Decades of Perry’s local newspaper will soon be searchable for anyone looking to find the news of yesteryear.

It’s a collaborative effort between the Perry Public Library, the Perry Historic Preservation Commission, the Dallas County Library Association and The Perry Chief to fully digitize the full newspaper collection.

In total the project cost $23,515 with money coming from the partnering entities along with grants from the Perry RAGBRAI committee, the Bock Family Foundation, the Dallas County Community Foundation and the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Library Director Mary Murphy says work on the digitization process is expected to start in September and take two to three months to complete.

Once it’s done, she says they plan to teach the community how to utilize it.

Murphy says this project will include all versions of the Perry paper, dating back to 1876.