The Vidette Digital Archive has reached an exciting milestone with the long-awaited addition of nearly 2,000 issues of Illinois State University’s historic student newspaper dating from the 1990s. This digitization project spanned 34,522 pages, bringing the totals for the online collection to 8,185 issues and 108,650 pages covering the years 1888 to 2000. A collaborative effort between Milner Library’s Digitization Center and Veridian, the hosting solution provider, this project has been in the works since early last year.
Readers exploring this digital archive will find a daily record of the world as seen from the vicinity of Illinois State University, including detailed coverage of campus happenings, local news, and items of interest to the growing student body. Copious ads from the era recall long-gone businesses and enduring classic destinations, while opinion columns offer a glimpse into the concerns and debates of the time.
The 1990s proved a transformative decade for Illinois State University and the world, with economic shifts, cultural changes, and advancements in technology shaping daily life. Issues from the 1990-91 school year covered topics such as the death of artist Keith Haring from AIDS, an early virus infecting “microcomputers” around campus, and German reunification. Later in the decade came several momentous changes for the University, including the abolition of the Board of Regents and the addition of the Mennonite College of Nursing. In 1998, the Big Red Marching Machine performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an experience many of the 270 participants remember to this day.
Users may notice that as with the 1980s issues, select articles have been removed from the digital versions. This is because the Vidette relied heavily on news agency content during this period in addition to its own reporting; in some cases 50% or more of the issue was written by reporters contracted to companies like the Associated Press and United Press International (UPI). In order to comply with copyright law while making the issues available online, student employees in Milner Library’s Digitization Center painstaking reviewed each page and removed articles credited to non-Illinois State creators. Anyone who needs access to unredacted content for research purposes is encouraged to submit a Digitization Request Form or contact Digitization Center Coordinator Karmine Beecroft directly at kbeecro@IllinoisState.edu.
This expansion marks a significant step forward in preserving and providing access to the historical record of the Vidette, ensuring that students, researchers, and alumni can continue in their exploration of the university’s rich journalistic history.
