The Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC) recently provided funding to the Cooke County Library through its TexTreasures grant program. The Cooke County Library will provide issues of the Gainesville Daily Register (GDR), from 1947 to 1956, to the University of North Texas Library’s Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) so that they can digitize the images and make them available on the Portal for Texas History website.
“This $25,000 grant from TexTreasures 2023 helps digitize more issues from the Gainesville Daily Register. The years that will be digitized during this grant will cover very important local topics such as the establishment of the Frank Buck Zoo and Local Community College (NCTC) and the county’s 100 year celebration. Having these issues on the Portal to Texas History website will allow so many people to access this important information,” said Jennifer Johnson-Spence, director of the Cooke County Library.
This program will begin in fall 2022 and is expected to be complete by the end of summer 2023. By scanning these numbers, anyone with access to the Portal to Texas History website will have access to these specific years. These years include topics such as the development of the Frank Buck Zoo and local community college (NCTC) and the evolution of civil rights, segregation and more.
This project is just one of 43 made possible this year through a grant from the US Institute of Museum and Library Services to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. This is a multi-phase project that will result in the digitization and free accessibility of all issues of GDR, the oldest newspaper in Gainesville and Cooke County, providing an invaluable resource for those looking for events and individuals in North Texas.
“TSLAC is proud to support public libraries across the state as they provide essential information services to their communities that support education, access to technology, and workforce development. work,” said Gloria Meraz, TSLAC director and librarian.
TSLAC awards competitive grants each year, as funding permits. For fiscal year 2023, which runs from September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2023, TSLAC awarded approximately $1.18 million in competitive grants. The TexTreasures grant will provide assistance and encouragement to 10 libraries to provide access to their special or unique collections and to make information about those collections available to library users across the state, including the Library Project of the Cooke County to digitize the Gainesville Daily Register (GDR), beginning with issues published in 1947 through the end of 1956. Digitized images will be added to the Cooke County Newspaper Collection accessible through the Libraries Portal from the University of North Texas on Texas history.