Viewing search results for "Buncombe County Public Libraries"
View All Posts

Community Connections, LGBTQ+ Publication from the 1980s-2000s, Encouraged and Mobilized Community

Front page of October 1996 Community Connections newspaper with black and white photo of smiling African American man behind microphone and smiling crowds with campaign signs

Issues of CLOSER and it’s successor, Community Connections, have been shared online thanks to Buncombe County Public Libraries and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The issues date from 1987-2002.

CLOSER is the acronymn for Community Liaison Organization for Support, Education and Reform. According to a newspaper article from April 2020 published in the Mountain Xpress, this organization’s mission was “to serve as a liaison organization between the gay/lesbian community and the larger population, to provide mutual support, education and information regarding problems and concerns of the gay/lesbian community, to work for reform of social prejudices and discrimination practices and attitudes, and to foster for individuals and the community a sense of gay/lesbian identity.”

The paper, particularly in the earlier issues, includes very heartfelt reflections over the accomplishments of those involved in CLOSER. There are always announcements about events, and even lists of birthdays for that month. Coverage of the community members grappling with and documenting discrimination and hate speech is unfortunately a thread. However the paper shows local efforts to mobilize and provide mutual support. Through the 90s and early 2000s, the paper covers even more statewide and national news of impact to those in the community.

Many issues were scanned by the Pack Library in Asheville, which houses the organization’s archives. Some additional issues from the early 90s were added from the collections at UNC-Chapel Hill. You can view other newspapers on our newspaper landing page. Additional materials from the Pack Library can be found on our site as well as in their own digital collections.


1904-1909 Issues of Asheville Gazette-News Now on DigitalNC!

1,691 issues of The Asheville-Gazette News are now available on the site, thanks to our partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries. This paper was published daily and is an incredibly rich resource for information on life in early 1900s Asheville. 1904-1909 were years of rapid growth, as Asheville grew from a small mountain town to a major hub for the region. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s transformed Asheville into a popular resort town for travelers seeking the healthful mountain air and beautiful landscapes. Just a few years before these issues were published, George W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate was completed as the largest private residence in the United States, cementing the city as both a tourist destination and a desirable place to live. While trains and electric cars still reigned as the main method of transportation, these newspapers show the advent of the automobile and its early adoption by some residents.

Making the case.
One of many railway company advertisements.

The city was growing in population, commerce, and technological advancement. Asheville in the early 1900s was maturing into a real urban center, with 14,000 permanent residents in 1901. As such, the issues in these newspapers are concerned with matters ranging from hyper-local to international. Readers could see which of their neighbors was traveling and to where, and on the next page get the latest updates on the 1905 Russian Revolution. Elections, both regional and national, were covered in The Asheville-Gazette News. Advertisements reveal the many businesses operating in town and speak to the needs and interests of residents, including many promoting various elixirs and compounds for healing illness. The content in these newspapers is wide-ranging and reveals a great deal about the history of Western North Carolina and its place in the world.

Local issues of the day.
An early incidence of coal mining and labor conflict.

Researchers can view all of The Asheville-Gazette News issues on DigitalNC here. See all of the materials contributed by Buncombe County Public Libraries here, and visit the digital collections on their site here. Lastly, visitors to our site can see all of our digitized newspapers on the North Carolina Newspapers page.


Microfilmed Newspaper Nominations Selected for Digitization, 2020-2021

Back in December, we announced our annual call for microfilmed newspaper digitization. We asked institutions throughout North Carolina to nominate papers they’d like to see added to DigitalNC. As it is every year, it was an incredibly tough choice – we are typically able to choose between 40-60 reels out of over 500+ nominated. This year we’ve chosen the following titles and years.

Title Years Nominating Institution
The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.) 1942-1949 Elkin Public Library
The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) 1943-1954 Martin Community College and Martin Memorial Public Library
Gates County Index (Gatesville, N.C.) 1942-1956 Gates County Public Library
Green Line (Asheville, N.C.) 1987-1994 Buncombe County Public Libraries
The News of Orange County (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1944-1964 Orange County Public Library
The Pamlico News (Bayboro, N.C.) 1976-1987 New Bern-Craven County Public Library
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) 1965-1968 Southern Pines Public Library
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) 1911-1925 Johnston County Heritage Center
The Wallace Enterprise (Wallace, N.C.) 1931-1955 Thelma Dingus Bryant Library
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Charlotte, N.C.) 2017-2018 Forsyth County Public Library

For our selection criteria, we prioritize newspapers that document underrepresented communities, new titles, papers that come from a county that currently has little representation on DigitalNC, and papers nominated by new partners. After selection, we ask the partners to secure permission for digitization and, if that’s successful, they make it into the final list above.

We hope to have these titles coming online in the first half of 2021. If your title didn’t make it this year don’t despair! We welcome repeat submissions, and plan on sending out another call in Fall 2021. 


Earliest Asheville Newspaper Now Available On DigitalNC

Early issues of the Highland Messenger, the first newspaper to be published in Asheville, are now available in the North Carolina Newspapers project.  The Messenger began publication in 1840, when there were just a few thousand people living in Buncombe County.  The initial goals of the paper were quite lofty.  Here they are, as stated in the first issue:

“Our paper shall be devoted to Religion, Morality, Science, Politics and General Intelligence, having for its leading object the instruction and advantage of the people, wherever it shall be attentively read.”

Like most papers published in this period, much of the content relates to national news and politics interspersed with a wide variety of features and short pieces, with little space given to local reports.  However, it is possible, through the many advertisements, court notices, letters, and editorials to get a sense of the issues and concerns of the village that would, by the early 20th century, grow into what another paper would come to call the “mountain metropolis.”

The Highland Messenger was nominated for digitization by the Buncombe County Public Libraries.

61 New titles on DigitalNC!

Header from the June 20, 1862 issue of Raleigh, N.C. newspaper The Daily Telegraph

We have over 60 titles up on DigitalNC this week! While these papers are from all over North Carolina, about a third are from western Carolina. 18 from Asheville, one from Morganton, as well as our first additions from Bryson City and Bakersville! Bakersville, which gives us The Mountain Voice, only has a population of 466, but is home to the North Carolina Rhododendron Festival. Started in 1947, the festival was a relatively small affair until Spruce Pine resident O.D. Calhoun came into the picture. Calhoun owned several movie theaters across North Carolina and apparently had contacts to Walt Disney. He used these connections to promote the festival and make it into a nationally renowned event. It’s estimated that between five and ten thousand people attended the festival when Richard Nixon made an appearance in 1958.

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


New Additions of the Green Line Newspaper Now Available!

GreenLine Newspaper

Title of GreenLine Newspaper

Digital NC is happy to announce the new additions of the Green Line Newspaper, 1987 – 1994. The Green Line newspaper was a local newsletter in Asheville, North Carolina, part of the North Carolina Green Party for the Western NC Green Movement. While many of their initiatives surrounded environmental causes within the community and the state and aligned with the NC Green Party, the newsletter was editorially independent. Within the newsletter, stories ranged from discussing the local election and potential candidates to environmental issues such as water issues and conservation within the community.

The newsletter was released once a month to interested parties. Individuals could also write into the newsletter and submit their thoughts and questions as part of the “The Green Line Effect.” The newsletter was free to individuals in 70 different locations or could be mailed for the year.

To learn more about the Green Line Newspaper, check them out here. To view more newspapers, visit our North Carolina Newspaper Collection.

Special thanks to our partner, the Buncombe County Public Library. To view more from Buncombe County Public Library, please visit their partner page.


DigitalNC Blog Header Image

About

This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

Social Media Policy

Search the Blog

Archives

Subscribe

Email subscribers can choose to receive a daily, weekly, or monthly email digest of news and features from the blog.

Newsletter Frequency
RSS Feed