COLUMBUS—Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) has, since 2018, offered its cardholding customers free access to Columbus Dispatch Digital, a keyword-searchable archive of the Columbus Dispatch spanning from its first edition in 1871 through 1985.
Now, CML offers its customers access to digital scans from 1986 through 2018.
CML’s Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the additional portion of the archive from Newsbank, a third-party organization, at its Oct. 30 meeting.
The Columbus Dispatch Digital archive enables customers to narrow their searches based on keywords, headlines, bylines, dates, sections and even photo captions, among other filters.
CML already offered customers access to a similar, text-only Dispatch digital archive spanning from 1985 to the present day – also through Newsbank. All archives can be found by visiting columbuslibrary.org/research-tools and clicking Columbus Dispatch Digital.
CML will maintain its physical collection of Dispatch microfilm, which spans the entire history of the publication, at its Main Library downtown.
