Emily Gore
Digital Public Library of America
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Katherine Skinner
Donald Brown
Cheryl Ball (West Virginia University)
Randall Burkett (Emory University)
Nick Graham (UNC Chapel Hill)
Reinette Jones (UKY)
Ana Krahmer (UNT)
Sam Meister (Educopia)
Jessica Meyerson (Educopia)
Nancy McGovern (MIT)
Cal Shepard (State Library of North Carolina)
Kopana Terry (UKY)
Tyler Walters (Virginia Tech)
Rochelle Williams (Gather Consulting)
Digital Public Library of America
Emily Gore
Digital Public Library of America
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Katherine Skinner
Donald Brown
Cheryl Ball (West Virginia University)
Randall Burkett (Emory University)
Nick Graham (UNC Chapel Hill)
Reinette Jones (UKY)
Ana Krahmer (UNT)
Sam Meister (Educopia)
Jessica Meyerson (Educopia)
Nancy McGovern (MIT)
Cal Shepard (State Library of North Carolina)
Kopana Terry (UKY)
Tyler Walters (Virginia Tech)
Rochelle Williams (Gather Consulting)
Digital Public Library of America
The voices of marginalized communities, including those defined by such identity markers as skin color, ethnic origin, religious affiliation, sexuality, geography, and social class, are often invisible in mainstream news sources. Understanding the diverse experiences of people in the United States requires us to turn to sources written, produced, and disseminated by the broadest possible constellation of people.
Archives, libraries, and museums have rarely collected these sources at the time that they were published. Instead, community members have typically saved these newspapers in attics, closets, and basements; their value for the historical record is often recognized by archives, libraries, and museums many years after their production. Once these sources are collected, they are often cataloged and provided in individual organizational frameworks, making them very difficult to track across libraries and archives.
This project seeks to activate the power and passion of archivists, librarians, and curators to collaboratively and comprehensively record where these resources are, what condition they are in, what formats they include, and what level of accessibility they have for the public. Beginning in mid-August of 2017, the project team launched a nationwide campaign to record this information, archive by archive, library by library, and museum by museum, using crowdsourcing technologies and methodologies.
This initial pilot project, undertaken by Educopia in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, enabled our project team to create an open data collection framework and methodology for information about newspapers by and for marginalized communities. We also produced and released (openly and freely) two datasets: a digital directory of African American newspapers and a digital directory of LGBT newspapers based on the data gathered in this pilot project. Finally, we produced a white paper synthesizing the project’s findings and recommendations for next steps, including priorities for aggregation and other tasks that memory organizations might collaboratively undertake in the future to increase access to these crucial historical sources.
Click on a section below to explore.
The “News on the Margins: Surfacing Marginalized Voices in the Newspaper Collections of Libraries, Archives, and Museums” publication documents the design, methods, results, and recommendations of News on the Margins, a Fall 2017 pilot project funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and undertaken by Educopia in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America.
The News on the Margins project takes as its primary concern the accessibility and survival of historically significant news records created by and for marginalized communities. Our initial pilot project, detailed in the report, has focused on designing and testing a foundation for identifying, gathering, synthesizing, and ultimately acting upon data that document the current state of newspapers (digital, microfilm, and paper) written by and for two marginalized U.S. communities: African American and LGBT audiences. Our goal has been to surface the many African American and LGBT newspapers and periodicals that are all too often hidden from view and difficult to access. These newspapers and periodicals, like those of other marginalized groups, cover a range of important stories, narratives, and perspectives that are omitted from publications by members of the dominant culture. They offer crucial evidence about the broad spectrum of experiences that Americans have had in different historical moments.
This pilot project is a first step in a larger effort that we envision could help to surface and improve accessibility to the newspapers and periodicals created by and for marginalized communities. To promote and inform future work, this synthesis of the project’s findings and recommendations includes 1) observations based on the methods we have deployed and the data we have gathered to date, 2) priorities for aggregation of current digital content, 3) opportunities to partner with commercial entities to expand access to content that has been digitized but is maintained only behind a paywall, 4) priorities for digitization of current physical issues and microfilm, and 5) other tasks that Educopia, DPLA, and many other partners might undertake in the future to increase access to these crucial historical sources.
The “News on the Margins: Surfacing Marginalized Voices in the Newspaper Collections of Libraries, Archives, and Museums” publication documents the design, methods, results, and recommendations of News on the Margins, a Fall 2017 pilot project funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and undertaken by Educopia in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America.
The News on the Margins project takes as its primary concern the accessibility and survival of historically significant news records created by and for marginalized communities. Our initial pilot project, detailed in the report, has focused on designing and testing a foundation for identifying, gathering, synthesizing, and ultimately acting upon data that document the current state of newspapers (digital, microfilm, and paper) written by and for two marginalized U.S. communities: African American and LGBT audiences. Our goal has been to surface the many African American and LGBT newspapers and periodicals that are all too often hidden from view and difficult to access. These newspapers and periodicals, like those of other marginalized groups, cover a range of important stories, narratives, and perspectives that are omitted from publications by members of the dominant culture. They offer crucial evidence about the broad spectrum of experiences that Americans have had in different historical moments.
This pilot project is a first step in a larger effort that we envision could help to surface and improve accessibility to the newspapers and periodicals created by and for marginalized communities. To promote and inform future work, this synthesis of the project’s findings and recommendations includes 1) observations based on the methods we have deployed and the data we have gathered to date, 2) priorities for aggregation of current digital content, 3) opportunities to partner with commercial entities to expand access to content that has been digitized but is maintained only behind a paywall, 4) priorities for digitization of current physical issues and microfilm, and 5) other tasks that Educopia, DPLA, and many other partners might undertake in the future to increase access to these crucial historical sources.
The “News on the Margins” data model is an open data collection framework and methodology for documenting information about newspapers by and for marginalized communities.
It was produced by Katherine Skinner, in close partnership with editors James Danky, Emily Gore, and Franky Abbot.
Data Visualizations, published 10 February 2018:
African American Newspapers and Periodicals Survey
The purpose of this data collection is to make more visible the corpus of news produced by and for African Americans by creating an open, freely available directory of African American newspapers and periodicals (print, microfiche, digitized, and born digital).
LGBT Newspapers and Periodicals Survey
The purpose of this data collection is to make more visible the corpus of news produced by and for LGBT communities by creating an open, freely available directory of LGBT newspapers and periodicals (print, microfiche, digitized, and born digital).
These are printable versions of the full survey instrument, which may be of use to institutions as they plan their answers. This is a field-wide collaborative effort. To succeed, we need participation from libraries, archives, and museums of all sizes, types, and statures. Whether you have one page or full runs of titles, your content matters and we need your help to make this content visible!
By “Newspaper and Periodical” we are deliberately opening the door to you to define what that means. If it is a published text/image piece that circulated to an audience of any size in a newspaper or periodical form, we are happy for you to include it. We are not extending to A/V news in this data collection effort, though we may in subsequent efforts!
