Yearbook Digitization

Cover of the Messenger 1960

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center scans college and high school yearbooks from North Carolina schools to add to the online yearbook collection. Yearbooks must meet the following criteria:

  • Owned by a cultural heritage institution whose collections are open to the public, or an alumni association that meets our criteria OR owned by an individual who has identified a partner cultural heritage institution willing to be listed as the contact for questions regarding that yearbook.
  • The yearbooks must be from a school located within North Carolina at the time the yearbook was published.
  • Only high school yearbooks at least 50 years old will be digitized. College yearbooks may be digitized up through the current year.

How it Works

After talking with us regarding the number of yearbooks and timeline for digitization, the contributing institution transports the yearbooks to Chapel Hill and picks them up once the scanning is complete. If you want to ship the yearbooks, you will need to cover return shipping costs. Once we begin work, yearbooks are generally returned within 2-3 months. You’re encouraged to check in with us at any time regarding progress.

Yearbooks are digitized by Internet Archive staff working at Wilson Special Collections Library. Each volume is published on the Internet Archive as well as DigitalNC.org where users can browse by county, date, or institution. 

To get started, contact us to talk about your yearbooks. We will make sure they fit all criteria and will work with you on timing.

Updated January 2023