About CDNC
The California Digital Newspaper Collection is a free, publicly accessible archive of California newspapers published between 1846-present. This is an incredible public asset, making historial available and accessible to everyone. The digital archive is online and easily searchable – no need to go to a library or have special software.
The CDNC is part of UC Riverside, and it is funded by federal, state, and other grants. This is a non-profit organization.
What’s Happening
The CDNC reports that the California Legislature has not included funding for the project in its 2026 budget. Which is insane because – how much can this cost? IT’S ONE BANANA, MICHAEL. Last year’s budget was $322 billion WITH A B. I think they can scrape up a little cash to protect this incredible public resource.
How to Help
You can write to the Budget Subcommittee members and let them know that you value this resource and want it funded!
Here’s a sample message:
I write to urge you to put the $430,000 for the California Newspaper Project (CNP) back into the FY2026 budget. For more than three decades, the CNP has worked to catalog, preserve and digitize our state’s newspapers. Along with tens of thousands of other Californians, I am an avid user of their California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC), https://cdnc.ucr.edu, a free online collection of more than 40 million pages of digitized newspapers from around the Golden State. Every year they digitize millions of additional pages through grants, partnerships with private industry, and contracts with institutions around the state. No one else in California does this work and without the state support for the CNP, no one will do it. The CDNC is the largest archive of its kind in the country. This relatively small investment from the State will ensure this unique and invaluable resource remains freely accessible to all Californians.
You can send that message to the Senate committee members and the Assembly subcommittee members emailing their staff. Don’t try to send it via the form, because if you’re not in their district they won’t allow it! They don’t want to hear complaints! I called each of their offices directly and had to ask for a contact address.
Senator John Laird
jon.waldie@sen.ca.gov
Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh
michelle.bloomstine@sen.ca.gov
Sasha Renee Perez
fernando.ramirez@sen.ca.gov
Member David Alvarez
jose.medina@asm.ca.gov
Member Mike Fong
assemblymembermikegfong@assembly.ca.gov
Member Al Muratsuchi
carson.richards@asm.ca.gov
Member Dr. Darshana Patel
caleb.beaver@asm.ca.gov
Member Jesse Gabriel
tanisha.washington@asm.ca.gov
Why Help
I don’t have to tell my readers that things are whack right now. The administration is using keyword searches and corny AI prompts to gut the American digital landscape of all references to women, LGBTQ, minority groups, climate change, civil rights, and who knows what else. They want to put the people’s history in a memory hole, and we have to stop them.
You don’t realize how important resources like this are until they’re gone. Journalists, scholars, historians, and authors rely on the CDNC to do critical research – research that keeps the project of American history alive. If you love work like mine, then you love the CDNC. How else am I supposed to write about how the sandy soil that covered the burials at Yerba Buena cemetery would frequently blow off exposing the coffins? Or how Islais Creek was once an overflowing “hell broth” of human, animal, industrial waste? Or that “One Eyed Welchy” haunted the old Sailor’s Home, telling tales of pirate ghosts and TERRIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS HOW DO YOU THINK HE GOT THAT ONE EYE?
This is an easy and free way to preserve California history for the people. Go ahead and send some emails, friends.