Portal Partner Update

Over 220,000 historical

items and

More than 200

partners

Recent Projects

“Mapping the Southwest”National Endowment for the Humanities

UNT and UT Arlington

“Texas Cultures Online” Amon Carter Foundation17 Participating institutions

“Fifty Years Later: the John F. Kennedy Assassination”

TexTreasures Grant UNT, Dallas Municipal Archives, Sixth Floor

Museum

Rescuing Texas History

Feedback from Portal Users

Feedback from Portal Users“Just want to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ for this wonderful site. Regards, Bob Quillin, Lufkin, Texas”

Feedback from Portal Users“I really was surprised to see this photograph of my dad and five other cowboys from the Mill Iron Ranch on the internet. I had never seen this photo, but was really pleased to see it. However, I would like to mention that a couple of names are incorrect… If these names could be corrected, I would appreciate it. Thank you for preserving Texas History!”

Survey Research conducted by Dreanna Belden and Dr. Kathleen Murray

Survey Research -Value“Tremendous - can't replace this value”

“Access to tons of information that I have no way to physically access as I live in Chicago.”

“Even though we are a major research university in Texas, like everyone else, our materials budgets have taken some serious hits in recent years. The fact that the Portal to Texas History is free is such a blessing for us.”

“

Survey Research-Education“I use images from the Portal for teaching, especially for my Texas history class.”

“It is very useful in the classroom!!”

“Excellent resources for my students to be exposed to. At times I am unable to find what I am looking in other resources, but I can almost certainly find it here. Students find it easy and fun to use.”

Survey Research-Education“I am constantly surprising people with things that they can find on the Portal. Have been able to garner interest with 'tweens' and young people by the historical photographs of our town, the railroads, etc.”

Looking Forward

Statistics

Looking Forward . . .An “API,” or “Application Programming Interface,” is a set of code that enables different types of software to communicate with each other.

The Portal to Texas History offers public access data for use with a few different APIs.

If you can think of more that would be helpful for you, please let us know!

Newspapers

History of Digitizing Newspapers at UNT

History of Digitizing NewspapersWhen Cathy Hartman first initiated the Portal, she heard from towns across Texas that digitizing newspapers was important—

--But newspaper digitization is expensive and requires a lot of training.

History of Digitizing NewspapersCathy Hartman, Mark Phillips, and Dreanna Belden pursued funding for newspaper digitization through a partnership with the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and applied for an NEH-sponsored grant with the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

History of Digitizing NewspapersIn 2007, the University of North Texas Libraries was awarded the NDNP grant to digitize 100,000 pages of Texas newspapers.This led to training and funding for UNT Libraries employees to digitize and preserve additional newspapers.

Texas Digital Newspaper Program

TexTreasures: Early Texas Newspapers ProjectFor three years in a row, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission has awarded funding to digitize from microfilm 20,000 pages of the earliest Texas newspapers residing in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Tocker Foundation SupportSince 2007, the Tocker Foundation has supported digitization of newspaper titles from communities with populations below 12,000. In 2012, the Tocker Foundation provided funding to digitize newspapers for 8 Texas towns.

Local InterestThe power of local support for newspaper digitization and preservation has been phenomenal. From across Texas, local historical and genealogical societies, friends of the libraries groups, preservation leagues, university libraries, student newspaper offices, and other interested groups have funded access to their newspapers on The Portal to Texas History.

The Numbers

Newspaper PagesAs of today, there are 860,333 pages of newspaper available on The Portal to Texas History.

UsageThe Texas Digital Newspaper program has received:2009: Over 27,000 uses2010: Over 300,000 uses2011: Over 600,000 uses

As of September 2012: Over 1 million uses

Graduate Student Research

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

Gammel’s Laws.

Isaac Parker’s Cabin

Randol Mill, Tarrant County.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

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From the Private Collection of Howard and Brenda McClurkin