After a monthslong scanning project, Focus, a newsprint publication for University of Dayton faculty and staff from 1967 to 1982, is now available in UD’s institutional repository, eCommons.
The collection’s 42 issues contain administrative news, research updates, essays, candid photographs, community engagement stories, fundraising announcements, enrollment highlights and features — providing a window into how UD was defining itself — and telling its story — at the time of growth and change. For example, the August 1978 issue provides a philosophical exploration on recombinant DNA technology, a summary of the National Youth Sports Program on campus and a feature on UD’s president-elect, Brother Raymond L. Fitz, who led the University for the next 23 years. Published by the public relations office, Focus offers a rich snapshot of campus life and higher education during that era.
During the digitization process, senior electronic engineering technology major Mike Kennelly, an employee of the Libraries’ digital lab, said he enjoyed reading about faculty and programs and student life in the early 1970s, and he appreciated the photography, particularly an aerial campus shot from the November 1972 issue that “feels straight out of a time capsule.”
Kennelly used an Epson 1000XL flatbed scanner to create a high-resolution digital copy, one page at a time. After scanning, he edited each page in Abbyy FineReader, an advanced document processing software; employed the high-end optical character recognition capabilities of Adobe Acrobat; then assembled the pages of each issue into one document. Now, readers can do more than just page through and read the newspaper; they can search it electronically, making it much easier to find specific details about people and events in UD’s history. It’s a great example of the hands-on digital preservation projects happening behind the scenes in the Libraries — work often supported by gifts to the University Libraries Dean’s Fund For Excellence during One Day, One Dayton, UD’s annual giving day.
The Focus collection is not complete, unfortunately. Various issues between August 1979 and June of 1982 were missing. If issues turn up, please consider donating them to the Libraries for addition to eCommons and the University Archives.
If you’re interested in exploring beyond Focus, other UD publications have been digitized and are available in eCommons, including Exponent, Flyer News and University of Dayton Magazine. Alumnus, which contained all of the content in Focus plus a section about alumni, is undergoing digitization this semester, along with Dimensions and University of Dayton Quarterly, both of which preceded University of Dayton Magazine. Daytonian yearbooks from 1905 to 2021 are also available.
One Day, One Dayton is April 8: Support the Libraries
This year, an anonymous donor from the Class of 1963 will match all gifts to the University Libraries Dean's Fund for Excellence through April 8, dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000, doubling your impact! For more information or to make a gift see the One Day, One Dayton website.
— Ryan O’Grady is the Digital Projects Manager in University Libraries.