About the Digitizing Louisiana Newspaper Project

The LSU Libraries is pleased to announce the list of historical Louisiana newspapers that will be digitized as part of a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Based on input from an Advisory Board of historians, educators, and archivists, project staff have selected 128 titles representing the main regions of Louisiana, rich with articles on historical events, interesting advertisements, and much more contained in newspapers published from 1836 through 1922.

The project is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the NEH and the Library of Congress (LC) launched in 2004 to provide enhanced access to United States newspapers. Currently NDNP has 36 state and U.S. territory partners. Louisiana is one of seven added in 2009, to digitize 100,000 newspaper pages. In 2011, Louisiana was awarded a renewal grant to digitize an additional 100,000 pages. And in 2013, Louisiana was awarded a third and final grant to digitize yet another 100,000 pages. Visit the Chronicling America website to explore newspapers from Louisiana and across the country.

History

Since 1986 LSU has been actively involved with the United States Newspaper Program (USNP). During the first phase of the Louisiana Newspaper Project (LNP), a survey was conducted by Dr. Elsie Hebert of the Manship School of Journalism. The second and third phases (cataloging and microfilming) of LNP have been conducted by the LSU Libraries, beginning in the Fall of 1987 and continuing to the present.

The purpose of USNP is to preserve and make accessible newspapers printed in the fifty states and in the trust territories. USNP is supported financially by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with technical assistance provided by the Library of Congress.

During the cataloging phase of the LNP, LSU Libraries staff members cataloged all extant Louisiana newspapers they could locate in the state. They also compiled detailed information on all issues (both original and on film) held by repositories throughout the state. This information is updated and currently available online via FirstSearch WorldCat and OCLC Connexion Local Holdings Maintenance. All information compiled to 2000 is in the 3rd edition of The Louisiana Newspaper Project Printout (1999) available from the LSU Libraries. Records for Louisiana newspapers held by the LSU Libraries can be found in the online catalog.

"Family trees" have also been created for some newspapers with complicated publishing histories to help users trace changing titles and editions through time.

DLNP Faculty & Staff

Gina Costello, Project Director - (225)578-3686

Laura Charney, Project Manager - (225)578-6529

Gabe Harrell, Digitization Support - (225)578-7352

Hans Rasmussen, Cataloger - (225)578-4803

Michael Taylor, Historical Essays Writer - (225)578-6547

Advisory Board Members for 2011-2013 and 2013-2015 Grant

Michael Fernandez, Ph.D., Professor of History at Loyola University New Orleans

Ron Garay, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Media History at Louisiana State University

Emmitt Glynn, III, Adjunct Professor of History at Southern University & History Teacher at Zachary Community Schools

Jean Kiesel, Librarian/Archivist at University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Africa Price, Executive Editor for

Shreveport Times

Judy Riffel, Professional Genealogist & Historian

Sam Shepherd, Ph.D., Professor of History at Centenary College of Louisiana

V. Elaine Thompson, Ph.D., Professor of History at Louisiana Tech University

Cynthia Ann Trappey, History Teacher at Kentwood High School

Mary Linn Wernet, C.A., Librarian/Archivist at Northwestern State University

Advisory Board Members for 2009-2011 Grant

Charles Elliot, Instructor of History at Southeastern Louisiana University

Mary J. Farmer-Kaiser, Ph.D., Professor of History at University of Louisiana at Lafayette