Longtime lurker here. The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC), operating out of UC Riverside, is about to be defunded by the California legislature. It is state funded to the tune of $430,000 but is on the chopping block.
This is 40million pages of historical California newspapers, including a ton from the Gold Rush era and very small newspapers from boomtowns. I’ve helped get them clearance to digitize small local papers, myself, and tens of thousands of people use this resource for research and enjoyment.
I am going to see what I can do about backing it up myself, but thought I would share here in case anyone else is interested. It’s another sad loss potentially. California has some of the most relevant history to understanding American capitalism and workers’ rights, so losing this would be another way to forget history and replay the worst aspects of it.
Here’s their website: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/
(I’m trying to contact the CA budget committee, as well, but may as well have a literal backup plan). Thanks.
Note to mods: sorry if this belongs in the mega thread. It’s not federal and doesn’t seem to be censorship, but rather ignorant budget cuts at a state level.