Milner Library has recently expanded The Vidette Digital Archives to include full-text access to the 1980s issues.
Standing as Illinois State University’s student-led news source for more than 100 years, The Vidette has captured significant historical events, both on and off campus, and its columnists’ perspectives of them across its many issues. Past issues have long been preserved in paper and on microfilm, but in an effort to increase accessibility, Milner Library decided to begin digitizing the many issues and establish an online repository.
It has thus far been a successful endeavor and has afforded many uses to both students and alumni alike, but editions from the 1970s onward posed significant complications. The Vidette printed material from journalists and cartoonists from syndicated sources in this time period. Authorization was given to republish this media on paper but not online. This meant these articles had to be redacted before the issues were uploaded.
Library employees needed to review each issue to identify syndicated stories and black out content that wasn’t approved for digitization, but the project gained support via a university-sponsored crowdfunding campaign. Titled the Redbird Hatch Campaign, this fundraiser brought in around $10,000 from alumni and former Vidette employees to bring the 80s issues online.
“Digitizing student newspaper projects is very costly, very complicated for institutions, so not a lot of university libraries have necessarily done this,” said the dean of Milner Library, Dallas Long. “I’m proud that Milner Library and its donors have been able to recognize this as a valuable resource.”
Due to the outpouring of financial support, the entirety of The Vidette’s issues from the 1980s have been redacted from and approved for digital publication. This means that thousands of articles across the entire decade are now publicly available. Stories about the Beer Riots of ‘84, the completion of Redbird Arena, and many more significant university events will subsequently be free to access for everyone.
Though absent from the digital archives, syndicated stories are still available in their original format at Milner Library and at the Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives.
Whether these articles are used in academic research, as a historical reference, or for nostalgic reminiscence, their digital preservation will ensure that The Vidette’s legacy lives on.
“I think being able to take one of the University’s most unique and most distinctive primary sources and being able to make it more accessible to the world at large is really exciting,” said Long.
