UGA helping to build nationwide digital library

Press release:

Athens, Ga. – With support from two private foundations, the University of Georgia and GALILEO are helping to build a nationwide digital library.

The Digital Public Library of America is a groundbreaking project to make the nation’s local archive digital, searchable and freely accessible. Launched last summer by Harvard University, the DPLA recently received a boost when the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation gave $1 million to create seven pilot sites with libraries in Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah to serve as regional hubs. Georgia’s share of the grant, together with additional funding from the Arcadia Foundation, is $350,000.

“We are so pleased to contribute to this national effort and to make sure that the record of Georgia’s history and culture is represented,” said Toby Graham, UGA’s deputy university librarian and director of the Digital Library of Georgia.

The DPLA will launch a prototype in April that will make thousands of items available digitally.

“Georgia’s public archives-in libraries, colleges and universities-have a rich collection that we’re eager to share with the world,” said Beverly Blake, Macon program director with the Knight Foundation. “Perhaps most importantly, this project will help ensure that our local communities engage with that history and contribute to the collection, helping our libraries become dynamic, digital community centers.”

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia has operated since 2000 as part of Georgia’s GALILEO virtual library. The DLG already includes more than a million digital files, according to Graham.

“This project will allow us to issue a call for nominations from libraries and archives and other institutions around the state to add more content to the Digital Library of Georgia, which will serve as a pipeline into the Digital Public Library of America,” he said.

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South Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive Expansion

The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the expansion of the South Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive:

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sgnewspapers

The South Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive now provides access to fifteen newspaper titles published in nine south Georgia cities (Albany, Americus, Bainbridge, Brunswick, Cuthbert, Tifton, Thomasville, Valdosta, and Waycross) from 1845 to 1922. Consisting of over 141,000 newspaper pages, the archive provides historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date.

The archive now includes the following Athens newspaper titles: Albany Herald (1892-1893, 1900-1901, 1906), Albany News (1867-1892), Bainbridge Democrat (1872-1909), Bainbridge Search Light/Post-Search Light (1901-1922), Brunswick Advertiser/Advertiser and Appeal (1875-1889), Cuthbert Appeal (1866-1886), Tifton Gazette (1892-1919), Waycross Headlight (1884-1887), Waycross Herald (1892-1914), and Waycross Journal (1901-1914) in addition to the titles previously included in the archive: Albany Patriot (1845-1866), Americus Times Recorder (1881-1921), Sumter Republican (1870-1885), Thomasville Times Enterprise (1873-1922), Valdosta Times (1908-1912).

The South Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (1847-1922), the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Athens Historic Newspapers Archive (1827-1928), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive (1808-1920), the Southern Israelite Archive (1929-1986), the Red and Black Archive (1893-2006), and the Mercer Cluster Archive (1920-1970) (by jodi at dresshead.com). These archives can be accessed at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/Newspapers.html

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