Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) and the LAPL Photo Collection have launched a five-year plan to digitize 52,000 images from the Valley Times Collection and make them accessible through the LAPL website.

In order to accomplish this goal, Photo Friends are raising funds to hire one professional archivist and two professional photo catalogers to organize the collection and create descriptive records for each photo. This staffing will supplement the Los Angeles Public Library’s commitment to providing supplies, equipment, scanning technicians, and additional cataloging staff.

UPDATE: Thanks to all those who contributed and helped us raise over $230,000 for this project! As of July 2020, the Valley Times project is COMPLETE! Over 40,000 images from the Valley Times newspaper have been digitized and added to “Tessa” the Los Angeles Public Library’s digital portal. Click here to view what has been added so far!