LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's library received an $8,000 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation (New York) to complete a project that digitized 20 years of the Lancaster Journal newspaper for the years 1816-36.
According to Christopher Raab, archives and special collections librarian, a total of 5,701 pages were scanned and sent to Olive Software in Denver, Colo. Once at Olive, the images were de-skewed and distilled into XML for metadata creation and presentation on the web. The Lancaster Journal (1816-1836) was officially added to the Franklin & Marshall College Digital Newspaper web site in the summer of 2007. The interface can be viewed and searched at: http://library.fandm.edu/TCRarchive. "Digitization has provided researchers with web-based access to the Lancaster Journal for the first time," said Raab. "Most important, it has created a keyword index and lessened the demands of physical handling. Franklin & Marshall College Library’s excellent web presence, accessed by an average of 385 researchers per day, is a capable and established vehicle for maintaining the project." The digitization of this unique Lancaster newspaper has allowed current and future researchers to electronically access an important period of local and national history. The completed project serves the needs of students, genealogists, professional scholars, and members of the public interested in utilizing this early American primary resource. The library is also in the process of digitizing the Lancaster [Intelligencer] Journal for the years 1850-70, with the support of Penn State University's Civil War Newspapers Project. To encourage an intellectual interest in the city, Gladys Krieble Delmas established The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in 1976 and inaugurated programs of annual grants for United States and Commonwealth scholars studying Venetian history and civilization. With contributions from the estates of Jean Paul Delmas in 1988 and Gladys Krieble Delmas in 1991, the Foundation, in addition to continuing the program for scholars in Venice, now recognizes and supports the major interests of the donors' lives: the humanities, research libraries, and the performing arts in New York City. -30- |
