The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP), a joint initiative of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library and Preservation Services, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue digitizing historical Illinois newspapers. The INP began digitizing newspapers in 2009 as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between NEH and Library of Congress (LC). Previous grants have funded the digitization of 400,000 pages of newspapers with historical relevance to the state, which can be viewed on the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC) website alongside work done through other grants as well as generous patron donations. They can also be cross-searched with other U.S. newspapers through the Library of Congress Chronicling America website. The INP will digitize 100,000 pages during the two-year grant cycle that relate to the theme of “communities and causes” in an effort to highlight underserved communities and shed light on the many unique communities that are a part of our state’s history.

University librarians, academic professionals, and graduate assistants involved with this project include:

• Kyle Rimkus, Preservation librarian, and Celestina Savonius-Wroth, Head of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library, who serve as the Principal Investigators.
• Will Schlaack, Digital Reformatting Coordinator, who is the Project Director.
• Courtney Becks, African American Studies librarian.
• Geoffrey Ross, Collections and Services Specialist in the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library.
• Itzel Jihan, NDNP Graduate Assistant
• Megan Pearson, NDNP Graduate Assistant

Continue reading →