The Campus Newspaper—From Newspaper to Digital Archive--the Libraries’ Role and Responsibilities

Debora Cheney, The Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian

and Head, Library Services to World Campus/PSU Online

The University Libraries The Pennsylvania State University

3/13/2014

Presentation: IFLA http://www.libraries.psu.edu/historicalcol

legian/

1

WHY DIGITIZE A CAMPUS NEWSPAPER: THE BIG PICTURE

“Eyes that are forever young”

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“…BECAUSE STUDENT JOURNALISM IS SURELY A FIGURE OF THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY…”—THE FREE LANCE, APRIL 1, 1887

Campus Life—World Events

WHY DIGITIZE PENN STATE’S CAMPUS NEWSPAPER: THE CONTENT PICTURE

“Eyes that are forever young”

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Published Continuously 1887-to date

• The Free Lance, (monthly) April 1887–April 1904

• The State Collegian, (weekly) Sept. 28, 1904 to June 10, 1911

• The Penn State Collegian, (semi-weekly and weekly) September 28, 1911 to August 2, 1940

• Collegian, (daily) July 3, 1943-June 21, 1946

• The Daily Collegian (daily) 1940-to date

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1887

1908

1911

1938

1938

1939

1939

1940

Dec.9,1941

1950

1963

1965

1966

1966

1974

1978

1980

1981

1986

1996 Website

Website 2011

HISTORY OF THE COLLEGIAN PRESERVATION AND ACCESS

Binding, Microfilm, and Index Cards

Subject access yesterday:

• Card file in Special

Collections • Some handwritten • Indexed names and

events considered important at the time

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GETTING OUR FOOT IN THE DOOR

From Microfilm to Scanning to Searchable Images

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100 Years in 4 Projects

Summary of the Historical Digital Collegian scanning projects: • Phase I: 1887-1940 (FY 03/04)--16,332

pages (Available to 6/24/2004) • Phase II: 1941-1955 (FY 04/05)--48,960

pages (Available 6/28/2005) • Phase III: 1956-1976 (FY 05/06), 29, 916

pages (Available 7/14/2006) • Phase IV: 1976-1987 (FY 06/07), 37,428

pages--(available 1/31/2008) The Total Pages, 132,736 Total Cost: $178, 541.00 Average cost per page $1.35

A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)

From Microfilm to Scanning to Searchable Images

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THE FINAL NEGOTIATIONS, 1989-PRESENT

The Collegian Online and the Daily Collegian challenges

Editing, Correcting, and Blocking Content: Final

Negotiations

• Slightly different values

• Collegian inclined to err on side of the “student”

• Libraries wanted to preserve the record “in tact”

• Required well-developed guidelines on how Collegian, Inc. would respond to specific situations

• Two formats being “published”

Preserving the Record…

Reporting or Content which:

• includes factual errors

• demonstrates an ethical violation

• reflects poorly on the person or in which the ultimate outcome of the adjudication was not reported

• is plagiarized or fabricated

• violates copyright law or license agreements

“The Libraries will…

“consider requests to block online content from readers/researchers where libel, copyright, or other legal issues may be a consideration.”

Conclusion