Mustang News and KCPR archives now online

By Will Peischel

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.

Special Collections and Archives has just completed a digital archive of the student newspaper, making it available online to the general public. Editions are arranged by date and are available 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 its most valuable features: Text within the issues can be searched with the Control + F function or on a search bar visible on the website. This means you can now search the newspaper by individual names, dates, stories and topics.

Archives from KCPR-FM also are available, though they’re not as complete as the newspaper issues.  Thanks to help from KCPR alumnus Len Filomeo, 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.”

 

You can access the newspapers here:

http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/studentnewspaper/

You can access Mustang News online editions here:

https://archive-it.org/collections/5962

And here’s the link to the KCPR files

 

The library needs your help!

Do you have photographs, scrapbooks, or other memorabilia that reflect 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, send inquires to Jessica Holada, director of Special Collections and Archives, at jholada@calpoly.edu or (805) 756-5771.