If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably wondering where we’ve been the past month or so. Well, it’s been a long time coming, but we’ve been laboring over a major project and have returned today to announce a major addition to the Baylor Lariat digital collection. For the first time ever, every issue from 1900 to the most recent completed academic semester (Fall 2015) is available in one place: The Lariat Digital Archive!
“But wait,” you may be saying to yourself. “I thought they were all already in one place? What gives?” To which I would answer: “Oh, ho, ho! But the ‘born digital’ era Lariats were NOT previously part of this collection. They lived in a separate online archive attached to the Baylor Lariat website. In fact, any issue from Fall 2006 to the present wasn’t in our Digital Collections at all … UNTIL NOW.”
That’s why it’s been a month since we posted, gentle readers: I’ve been up to my eyeballs in the process of prepping files for loading, scanning missing pages, generating metadata and loading almost a thousand issues of The Lariat from Fall 2006 to Fall 2015 into our digital collections, and that’s a process that takes a little focused attention. So please excuse our lateness, but we hope you’re as excited as we are to be able to find gems like these all in the comfort of a single digital platform!
An ad for Nautica Jeans Co. from the first all-digital edition of The Lariat, August 29, 2006
Article about the opening of the Riley Digitization Center, featuring our Assistant Director and yours truly operating our original Kirtas APT-2400 digital book imager (RIP)
Cover of the April 4, 2012 issue documenting the Lady Bears’ NCAA national championship and 40-win perfect season. #sicem
Issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Editorial cartoon depicting the embattled tenure of former BU president John Lilley, shown as a dodgeball player attempting to avoid a number of controversial stories dogging his administration.
First issue of Fall 2014 semester, the inaugural year of McLane Stadium’s term as home of Baylor Bear football.
A nifty piece of “will the latest technology kill you with radiation?” illustrated for the October 19, 2007 issue.
There’s so many more great moments in this set of materials, and you can see them all at this link. We encourage you to take a look at these important resources, and take advantage of the increased accuracy of keyword searchability that comes from the source material being “born digital.” Happy reading!
Special thanks to our friends at Student Publications – Julie Freeman and Paul Carr – for their invaluable help in gaining access to these resources. Be sure to visit the Lariat’s website for this semester’s issues!