Mustang News and KCPR Archives Now Online
by Will Peischel, Journalism Senior
In a quiet quadrant of the fourth floor of Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library, physical copies of nearly every Mustang Daily ever published are available for viewing. This was the only place where such an archive was accessible – until now.
The Library’s Special Collections and Archives team has just completed a digital archive of the student newspaper, making it available online to the general public. Editions are arranged by date starting from 1916, when publication began, until 2011.
According to the library’s digital archivist Zach Vowell, all the microfilm copies had to be scanned first. Image processing came next to ensure that every page of every issue was available.
The digitized newspapers were pushed through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, which gave the digital files one of their most valuable features: the ability to fully search the text in the issues using the Control + F function or the website’s search bar. This means you can now search the newspaper by individual names, dates, stories and topics.
Archives from KCPR-FM also are available, though not as complete as the newspaper archives. Thanks to KCPR alumnus Len Filomeo (Electrical Engineering, ‘75), a number of reel-to-reel tapes of pre-recorded radio spots were converted to digital files.
“Those go back to the mid-70s,” Vowell said. “We digitized those and put them online, too.”
- Read the archived newspapers at the Cal Poly Digital Commons
- View Mustang News online editions
- Listen to the KCPR archives
The library needs your help!
Do you have photographs, scrapbooks, or other memorabilia from your time at Cal Poly? The materials you saved may be invaluable windows into campus life and activities. Please consider making a donation of materials to the University Archives to support ongoing research, teaching and exhibitions.
To learn more, please contact Jessica Holada, director of Special Collections and Archives, at jholada@calpoly.edu or (805) 756-5771.