Paul Bracke
Dean, Foley Library
Gonzaga University
Jean McManus
Librarian for Catholic Studies and Archives Engagement
University of Notre Dame
The Catholic News Archive initiative is actively digitizing and providing access to historic resources from the Catholic press. Under the aegis of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance, the Archive is partnering with newspapers, academic libraries, and diocesan archives to make these fragile, difficult-to-locate resources available. These newspapers, conspicuously underrepresented in digital news collections, represent a long-standing and vibrant press community that has long provided a record of Catholic perspectives from the many communities from which they have emerged. This includes important resources related to immigrant and minority communities, as well as labor and socialist history in the United States, offering alternative, sometimes opposing views that inform research on national and international issues. The briefing will discuss the digital collection development and management strategy in the shared environment of the Archive; funding, legal and partnership model with newspapers; collaborative culture that enables the participation of libraries and archives with limited resources; support for digital scholarship activities; and the value of religious news content to the scholarly community.
https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/
https://www.catholicresearch.org/