a search bar. For a computer 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:45.909 to recognize the word Craig on a newspaper from 00:08:45.909 --> 00:08:49.470 1960, or a completely different word on a broadsheet 00:08:49.470 --> 00:08:53.110 from 1738, it relies on optical character recognition. 00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:56.309 OCR. OCR, yes. Right, because the archive isn't 00:08:56.309 --> 00:08:58.610 just a collection of photographs of old newspapers. 00:08:58.769 --> 00:09:00.929 If it were just photos, you couldn't search the 00:09:00.929 --> 00:09:04.129 text. Exactly. A photo is just pixels to a computer. 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:06.490 It doesn't know there are letters in it. So how 00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:10.330 does the OCR handle something as old as a 1738 00:09:10.330 --> 00:09:12.840 broadsheet? I'm imagining the typography back 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.980 then was wildly inconsistent. It is an immense 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:18.779 technical hurdle. I bet. OCR software has to 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:21.379 scan an image of a page and essentially guess 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:23.500 what letters are present based on their shapes. 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:26.299 Okay. When you are dealing with modern, crisp, 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.720 digital -born text, it's easy. But an 18th century 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:32.360 broadsheet... presents nightmares for an algorithm. 00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:34.360 Because the paper is degrading. Yes, the paper 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:36.720 itself is often degraded, wrinkled, or torn. 00:09:37.100 --> 00:09:39.419 The ink from the printing press might have bled 00:09:39.419 --> 00:09:41.679 through from the other side of the page, creating 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:43.799 confusing shapes. Oh, I hadn't even thought of 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:46.879 that, the ghosting effect. Exactly. And the fonts 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.600 are archaic. For instance, in older English and 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.620 Irish printing, they used the long S. The long 00:09:52.620 --> 00:09:55.120 S? Yes, it was a version of the lower cases that 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:57.559 looks almost identical to a lowercase f. Oh, 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:00.230 right, with the word house. Looks like half with 00:10:00.230 --> 00:10:03.070 an F. Yes. I can see how an algorithm would completely 00:10:03.070 --> 00:10:05.669 panic trying to read that. Precisely. So the 00:10:05.669 --> 00:10:08.529 OCR technology has to be highly specialized. 00:10:08.690 --> 00:10:11.149 It has to be constantly refined to understand 00:10:11.149 --> 00:10:13.570 the historical context of the typography. It 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:16.309 has to learn history to read history. In a way, 00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:19.110 yes. It has to learn to ignore ink splatters 00:10:19.110 --> 00:10:22.129 and to interpret the varying column structures 00:10:22.129 --> 00:10:24.450 of centuries of different publishing standards. 00:10:24.549 --> 00:10:26.169 Because newspapers didn't always look like they 00:10:26.169 --> 00:10:29.000 do today. Exactly. The fact that you can type 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.580 a word and search across 260 publications instantly 00:10:32.580 --> 00:10:35.639 is the result of massive computational effort 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.019 layered over decades of manual preservation. 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:39.980 Which brings us to a really crucial point about 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:43.039 the INA. The origin. Yes. Because this massive 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:45.200 infrastructure, this incredible tech achievement, 00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:47.919 it didn't originate in Silicon Valley. No, it 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.139 didn't. And this might be my favorite part of 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:53.799 the entire deep dive because it defies all modern 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:56.620 expectations of how big data is built. It really 00:10:56.620 --> 00:10:58.799 does. When we think of a database containing 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:01.179 millions upon millions of searchable assets, 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:05.039 we assume it's owned by a massive, faceless tech 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.259 conglomerate. With billions in venture capital. 00:11:07.299 --> 00:11:09.500 Right. And Sero Farms the size of small cities. 00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:12.360 But the origins of the INA trace back to the 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:15.940 1960s. And it started entirely as a family enterprise. 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.019 It's a remarkably grounded origin story. Tell 00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:21.820 me about Alan Martin. So the foundation of what 00:11:21.820 --> 00:11:24.539 would eventually become this vast digital network 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:28.220 was laid by a man named Alan Martin. In the 1960s, 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:31.100 he founded a company called National Micropublishing. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.779 OK. Their core business wasn't data. It was physical 00:11:34.779 --> 00:11:37.840 preservation. They provided microfilming services 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:40.440 for newspaper publishers and libraries across 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:43.460 Ireland. Microfilm. Wow. Yes. For anyone who 00:11:43.460 --> 00:11:46.480 hasn't had the distinct pleasure of wrestling 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:48.899 with a microfilm machine in a public library, 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:51.919 it is a very tactile experience. Oh, the film. 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:55.220 You've got these little spools of film and you 00:11:55.220 --> 00:11:57.870 have to thread them through this heavy clunky 00:11:57.870 --> 00:12:01.009 machine, usually under this harsh glowing light. 00:12:01.110 --> 00:12:02.970 And if you thread it wrong, it goes everywhere. 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:06.519 Yes. and you turn this mechanical crank to advance 00:12:06.519 --> 00:12:09.460 the film, and the pages just whip past on the 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:11.379 screen. It was revolutionary at the time. It 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:13.820 was a very physical, manual process to read it. 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.259 And the creation of that microfilm was even more 00:12:16.259 --> 00:12:19.019 physical. How so? We really have to appreciate 00:12:19.019 --> 00:12:22.679 the sheer labor involved in the 1960s. Alan Martin 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:25.460 and his team were dealing with massive, physically 00:12:25.460 --> 00:12:28.200 -bound volumes of broadsheet newspapers. And 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.139 I am books of newspapers. Exactly. And many of 00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:33.159 these volumes were already over a century old 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.720 at that point. So they were delicate. Very. The 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:38.679 paper was highly acidic, brittle, and actively 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:41.779 deteriorating. Wow. They had to turn each page 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:45.539 by hand, lay it flat under glass, and photograph 00:12:45.539 --> 00:12:48.340 it frame by frame onto rolls of film. Frame by 00:12:48.340 --> 00:12:50.980 frame, one click at a time. One click at a time. 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:54.240 They were doing the gritty, unglamorous work 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:56.879 of preservation decades before the internet was 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.340 even a concept. That is incredible foresight. 00:12:59.539 --> 00:13:01.379 They recognized that if these papers weren't 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:04.179 captured on film, they would inevitably be lost 00:13:04.179 --> 00:13:07.100 to fire, dampness, or simple chemical decay. 00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:10.320 So they spent decades doing this incredibly meticulous 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.759 manual labor. They built this massive repository 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.240 of microfilms. Millions of frames. Millions. 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:18.960 But then we hit a massive chronological pivot. 00:13:19.230 --> 00:13:22.029 As we move into the early 2000s, specifically 00:13:22.029 --> 00:13:25.889 between 2001 and 2003, the business shifts. It 00:13:25.889 --> 00:13:28.850 is established as a subsidiary of National Micromedia 00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:32.350 LTD by Andrew Martin and his family. Alan's son. 00:13:32.539 --> 00:13:34.639 Right. And they clearly saw the writing on the 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:37.220 wall. Microfilm was not the end game. It's a 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:40.139 classic and frankly rare example of an analog 00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:42.980 business successfully surviving a profound technological 00:13:42.980 --> 00:13:45.379 paradigm shift. It really is rare. Think of how 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:47.899 many companies rooted in physical media like 00:13:47.899 --> 00:13:51.019 film photography or video rentals simply collapsed 00:13:51.019 --> 00:13:53.100 when digital technology arrived. Blockbuster 00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:55.690 comes to mind immediately. Exactly. But the Martin 00:13:55.690 --> 00:13:58.210 family understood that their core asset wasn't 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:01.309 the physical microfilm itself. It was the information 00:14:01.309 --> 00:14:04.750 captured on the film. So between 2001 and 2003, 00:14:04.789 --> 00:14:07.409 they began the monumental transition from an 00:14:07.409 --> 00:14:10.330 analog service company to a digital data company. 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:12.850 Which means scanning the microfilm. Yes. They 00:14:12.850 --> 00:14:15.309 started the process of taking decades of physical 00:14:15.309 --> 00:14:18.529 microfilm and scanning it into digital images 00:14:18.529 --> 00:14:21.850 to be processed by that OCR technology we discussed. 00:14:22.009 --> 00:14:25.440 Which is a massive risk. changing your business 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.519 model. It was a huge undertaking. But it paid 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.259 off because by 2009, the official online platform 00:14:31.259 --> 00:14:34.039 for the Irish Newspaper Archives launches. The 00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:36.320 first iteration of what we see today. And bringing 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.879 it up to the present day, what strikes me as 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.620 truly remarkable is the ownership structure. 00:14:41.820 --> 00:14:44.019 It's still in the family. Yes. According to the 00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:46.120 sources, it remains completely independent. It 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:48.820 is still family run. It's managed by Alan Martin's 00:14:48.820 --> 00:14:51.200 sons, Andrew and Jonathan, their mother Annette, 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:53.850 and Phil Martin. The rarity of that structure 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:56.529 in today's data landscape is profound. Really 00:14:56.529 --> 00:14:59.169 is. We live in an era where global information 00:14:59.169 --> 00:15:01.850 is rapidly consolidated into the hands of a few 00:15:01.850 --> 00:15:04.429 multinational corporations. The big tech giants. 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:08.269 Yet here, you have a colossal, nationally significant 00:15:08.269 --> 00:15:11.730 archive. The collective memory of an entire nation 00:15:11.730 --> 00:15:15.039 and its diaspora. and it is stewarded by a single 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:17.279 family. That's almost poetic. They have bridged 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:19.960 multiple generations and multiple technological 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.419 epochs from highly degradable physical paper 00:15:23.419 --> 00:15:28.259 to analog microfilm to a fully integrated searchable 00:15:28.259 --> 00:15:30.960 digital database. It requires a staggering amount 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.559 of long -term vision to maintain independence 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:36.240 over half a century in this industry. It really 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.100 does. I find the philosophy of that fascinating. 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:41.019 A single family holding the digital keys to the 00:15:41.019 --> 00:15:43.320 daily lived experiences of millions of people. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:45.639 It's a heavy responsibility. But that leads us 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:48.019 to a really thorny issue. Right. Because as much 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:50.460 as this is a labor of love and a mission of historical 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:54.039 preservation, national micro media is a commercial 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:56.519 enterprise. Yes, they're our business. Digitizing 00:15:56.519 --> 00:15:59.820 millions of pages, running OCR software and keeping 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:04.399 high bandwidth servers online, $2 .47 is incredibly 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:06.899 expensive. The cloud isn't free. Exactly. So 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:09.149 how do they actually pay for it? The economics 00:16:09.149 --> 00:16:12.070 of archiving is always a complex balancing act. 00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:14.210 I imagine so. You are constantly weighing the 00:16:14.210 --> 00:16:16.970 public's right to access their own history against 00:16:16.970 --> 00:16:19.929 the hard capitalist reality of infrastructure 00:16:19.929 --> 00:16:23.649 costs. Right. The INA navigates this through 00:16:23.649 --> 00:16:26.730 a dual access model. Based on the source material, 00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:29.970 the first tier is based on geographical and institutional 00:16:29.970 --> 00:16:32.610 subsidization. OK, break that down for me. They 00:16:32.610 --> 00:16:35.190 provide subscription free access to users who 00:16:35.190 --> 00:16:37.629 are physically located in Irish public life. 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:39.620 libraries, universities, and secondary schools. 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:43.860 Okay, so if you are a teenager in Cork working 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:46.440 on a history project, or just a retired person 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:49.500 who walks into a public library in Galway, You 00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:52.399 can sit down at a computer and access this entire 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:56.519 250 year database without swiping a credit card. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.059 Exactly. The barrier to entry for the domestic 00:16:59.059 --> 00:17:01.600 public within those institutions is zero. It's 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:04.519 amazing. It is. However, the servers still need 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:06.680 to be paid for. So the second tier of the model 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:09.880 is commercial access. This is designed for individual 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:12.920 researchers, genealogists, and the diaspora who 00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:14.740 want to use the database from the comfort of 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:17.819 their own homes or from outside of Ireland entirely. 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:20.950 Okay. So home access is paid? Yes. As of the 00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:25.170 year 2025, a 12 -month gold membership costs 00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:30.430 $169 ,000. OK. Alternatively, there is a one 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:33.750 -month rolling gold membership for 18 .25 per 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:38.509 month, which works out to 219 euro annually if 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:40.910 you kept it running for a full year. OK. I want 00:17:40.910 --> 00:17:43.069 to play devil's advocate here for a second. Because 00:17:43.069 --> 00:17:47.880 169 euro for a year. For casual hobbyist, that 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:50.200 feels like a relatively steep paywall. It's an 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.039 investment, certainly. Isn't history supposed 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:54.579 to belong to everyone? I can imagine some people 00:17:54.579 --> 00:17:56.859 arguing that locking the public record behind 00:17:56.859 --> 00:17:59.240 a commercial paywall for home users is somewhat 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:02.119 restrictive. How does the INA justify that cost 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:04.259 to the individual user? It's a completely valid 00:18:04.259 --> 00:18:06.440 critique, and it's a tension that exists in almost 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:08.759 every major digital archive globally. It's not 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:11.460 just them. No, but the justification lies in 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:13.779 the unseen labor of the digital transition. The 00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:17.170 unseen labor. Yes. If these papers simply sat 00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:19.630 in a physical vault, yes, they are technically 00:18:19.630 --> 00:18:22.170 free to look at, assuming you can get to the 00:18:22.170 --> 00:18:24.269 vault. Right. But to make them searchable from 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:27.109 your couch in Sydney or New York requires constant 00:18:27.109 --> 00:18:30.809 capital. The OCR algorithms must be continuously 00:18:30.809 --> 00:18:33.890 updated to handle complex historical fonts. Like 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:36.789 the long is. Exactly. And the server architecture 00:18:36.789 --> 00:18:39.349 to deliver high resolution images instantly across 00:18:39.349 --> 00:18:42.769 the globe is incredibly expensive. So the 169 00:18:42.769 --> 00:18:44.890 euros is paying for the convenience of the digital 00:18:44.890 --> 00:18:48.589 infrastructure. Precisely. In essence, the individual 00:18:48.589 --> 00:18:50.930 genealogists and international researchers who 00:18:50.930 --> 00:18:54.769 pay that 169 euros are heavily subsidizing the 00:18:54.769 --> 00:18:56.990 free access provided to the public libraries 00:18:56.990 --> 00:18:59.430 and schools in Ireland. That makes perfect sense. 00:18:59.970 --> 00:19:02.250 It's essentially a redistribution model. It is. 00:19:02.369 --> 00:19:04.569 And when you reframe the cost against the alternative, 00:19:04.750 --> 00:19:07.349 it really changes the perspective. There is an 00:19:07.349 --> 00:19:10.269 article by John Burns in the Times from our sources. 00:19:10.289 --> 00:19:12.529 Oh, the one about the living room. Yes. The headline 00:19:12.529 --> 00:19:16.289 is, using the Irish newspaper archives, 250 years 00:19:16.289 --> 00:19:18.210 worth of news in your living room. A great way 00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:21.329 to frame it. If you are a serious genealogist 00:19:21.329 --> 00:19:24.710 living in Chicago trying to trace your ancestors 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:29.049 in County Kerry, what is your alternative to 00:19:29.049 --> 00:19:32.970 paying the 169 euro? The alternative is entirely 00:19:32.970 --> 00:19:35.109 prohibitive for most people. You'd have to fly 00:19:35.109 --> 00:19:36.750 there. You would have to purchase transatlantic 00:19:36.750 --> 00:19:39.309 flights. You would have to book a hotel in Dublin 00:19:39.309 --> 00:19:41.809 or Kerry. You would need to take significant 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:44.069 time off work. And even when you get there, the 00:19:44.069 --> 00:19:47.190 research isn't easy. No. You would have to navigate 00:19:47.190 --> 00:19:49.970 the limited opening hours of physical archival 00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:52.930 reading rooms. You'd request the physical microfilm 00:19:52.930 --> 00:19:57.539 reels. And then spend days, perhaps weeks, manually 00:19:57.539 --> 00:19:59.960 spinning those reels, hoping to stumble across 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:02.480 a surname. Hoping being the operative word. Yes. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.059 When you calculate the raw financial cost and 00:20:05.059 --> 00:20:07.240 the sheer volume of time required for the analog 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.559 method, the 169 subscription isn't just a fee 00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.480 for access. It's a discount. It is an incredibly 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:16.579 steep discount on time and logistics. You are 00:20:16.579 --> 00:20:19.119 paying a convenience fee to collapse geography 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:21.420 and time. It's a time machine tax. That's a good 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:23.660 way to put it. And honestly, when you put it 00:20:23.660 --> 00:20:26.160 like that, It's a bargain. And it's important 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:29.279 to note that the 169 euro isn't just paying for 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:31.819 a static product. No, it's constantly growing. 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.480 It's not a finished vault they locked up in 2009. 00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:37.400 The archive is continuously expanding. Weekly, 00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:40.339 in fact. Right. The sources explicitly note that 00:20:40.339 --> 00:20:42.579 current newspapers are updated on a weekly basis, 00:20:43.099 --> 00:20:45.240 effectively archiving the present moment in real 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:47.960 time. Which is vital for future historians. But 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:50.259 they're also constantly delving deeper into the 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:53.319 past. which leads us to the massive expansions 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:56.279 that took place in 2025. The recent updates were 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:58.220 significant. They didn't just casually add a 00:20:58.220 --> 00:21:01.180 few missing pages. They brought entirely new 00:21:01.180 --> 00:21:04.440 historical titles online and massively updated 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:07.599 the runs of existing ones. The 2025 expansions 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:10.759 are a perfect example of how an archive continues 00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:13.220 to refine its value over time. Let's talk about 00:21:13.220 --> 00:21:15.839 some of the specific titles. Sure. They brought 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:19.000 several newly digitized titles online. For example, 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:21.059 they added the Monarch and Argus, covering the 00:21:21.059 --> 00:21:24.039 mid -century period from 1949 to 1970. Okay, 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:27.720 good post -war local coverage. Exactly. But perhaps 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:30.400 more significantly, they added the Mayo Examiner, 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:33.859 which covers a highly specific and volatile window 00:21:33.859 --> 00:21:38.160 from 1868 to 1876. I'm going to zoom in on that 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.059 Mayo Examiner edition. It's an important one. 00:21:40.180 --> 00:21:44.440 Because 1868 to 1876 in County Mayo is not just 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:46.400 a random string of dates. No, it's a critical 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:48.920 period. That is right in the heart of the post 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.559 famine era. You are looking at a period of intense 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:55.799 agrarian unrest, the beginnings of the land war, 00:21:56.579 --> 00:21:58.920 massive waves of forced immigration to the United 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:01.680 States and Britain, and just profound trauma 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:04.200 in the west of Ireland. Precisely. And that is 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:07.309 why digitizing that specific local paper is so 00:22:07.309 --> 00:22:09.369 critical. Going back to the micro -history idea. 00:22:09.609 --> 00:22:12.529 Yes. A national paper printed in Dublin in 1870 00:22:12.529 --> 00:22:15.170 might report on the policies of the British Parliament 00:22:15.170 --> 00:22:18.329 regarding Irish land reform from a very detached 00:22:18.329 --> 00:22:20.569 administrative perspective. Like reading a legal 00:22:20.569 --> 00:22:23.150 briefing. Right. But the Mayo Examiner is reporting 00:22:23.150 --> 00:22:25.410 from the epicenter of the crisis. It's on the 00:22:25.410 --> 00:22:27.859 ground. It is reporting on the actual evictions 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:30.220 taking place down the road. It is printing the 00:22:30.220 --> 00:22:32.380 names of the families boarding the ships. It 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:35.420 captures the raw, unfilty tone of a community 00:22:35.420 --> 00:22:38.180 fighting for its literal survival. That must 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:41.470 be intense to read. It is. When you give historians 00:22:41.470 --> 00:22:43.910 and the public access to that local perspective, 00:22:44.430 --> 00:22:47.450 it forces a reevaluation of the macro -historical 00:22:47.450 --> 00:22:50.390 narrative. It adds a level of human desperation 00:22:50.390 --> 00:22:52.690 and resilience that formal government records 00:22:52.690 --> 00:22:55.470 completely lack. And it wasn't just Mayo that 00:22:55.470 --> 00:22:58.529 got a massive update in 2025. No, Roscommon got 00:22:58.529 --> 00:23:00.650 a lot of attention. There was what we can only 00:23:00.650 --> 00:23:03.930 describe as a massive influx of history for County 00:23:03.930 --> 00:23:06.390 Roscommon. It seems like the archivists just 00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:08.950 decided to entirely map out the lineage of that 00:23:08.950 --> 00:23:11.549 specific region. The Roscommon update is staggering 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:13.609 in its scope. Run through the titles for me. 00:23:13.809 --> 00:23:15.890 They added the Roscommon Champion, which covers 00:23:15.890 --> 00:23:18.869 the modern transition from 1944 all the way to 00:23:18.869 --> 00:23:21.430 2010. Wow, over 60 years right there. But they 00:23:21.430 --> 00:23:24.410 also went deep into the 19th century. They added 00:23:24.410 --> 00:23:27.109 the Roscommon and Latrum Gazette, covering 60 00:23:27.109 --> 00:23:31.029 years from 1822 to 1882. And the Roscommon Journal, 00:23:31.089 --> 00:23:35.240 which stands nearly a century. from 1828 to 1927. 00:23:35.339 --> 00:23:38.160 That is a massive block of time. On top of that, 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:40.579 they updated the major runs of the Roscommon 00:23:40.579 --> 00:23:43.500 messenger. So if you have family roots in Roscommon, 00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:46.960 or if you are an academic studying the socioeconomic 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.380 development of that specific county, yes, the 00:23:49.380 --> 00:23:52.390 INA. just essentially handed you the Holy Grail. 00:23:52.490 --> 00:23:54.869 You can track a single -family farm, a single 00:23:54.869 --> 00:23:58.109 local business, or the shifting political allegiances 00:23:58.109 --> 00:24:02.730 of one town continuously from 1822 to 2010. That 00:24:02.730 --> 00:24:05.809 continuous thread is the true power of the database. 00:24:05.930 --> 00:24:07.730 And it wasn't limited to the West, right? No. 00:24:08.269 --> 00:24:11.130 The 2025 updates also included major runs through 00:24:11.130 --> 00:24:13.710 to the present day for the Argus in Louth, the 00:24:13.710 --> 00:24:16.309 Belfast Telegraph in the North, the Bray People 00:24:16.309 --> 00:24:18.390 on the East Coast, and the Corkmen in the South. 00:24:18.569 --> 00:24:20.349 So they are really covering the whole island. 00:24:20.569 --> 00:24:22.930 They are actively trying to ensure that every 00:24:22.930 --> 00:24:25.789 corner of the island has if microhistory represented 00:24:25.789 --> 00:24:28.529 and easily searchable. But ensuring that representation 00:24:28.529 --> 00:24:30.490 is actually incredibly difficult, right? Very 00:24:30.490 --> 00:24:33.690 difficult. Because local papers, historically, 00:24:34.309 --> 00:24:36.990 were printed on the absolute cheapest paper available. 00:24:37.069 --> 00:24:38.990 Lowest quality newsprint. They were printed in 00:24:38.990 --> 00:24:40.990 small batches. They were meant to be read on 00:24:40.990 --> 00:24:43.210 a Friday and used to light the fire on a Saturday. 00:24:43.369 --> 00:24:45.990 Or wrap fish and chips. Exactly. They weren't 00:24:45.990 --> 00:24:48.710 carefully bound and stored in climate -controlled 00:24:48.710 --> 00:24:51.490 vaults by the people who bought them, which makes 00:24:51.490 --> 00:24:53.829 preserving them a bit of a scramble. It's a constant 00:24:53.829 --> 00:24:56.430 race against time. And this leads me to a really 00:24:56.430 --> 00:24:58.549 fascinating call to action that I found in our 00:24:58.549 --> 00:25:01.630 sources. It is an article by Anthony Neeson in 00:25:01.630 --> 00:25:05.230 the Irish Echo. Ah, the bat signal. Yes. The 00:25:05.230 --> 00:25:08.150 headline literally reads, Sitting on a horde 00:25:08.150 --> 00:25:12.109 of Irish Echo past copies. If so, we want to 00:25:12.109 --> 00:25:14.740 hear from you. That headline exposes the reality 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:17.779 of how archival work actually functions in practice. 00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:20.000 Which is not as neat and tidy as we think. No, 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:22.420 we tend to view archives as absolute authorities, 00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:25.819 assuming they possess a pristine, unbroken record 00:25:25.819 --> 00:25:28.039 of everything ever published. Right, you assume 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:30.039 the library just has a copy of everything. The 00:25:30.039 --> 00:25:32.500 truth is much messier. The historical record 00:25:32.500 --> 00:25:35.259 is incredibly fragile and full of holes. Stuff 00:25:35.259 --> 00:25:38.559 gets lost. Publishers' offices burn down. Floods 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:42.200 destroy basements. Microfilm degrades. Even with 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.279 all the technology at the Martin family's disposal, 00:25:44.700 --> 00:25:46.700 there are simply issues of newspapers that have 00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:49.000 vanished from the official institutional record. 00:25:49.500 --> 00:25:51.200 So they have to turn to the public. They have 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:53.519 no other choice. They are literally crowdsourcing 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:56.440 the past. They are putting out this bat signal, 00:25:56.740 --> 00:25:59.759 hoping that someone, somewhere, is cleaning out 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.680 an attic and finds a stack of newspapers from 00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:05.819 1954 that the archive happens to be missing. 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:08.940 It underscores that preservation is an active 00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:11.569 collaborative hunt. It isn't just the responsibility 00:26:11.569 --> 00:26:14.109 of an archivist in a lab coat. It's on all of 00:26:14.109 --> 00:26:16.710 us. The physical objects that contain our history 00:26:16.710 --> 00:26:19.910 often survive by sheer luck. A stack of papers 00:26:19.910 --> 00:26:22.490 used as insulation in the walls of an old house. 00:26:22.910 --> 00:26:25.589 A box forgotten in a damp basement for three 00:26:25.589 --> 00:26:27.430 generations. It's kind of beautiful when you 00:26:27.430 --> 00:26:29.829 think about it. It is. When a publication like 00:26:29.829 --> 00:26:32.410 the Irish Echo puts out a call asking the public 00:26:32.410 --> 00:26:34.529 to check their attics, it's an acknowledgement 00:26:34.529 --> 00:26:37.109 that the definitive record of a community might 00:26:37.109 --> 00:26:39.390 currently be sitting in a cardboard box next 00:26:39.390 --> 00:26:41.950 to someone's holiday decorations. That is such 00:26:41.950 --> 00:26:45.000 a vivid image. Every time an ordinary citizen 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:47.339 answers that call, they are participating in 00:26:47.339 --> 00:26:50.099 a rescue mission for their own cultural heritage. 00:26:50.380 --> 00:26:52.440 A rescue mission. I think that is the perfect 00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:55.079 way to encapsulate this entire deep dive. It 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:57.460 really is. So what does this all mean when we 00:26:57.460 --> 00:26:59.940 pull it all together? Well, the INA is more than 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:03.609 just data. Right. The Irish newspaper archives 00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:05.809 is far more than just a commercial website you 00:27:05.809 --> 00:27:08.490 visit to look up a date or find an old obituary 00:27:08.490 --> 00:27:12.390 It is a 250 year old living breathing document 00:27:12.390 --> 00:27:15.470 of Ireland and its massive global diaspora a 00:27:15.470 --> 00:27:17.890 testament to dedication a testament to the stubborn 00:27:17.890 --> 00:27:21.559 foresight of a single family The Martins, who 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:24.319 spent decades painstakingly photographing brittle 00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:27.039 pages in the 1960s and then had the business 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:29.619 acumen to successfully pivot that massive physical 00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:32.380 undertaking into a sleek, searchable digital 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:35.039 platform. They bridged the gap. They built a 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:37.740 bridge. They took the rigorous, inaccessible 00:27:37.740 --> 00:27:40.519 world of academic research and piped it directly 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:43.640 into your living room. It democratizes the data. 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:46.799 It settles linguistic debates with hard evidence. 00:27:47.259 --> 00:27:50.380 And it ensures that the localized everyday voices 00:27:50.380 --> 00:27:53.299 from centuries past are not completely swallowed 00:27:53.299 --> 00:27:56.779 by the macro narratives of textbooks. It is undeniably 00:27:56.779 --> 00:27:59.819 a monumental achievement in the field of historical 00:27:59.819 --> 00:28:01.799 preservation. Absolutely. But if we connect this 00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:04.380 to the bigger picture, it raises a fairly provocative 00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:06.759 question for you, the listener. Let's hear it. 00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:09.519 We have just spent this time exploring how a 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:12.079 family -run enterprise managed to digitize the 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:14.779 collective memory of a nation, and how they often 00:28:14.779 --> 00:28:17.299 rely on the absolute luck of physical documents 00:28:17.299 --> 00:28:20.019 surviving in attics and basements. Right. So 00:28:20.019 --> 00:28:22.859 consider your own physical space. What invaluable 00:28:22.859 --> 00:28:25.259 history is currently degrading in your own attic? 00:28:25.380 --> 00:28:27.299 Oh, that's a great question. Are there bundles 00:28:27.299 --> 00:28:30.359 of letters, obscure local community newsletters, 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:33.920 self -published zines from the 1990s, or unlabeled 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:36.049 family photographs that represent the missing 00:28:36.049 --> 00:28:38.329 pieces of a much larger narrative? Things you 00:28:38.329 --> 00:28:40.750 might just toss out without thinking. Exactly. 00:28:41.430 --> 00:28:44.349 Are you currently the unwitting custodian of 00:28:44.349 --> 00:28:46.890 primary source documents just waiting for someone 00:28:46.890 --> 00:28:49.069 to preserve them before they are thrown in a 00:28:49.069 --> 00:28:51.509 dumpster? It really makes you think. The reality 00:28:51.509 --> 00:28:54.430 is the archives of the future rely entirely on 00:28:54.430 --> 00:28:57.190 what we make the conscious decision to save today. 00:28:57.650 --> 00:29:00.490 That is a brilliant point to end on. It definitely 00:29:00.490 --> 00:29:02.650 makes you look at that dusty box of papers in 00:29:02.650 --> 00:29:05.539 the garage with a bit more respect. Don't throw 00:29:05.539 --> 00:29:08.500 it out. Do not just throw it away without looking 00:29:08.500 --> 00:29:11.099 through it first. You might be holding the key 00:29:11.099 --> 00:29:13.980 to a missing chapter of history. You never know. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:16.180 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:29:16.180 --> 00:29:18.440 dive. We know there is an overwhelming amount 00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:21.000 of information out there, and our goal is always 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:23.380 to cut through that noise to find the brilliant 00:29:23.380 --> 00:29:26.019 insights underneath. Keep exploring, keep questioning, 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:27.960 and we will catch you on the next deep dive.