For more than five decades, The Star’s Info Centre has served as a crucial resource in preserving and providing access to the newspaper’s extensive archives, which chronicle important moments in Malaysia’s history. Established alongside the paper’s founding in Penang on September 9, 1971, the Info Centre has evolved from a manual filing system into a modern digital archive, reflecting broader changes in news gathering and information management.
In its earlier years, the Info Centre operated with around 30 staff working in two shifts to assist reporters around the clock. Journalists relied heavily on physical newspaper clippings, photographs, and background files that were meticulously cut, pasted, labelled, and stored in filing cabinets by subject. When breaking news occurred, reporters often called late at night seeking archival material, prompting library staff to search through extensive collections by hand to provide relevant information quickly.
A major shift came in 2001 when The Star relocated to Menara Star in Petaling Jaya. The move highlighted the limitations of the traditional filing system in handling the growing volume of material, sparking a large-scale digitisation initiative. Over the following decade, millions of pages, photographs, and negatives were scanned and indexed, enabling newsroom staff to access archives electronically. By 2010, this transition allowed the Info Centre to reduce its operating hours and downsize to a core team of five full-time staff supported by university interns, replacing the earlier 24-hour coverage.
Despite substantial progress, the digitisation process remains ongoing. The team has completed converting clippings from the newspaper’s inception in 1971 through to 1994 into searchable PDF files, and is actively working on materials from 1995 to 2003, with nearly a decade more yet to be processed. Photographs and negatives also await full digital conversion. Staff use specialized CopiBook scanners to digitise fragile pages, preserving content that might otherwise deteriorate or be lost. At the current pace, completing the project could take several more years.
The Info Centre’s role extends beyond serving journalists, regularly accommodating requests from lawyers, academics, students, researchers, and the public. Law firms often access historical stock exchange information no longer available elsewhere, while students research notable criminal cases covered by The Star, such as the Mona Fandey trial and the murders of Datuk Mazlan Idris and Jean Perera Sinnappa. Authors and historians have also benefited from the library’s unique photo archive, which contains images not found in other collections, enriching works on Malaysia’s social, political, and sporting history.
In 2015, the Info Centre even briefly doubled as a film set for the supernatural thriller Interchange, highlighting the symbolic importance of its archive as a keeper of stories and memories.
Marking its 55th anniversary in 2026, The Star’s Info Centre continues to uphold its mission of preserving past reporting to support future storytelling, adapting its methods while maintaining the commitment of generations who have safeguarded Malaysia’s journalistic heritage.