Loyola’s library staff is launching a project to digitize nearly 85 years of Loyola’s student newspaper, The Maroon, online.

The Maroon’s online archives now date back to about 2003, so this project will also make each weekly issue of the newspaper between 1923 and 2003 available to students, faculty, staff and readers online.

“There is no other single resource that you can go to that’s going to show you a snapshot of the first draft of history for every single week in the life of Loyola than our archives,” Michael Giusti, Maroon adviser, said.

“So having that online and searchable is going to be an absolutely crucial asset to anyone who wants to do any kind of research or any journalist who wants to go back and look at the work they did or their parents or grandparents did in the 85 years of The Maroon,” he said. “It's almost purely an historical reference, an historical asset, it's not meant for driving traffic or anything,” Giusti said.

The project will cost at least $50,000 dollars to complete; the library is seeking funds through tax-deductible donations.

“The problem they have run into is that up until 1970s we were printing The Maroon on broad sheets of paper and broadsheet scanners are hard to come by. There is only one at the university so they are having to outsource it to another company,” Giusti said.

“Plus if you’re looking at the scope of the project, it’s 16 page-issues on average, 24 issues in a typical year and 85 years; do the multiplication. That’s a lot of pages to scan in,” Giusti said.

For more information or to make a donation to the project, contact:

Liz Cashman, outreach and development coordinator, J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Ave. New Orleans, La. 70118. For more information, contact Liz Cashman at 504-864-7045 or cashman@loyno.edu.