UMD Libraries Makes University History More Accessible

The University of Maryland Libraries has made a large volume of archived issues of The Diamondback, the long-running independent student newspaper on campus, available on a fully searchable database. Historic issues, dating from 1910 to 1971 have been digitized in phase one of the two-part project.

The university’s student newspaper was published under different names from 1910 through 1921. The first issue of The Diamondback was published on June 9, 1921. Issues of all eight student papers can be searched by keyword, name, decade, date and more, allowing viewers to scan through page layouts showing headlines, articles, and photos.

“This is a dream come true,” says retired University Archivist Anne Turkos, who for years advocated for an online database and spearheaded a fundraising campaign to support its creation. “Previously, researchers had to visit campus and locate articles bound in giant volumes or preserved on microfilm. This database opens Maryland history to readers worldwide.”

Scores of donors, including former Diamondback writers and editors, contributed to a crowdfunding campaign, started in 2015, which raised more than $30,000 for the project. A second fundraising campaign launches this November to complete phase two of the project – digitizing issues published after 1971.

The project draws on expertise of the University Libraries, which has digitized more than 200,000 pages of historic newspapers from the State of Maryland, using funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Those newspapers are freely accessible on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America website.

For more detailed information about this project, search strategies, and special features of the database, please visit University Archives.