One of our most fundamental research tools at The Emperor Norton Trust is the California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC), based at UC Riverside.

CDNC is a freely available, searchable digital clearinghouse of historical California newspapers that has original sources on the California life of Emperor Norton that no other digital clearinghouse of historical newspapers has.

For the last decade, CDNC has relied for its existence on annual funding that it receives from the State of California. 

But, the FY2026 state budget currently making its way through the legislature's budget subcommittees would remove all funding for CDNC.

This would be a death sentence. 

For the Trust, CDNC is not just "nice to have." It is essential. 

The loss of CDNC would have a devastating effect on our future research enterprise.   

But, the quality, integrity, and future impact of the 12 years of the work that we already have done would be compromised, too.

Read on to learn more — including the names and contacts for those lawmakers who most need to hear from us ASAP. 

Thank you!