Joint project between library, 'DP,' will digitize over 120 years of newspapers

by we and Alyssa Schwenk | Friday, October 31, 2008 at 1:00 am

Printable Version

Over 120 years of Penn history will soon be available at just the click of a button.

The Daily Pennsylvanian and Penn Libraries' Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image are partnering to archive and digitize every edition of the paper, which has been published since 1885.

Putting the collection of DPs online "is part of a larger strategy to preserve the DP," said David McKnight, curator for SCETI, adding that it will also be beneficial for scholars researching Penn's history.

Currently, the DP's own archives contain PDF versions of issues dating from 2001 forward. Earlier editions, in microfiche and print form, are held variously by the Penn Archives, the Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, Van Pelt Library and the DP.

The first five images of DP front pages in archival format will be available online at the project's Web site, www.digital.dailypennsylvanian.com, starting today.

"This project is a wonderful opportunity to preserve and make accessible the history of both the DP and the entire University," said Wharton junior and Daily Pennsylvanian executive editor David Lei.

The project, which will cost about $625,000 to archive more than 125,000 pages of content, will be funded by donations.

Two major gifts have already been donated to the project, one from Library Board of Overseers member Edward Mally and his wife Julia Lang Mally, both 1983 Penn graduates, and the other from a portion of the Class of 1979's reunion-year gift.

Curtis Lane, co-chairman for the Class of 1979 gift committee, said the class considered the DP digitization project an important project to support because "the DP is an important part of the Penn institution, and it should be in a position where it can be identified into the future."

The project is expected to take about three years in total. They will begin with an inventory audit of all available copies of the paper, McKnight said.

Next, images of all of the issues will be created using either microfiche or an original print edition of the paper, which will then be scanned by Olive software.

"The novel thing [about Olive] is that it scans all the text and converts it to an index," Lei said.

Eventually, this will make it possible for interested parties to search the archive for a certain term or by year.

Finally, the issues will be processed for quality control to make sure that the scans of the issue are clear and legible, McKnight said.

The project will also include copies of 34th Street and The Pennsylvania News, the paper published by an all-female staff from 1924-1964. All copies will be archived on a library server.

While this represents an opportunity for SCETI to develop its digitization infrastructure, it is the impact on Penn that has those involved most excited.

"Underlying [the project] is the belief that the DP is a Penn institution," McKnight said.

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