Past Char-Koostas to be available digitally online

The old-style Char-Koostas have been digitized and are viewable at the D'arcy McNickle Library. (file photo)

By B.L. Azure

PABLO - Remember those 8 1/2" by 11" Char-Koostas from days of yore? While they're back in a new form and will soon be available for public perusal via the Internet thanks to a collaborative effort between Salish Kootenai College's D'Arcy McNickle Library and the University of Montana's Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.

On Wednesday, March 26 at 11 a.m. there will be a presentation of the project at the D'Arcy McNickle Library and the public is invited.

Funding for the project came via a competitive grant from the federal granting agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, DC. The grant, written by D'Arcy McNickle Library Director Carlene Engstrom, covered the digitalization of the early issues of Char-Koosta from 1956 to 1988 before the paper became a broadsheet publication.

University of Montana students began the tedious process of scanning, digitalizing and mounting Char-Koosta for the Internet soon after SKC received the award in October 2006. It took them approximately 14 months to complete the project that produced about 8,500 pages of the early Char-Koosta's for public perusal on the Internet.

The issues will contain everything published in the old format Char-Koostas, except the tribal council minutes. Engstrom said she was both thrilled and satisfied with the finished product.

"What is really exciting to me and what I think will have the biggest impact on tribal members and tribal employees is all the information the Char-Koostas have about the note worthy things that have gone on here," Engstrom said. "There are interesting stories about tribal issues and individuals."

The project was two-phased. Now that phase-one is complete phase-two of the two-year project kicks in. "Now we must promote the project and next week's release celebration gets that going," Engstrom said. This summer Engstrom will make presentations about the project to the annual gathering of Montana libraries. She will also make presentations to at a gathering of tribal college library officials and will top it all off with a presentation at the national library confab in Anaheim, Calif. this summer.

"We are probably the only tribal library that has digitalized a tribal newspaper and we would like to share that experience with others," Engstrom said. "This is very exciting. We will show the public how it works. It will be a very convenient way for people to browse through past issues of the Char-Koosta whenever they want."

The first sharing of the experience will be the public demonstration of the project Wednesday, March 26 at 11 a.m. in the D'Arcy McNickle Library. There will be refreshments served and the web address will be made public.

Engstrom said there are no plans at this time to digitalize the broadsheet Char-Koostas. "If the community and the Tribes (tribal government) ever wants to do it we could certainly work on that," she said. "The Tribes (tribal government) own the copyrights to the Char-Koosta and we would need their input and blessing if we ever want do the remaining editions."

For more information, call Carlene Engstrom, D'Arcy McNickle Library director, at 675-4876.