So proud of the work our Digital Initiatives team has done behind the scenes the past couple of months to make this new digital collections technology and this material ready to today.
We call that a “snake” and it is a weighted tube of fabric to gently hold down pages of an opening during collection material display. That is an especially beautiful snake!
So many wonderful items in the @newberrylibrary.bsky.social @digitalnewberry.bsky.social collection!
book cover photograph of Dan Pelzer in front of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, "What Dan Read 1962-2025"
Dan Pelzer's handwritten book list, first page: 1962
Final page of Dan Pelzer's book list from 2025. Photo of Dan (man in glasses, polo shirt, and holding a bottle of "Danhattan"
“Nobody loved the library more than Dan.”
A meticulous list kept by Dan Pelzer from 1962-2025, cataloging all the books he borrowed and read from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, shared by his daughter.
I could not could not love this more.
Dan's book list (all 109 pages) at what-dan-read.com
Folks whose #NEH grants were terminated and have closeout costs to claim - go get your money ASAP!! Deadline is June 29, 2025.
For anyone new to the site, enjoy: flps.newberry.org (Keeping fingers crossed it doesn't crash! Thanks for user testing, friends)
None of this would have come about without the staff, program officers, and review panels at NEH.
the original Newberry team who brainstormed the digital version, the librarians and dig techs at Regenstein, the Chicago Public Library team, the initial web developers, and our current small but scrappy Digital Initiatives team charged with keeping this going.
Everyone who has been involved in this project over the years is a hero, the WPA team [fun fact: The Newberry was also a part of the original project, providing space and staff time during the 1930s]
But the XML data set that was created is amazing too: it is free and available for anyone to grab to make their own (new and improved) interfaces for people, or any other DH project that springs to mind.
Main users for our site have been genealogists, local historians, educators, students, and anyone interested in our nation's immigrant communities.
Since 2012, we have moved the data and website along through several iterations. This most recent version fixes some broken things (you can link/send directly to an entry again and filter by source) and adds some new features (like dark mode option preferred by most of my team).
Along the way, we found some Welsh cards that were skipped in the microfilming, and got those digitized too. We also had a group of researchers go to Regenstein to look at indecipherable text on the film.
The typescripts were later microfilmed, then that microfilm was digitized, and those digital files eventually ended up @archive.org. That's were we got our raw data back then to build the XML set.
The project consists of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities of Chicago. Those pages are now located at the University of Chicago.
The Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey was published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Works Progress Administration of Illinois. The purpose was to translate and classify selected news articles that appeared in the foreign language press from 1855 to 1938.
So proud of their work maintaining this old #NEH grant project (#PW-50398-09). I had the honor of taking on PM role when a colleague moved on in his career to a new job. The amazing, efficient NEH program officers made it easy to step in finish the work.
Today the Newberry Digital Initiatives team relaunched one of our sites that had been on the fritz since a server migration: our Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey site flps.newberry.org
Money that should be finishing this project: archive.org/details/indi..., supporting the small business hired to transport materials safely, and supporting the work of researchers, scholars, and communities across the country who want to study their history and languages.
A shelf of archive boxes
Orkney Library & Archive is a library AND an archive but did you know about the miniature library that is stored IN the archive?
Read on to find out more about the incredible Minervian Library, created by a group of young children in #Orkney more than 160 years ago.
Project goal is to "make widely available
2,400 rare and historical books #NewberryLibrary Edward E. Ayer North and Middle American Indian Linguistics Collection. These materials represent more than 300 languages spoken or formerly spoken by the Indigenous peoples of North and Central America."
Image of page book page opening with bookplates from the Edward Ayer collection at Newberry Library and Sister Ann Ida Gannon cataloging project. Title page with Chinook jargon and English says "Kamloops wawa : September 1891, nos. 5 & 6 : Chinook hymns"
So excited to see work from our #NEH "Digitizing the Ayer Indigenous Linguistics Collection" grant getting out to the public. collections.newberry.org/asset-manage...
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing ♥️
This item also available online at Newberry Digital Collections: collections.newberry.org/asset-manage...
Photograph of Sojourner Truth with caption: I sell the shadow to support the substance. #DouglassDay At the Newberry Library
Portraits of William and Ellen Craft from The Underground Railroad by William Still, published in 1872.
Broadside with title The Black Law Champion printed in 1854. #DouglassDay collection presentation at Newberry Library
Book opening with author portrait of Frederick Douglass and title page of My Bondage and My Freedom published in 1855.
Collection presentation #DouglassDay
Photo Album page with eight cartes-de-visite photos including one of Frederick Douglass.
Taking a turn as room watcher for #DouglassDay collection presentation so our curator can attend demo re: Newberry Library’s soon-to-be re-launched Transcribe site.
Busy transcribing at Newberry Library #DouglassDay event!
