How digitizing local newspapers helped Winona State's library
Assistant professor Allison Quam of the Darrell W. Krueger Library at Winona State University writes in American Libraries magazine about the success of the Winona Newspaper Project, which has created digital archives of four Winona newspapers:
Since the library began tracking usage in 2007, the Winona Newspaper Project has had over 46,000 visits from more than 60 countries and all 50 states. Not surprisingly, the primary users of the digital archive are located in Winona. The archive is used extensively by members of the WSU teaching faculty in the History and English departments for assignments in which students research topics related to local history. Local historians have relied on the digital archive ... Local journalists have also combed through the archive to research topics ...
But warns:
(The digitalization effort) brings the archive through the Vietnam War, a topic that is taught and researched at Winona State University. With the library facing additional budget cuts, it is uncertain whether it will expand the project. However, if funding becomes available, the library hopes, with the cooperation of the Winona Daily News, to extend the archive into the 1990s.
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