The Deddington News (DN) Archive is the result of collaboration between the Deddington News, Deddington OnLine and Deddington and District History Society. The goal was to make a distinctive contribution to the Millennium celebrations, making use of the unique skills and resources of these groups.

It was realised that the Deddington News was a vital archive of the social history of the Parish, spanning more than 25 years since its inception in 1976. However, like many such publications, it was in need of some conservation. Although most issues were available for viewing in the Library, a complete set was not available. They were also likely to suffer damage over time if regularly handled.

The task was to archive a complete set of all Deddington News issues between 1976 and 2001 by scanning and recording them on to CD-ROM, with the images being available online as well. In this way, we could both increase access to the material as well as safeguard its future.

It was clear from the outset that this was a substantial task, not least in the actual scanning of so many pages - as it turned out, some 7,200 in total! A technical specification was drawn up and bids were requested. In parallel, a submission was made to Awards for All to fund the activity. By May 2002 we had received a welcome grant for £5000 and the contract for scanning the DN had been awarded to Granary Publications of Deddington.

Scanning proceeded at a slow but steady pace over the following months, followed by much careful cleaning up of the resulting images. Work was completed by April 2003. The images were then copied to multiple sets of CD-ROMs, lodged in the Library and with the Deddington News itself. The originals went for professional rebinding so as to be kept in the best condition possible. In addition, reduced size images have been made available on this web site for all to see.

We are looking at the feasibility of updating and maintaining this archive beyond the issues for 2001.