Oregon State University (OSU) is making over 6,000 documents that cover a century of agricultural research and homemaking advice available online. And in Delaware an initiative by the Delaware Public Archives (DPA) has resulted in the digitization of the entire glass negative collection of the state’s Board of Agriculture, a collection that comprises over 2,000 images of Delaware life in the 1920s and 1930s.
According to a press release, the OSU publications were produced by the university’s Extension Service and the agricultural research centers around the state. The publications date back to 1888 and include annual research reports and instructional guides. For example, a 1971 booklet titled “30 Days to Reality” explained what a credit card was and how it worked.
The project was the result of a partnership between OSU Libraries and the university’s department of Extension and Experiment Station Communications (EESC).
All publications are available through OSU’s institutional repository ScholarsArchive@OSU, There also is a direct link to EESC publications. Users can also find names of specific publications through the library catalog.
“It’s a great publishing model, and a valuable partnership between EESC and OSU Libraries,” said Sue Kunda, digital scholarship librarian. “The most current research-based information is in the OSU Extension catalog, and all publications are preserved online for the benefit of the university and the public.”
In addition to agricultural photos, the Delaware collection includes photos of people, schools, factories, automobiles, popular attractions and historic sites. According to a press release, the online home for this collection of photos is the Delaware Heritage Collection, which was established by the Delaware Division of Libraries in 2010 to make digital images more readily available to the public.
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