The Impact of CRL

Stories illustrating CRL’s impact on research, teaching, collection building and preservation.

CRL and Linda Hall Library partnership brings history of science to researchers' fingertips

Ben Gibson, Digital Initiatives Manager at the Linda Hall Library, discusses the fruits of the library's digitization projects with CRL.

Vanderbilt University digitizes Afro-Colombian oral histories with LARRP grant

The pilot project digitized tapes of interviews conducted by anthropologist, novelist, folklorist, and physician Manuel Zapata Olivella, often dubbed the “dean of Black Hispanic writers.”

SAMP's Unique Urdu and Hindi Collections Support Teaching and Scholarship in Devotional Literature, Gender Studies, and the Arts

Prof. Robert Phillips, lecturer for the Program in South Asian Studies at Princeton University, teaches courses in Hindi-Urdu and South Asian Studies, and has used both South Asia Materials Project (SAMP) and CRL resources to support different research, writing, and teaching projects.

Vietnamese Newspapers Essential for Berkeley Dissertation

UC Berkeley graduate student uses CRL’s extensive collection of South Vietnamese newspapers for his dissertation on the social history of the interregnum period, 1963-1967..

Helping Libraries Deal with ‘Big’ Data

At CRL’s 2018 Global Collections Forum, Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Head of Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections at Stanford University Libraries, discussed how satellite imagery and large geospatial datasets are being used as source materials for scholars in a variety of disciplines, and the new types of library support they require.

Unique Arab Diaspora Materials Saved for Future Scholars

The Middle East Materials Project (MEMP) microfilmed Arab-language publications from several diaspora communities in non-Arab countries, continuing to affirm MEMP’s role as a provider of rare and distinctive documentation.

South African Newspapers: Indispensable for 'Mapping Consumers' Project

MSU PhD fellow used South African newspapers preserved by the Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP) to research and map Black consumerism.

Insights on Israel’s Palestinians from a Rare Arab-language Newspaper

CRL's newspaper collection played a critical role in shaping Brothers Apart, a study of Arab Israeli citizens in the 1950s-1960s by University of Arizona professor, Maha Nassar.

Guantanamo and Caribbean Newspapers Expand Research and Teaching Opportunities

Professor Sharika Crawford was excited to see the collection of several newspapers published at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba preserved by the Latin American Materials Project (LAMP) and available openly through the Digital Library of the Caribbean. These Guantanamo newspapers include Gitmo Review (1963-1964), Daily Gazette (1980-1987) and others, which offer articles on national and foreign news as well as local events and sports.

Documenting the Legal Record of Precarious Regimes

CRL’s Official Gazettes and Civil Society Documentation website offers published versions of new laws, legislative debates, and court decisions from at-risk regimes.

CRL Supports Research on Biased News Coverage of Emmett Till

Students of Professor Davis Houck at Florida State University consulted CRL resources to examine media bias covering the death of civil-rights icon Emmett Till.

CRL Resources Integral to Cornell’s Latin American Journals Project

Cornell University utilized CRL resources to support its Latin American Journals project, a digital portal to political, cultural and popular serials from the region. 

South Asia Specialist’s Research Enriched by CRL Collections

Wendy Singer, Kenyon College professor, explains how CRL collections supported her original research on Indian social policy and elections.

Documenting Ghanaian Social Change Through the Music Scene

Alison K. Okuda, New York University postdoctoral teaching fellow and lecturer, attests to the importance of CRL’s African newspaper collection to her dissertation on, “Caribbean and African Exchanges: The Post-Colonial Transformation of Ghanaian Music, Identity, and Social Structure.”

Vietnamese Newspapers Shed Light on Failed Nation Building

CRL’s Vietnamese newspaper holdings were an invaluable resource for Professor Geoffrey Stewart’s forthcoming book titled, Vietnam’s Lost Revolution: Ngo Dinh Diem’s Failure to Build an Independent Nation, 1955–1963.

Window Into Lives of Ukrainian Refugees, 1945-1954

In 2015, the Slavic and East European Materials Project at CRL (SEEMP) completed digitization of the Ukrainian Émigré Press Collection, encompassing some 90 titles published between 1945–1954, and now dispersed in collections in Toronto, Cambridge, and New York.

Excavating Attitudes on Opium Prohibition from Colonial Records

British Colonial Office records held by CRL reveal the dynamics of a robust opium trade in Southeast Asia in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Afghan Documentation Spans Tumultuous Century

Daily newspapers and cultural journals collected by LC's Field Office in Islamabad have been preserved through the efforts of MEMP and SAMP.  

Researching the Habsburg Empire

CRL digitized nearly 70 reels of pre-World War I German Foreign Ministry documents for a University of Chicago history professor.

Nation of Islam Paper Featured in Documentary Film

CRL's extensive holdings in African-American newspapers proved useful to a documentary film chronicling heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali's politicization.

Preserving News from Conflict Zones

CRL programs aim to preserve "first drafts of history" from zones of conflict throughout the world.

Teaching Modern History of India With CRL Newspapers

CRL's extensive holdings of Indian newspapers proved highly valuable for University of Iowa history professor's undergraduate course, "Imperialism and Modern India."

Primary Sources Improve Course on Vietnam War Propaganda

A history professor at Grinnell employed CRL's rich collection of Vietnam War-era newspapers and defense studies to enrich student research on propaganda and public opinion.

LAMP Supports Digitizing of Historic Puerto Rican Court Documents

Nearly 5,000 historical Puerto Rican court documents dating from 1844 to 1900 are now available online.

The WNA Expands Sources on African History

WNA's trove of colonial African newspapers gains scholarly attention, as the resource becomes better known on campus.

Provincial Turkish Newspapers and Muslim National Identity

What Turkish provincial newspapers at CRL revealed about the emergence of a Muslim national identity.

Brazilian Human Rights Evidence Preserved in the Nunca Mais project

Evidence of atrocities in 1960s–70s Brazil, housed at CRL for 25 years, are now available online.

Carthage College Students Work with Cold War Primary Resources

How CRL documentation on the Cold War helped Carthage College students "touch history” in their research.

Helping a Scholar Access Cuban Colonial Documents

How CRL helped a Binghamton University scholar access records of slave resistance and violence in colonial Cuba.