The Daily Reveille Digitization Initiative LSU Libraries and the Manship School of Mass Communication are partnering to make history by digitizing the campus newspaper, The Daily Reveille. Dating back to 1897, when the first known issue was published, the awardwinning newspaper has kept students informed of regional and national news. Throughout history student journalists have covered significant national events such as the civil rights and women’s movements, World War I and World War II, the Jim Crow era, Korean War, Vietnam War, and 9/11. In addition, The Reveille has captured spirited student and campus life, as well as the great moments of LSU sports. The paper provides experience for the student-led staff, instilling in the young journalists the writing, design, photography, and editing skills necessary for their success after they graduate. Digitizing The Reveille’s publications will recognize the newspaper’s longstanding reputation for excellence and also provide future scholars with historical information on the political and cultural issues and events in the South and America at large. Manship School Dean Martin Johnson (1991 BACH MCOM), a former Reveille editor, hopes alumni, historians, genealogists, families, and anyone with ties to the LSU community soon will be able to explore the invaluable information the archive offers. “It’s going to be a great resource for historians, and also for alumni,” Johnson said. “We’ve got all these people who, for generations, have written for The Reveille; they’re interested in seeing this content available to them and taking that walk down memory lane.” Original copies of the newspaper will be available to the public through the Louisiana Digital Library. The LSU Libraries Technology Initiatives team developed a new online platform for the
By Maria Owens
Betsy Plays Havoc (Sept. 14, 1965)
library in 2017, which allows digitized material to be keyword-searchable and ensures easy access and high usability. The new platform also includes a large image viewer with zoom capabilities. The digitizing process is not an easy operation. Until transitioning to a weekly paper in 2017, The Daily Reveille published daily for over a century. With each volume of The Reveille containing several years of coverage and hundreds of pages, the digitization process cannot be conducted on LSU’s campus. Rather, the publications are processed – scanned, meticulously read, and tested before being uploaded online – through a vendor. An LSU alumnus and former Reveille editor made a lead donation of $25,000 to the initiative, which is being funded through the LSU Foundation. To learn more, visit lsufoundation.org/ DRDI. To schedule a visit to University Archives, call 225-578-6552 or write libraries@lsu.edu.
Mike Goes To War (May 8, 1942).
“It’s going to be a great resource for historians, and also for alumni.”
Maria Owens, a sophomore in the Manship School of Mass Communication, is a student assistant at LSU Libraries.
LSU Alumni Magazine | Winter 2018
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