RIVERSIDE - One of California’s largest collections of digitized newspapers, going back nearly 200 years and spanning approximately 54 million articles, could disappear due to gutted state funding.

The unexpected news has delivered a heavy blow to historians, journalists, researchers and educators who rely on the archives for their work.

The California Digital Newspapers Collection (CDNC) is housed at UC Riverside’s Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research. It says on its website that its future “is in jeopardy” after director Brian Geiger recently learned its budget was completely decimated, leaving him with just a few weeks to source $300,000 or face the possibility of getting shut down.

“Without it, the CDNC will go offline and the work we do to preserve and digitize California newspapers will end,” he wrote in an email to CDNC users.

The CDNC's massive repository of newspapers — nearly 1.5 million issues spanning over 21 million pages — date back to as early as the 1840s, allowing users to easily search for stories by date or keyword.

Story Date: May 11, 2025