Did you know that in 1990, in the Sept. 27 issue of The Spectrum, there was an article published about the plan to construct four on-campus dormitories at a projected cost of $4.5 million? These articles from years back can all be found in the library archives.
Before The Spectrum came about, it was previously called The Obelisk, published from 1963-1982.
“Library staff, with a lot of help from our Work Study Student Library Assistants, began digitizing the paper issues in 2012, so there have been several student assistants who have contributed to the project,” said Beverly Lysobey, Scholarly Publication and Metadata Services Librarian. “The project is ongoing; so far there are 520 full-text Spectrums available. There are still years of Spectrums in boxes in the Library Archives waiting to be scanned.”
Students can access these archived articles in the Digital Commons@SHU.
“The Digital Commons@SHU was started around 2008. The librarians at the Ryan Matura Library have made a commitment to showcasing our faculty and student research,” said Lysobey. “We also knew that we had an abundance of material in the Archives Room that would be interesting to the SHU community. Posting it online makes it available worldwide.”
When you visit the Digital Commons@SHU, you can select any year from 1963 to the present for which issue of the university newspaper you would like to travel back in time to.
“I never knew that the library here at Sacred Heart archived the newspaper articles, but after being shown the archives, I find it so interesting that you can so easily look back on the past. I will definitely be showing my parents and peers this feature,” said junior Bridget Mosher.
The archives even touch on some of the hardships in our past such as the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
“It is beyond our ability to fully grasp and comprehend what happened. We are blessed so that we might be a blessing for others. Go out and be a healing presence in the world,” said Dr. Anthony Cernera, the president of the university at the time, in the Sept. 21, 2001 issue of The Spectrum.
“We have discovered that the issues have been downloaded thousands of times by readers around the globe, leading us to believe they are very popular with SHU alumni. Who wouldn’t want to reminisce about their college days?” said Lysobey.
Many students at Sacred Heart were not aware of the archives and are now very intrigued with the ability to “time travel.”
“This was so fascinating to be able to look back on these articles and see the current events when we were not even born yet,” said junior Liam Cabri.
The library will continue to archive articles for The Spectrum and make them available in Digital Commons.
“I am fortunate to have the wonderful responsibility of managing the site and working with colleagues in the library and the university to decide what can be added next,” said Lysobey.
