A digital collection, also at times referred to as a digital library, is any collection of files that has been digitally preserved and is accessible on the internet or through digital technology like software or computers. A digital collection may include manuscripts, newspapers, books, journals, images, audio, and video. Many archives now have collections of digitized material that is available to view online through special platforms known as digital repositories. Loyola University New Orleans hosts the majority of their digital collections on the site (Louisiana Digital Library)
Users should be aware that Digital collections due to limited staffing, time, or general resources are not all encompassing or representative of the entire institutional archival holding. Digital Collections are usually a small, curated portion of the physical material from larger collections. The archive may hold much more material about this topic that has not yet been digitized.
About the Louisiana Digital Library
The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is an online library of more than 400,000 digital items from Louisiana archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories, making unique historical treasures accessible to students, researchers, and the general public in Louisiana and across the globe. The items in the Louisiana Digital Library are as diverse and interesting as the people and places in Louisiana, with photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, oral histories, and more documenting the state’s history and culture. The items in this library are stewarded by over 20 Louisiana based cultural heritage institutions providing the most comprehensive look at Louisiana history and culture through a digital lens.
This collection is comprised of photographs dating back to the early 20th century from Loyola's University Archives. Early photographs include some taken by famed New Orleans photographer E.J. Bellocq. Since 1949, the university has employed an official photographer. While a large part of the photographs in the collection come from these university employees, many photographs in the collection are unidentified. When the photographer is known, photos will be credited to that person. Unidentified photos will be credited to the university.
Loyola University Library History Collection
This collection documents the history of libraries and library staff at Loyola University New Orleans. At this time the collection is comprised of Library Newsletters from 1983-2009 from the University Periodicals Collection. Additional digitized archival resources related to the history of Loyola's libraries are available in the University Photographs Collection, the Maroon newspaper, the Wolf Yearbook, and the Bulletins.
Loyola University Community and Resilience Collection
The FYE Common Experience Program was a year-long initiative designed to provide incoming first-year students with a shared intellectual experience that cultivates intellectual inquiry and encourages critical thinking while strengthening the sense of community across the entire campus and between Loyola and the surrounding community by engaging faculty, staff, students, and community members in a multifaceted intellectual experience. Consistent with the Transforming Loyola 2020 strategic plan, a New Orleans-related film was selected each year and a common theme developed from the content of the film.
The theme for the 2015-2016 FYE Common Experience Program was inspired by the film, Bury the Hatchet, a documentary that tells the story of the Mardi Gras Indians. Bury the Hatchet documents the Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, but also explores broader issues such as the role community plays in resilience.
Members of the Loyola community were invited to donate digital files including photographs, posters, written stories, and other items that speak to these issues. Of particular interest were: documents related to the Loyola community's experience during Hurricane Katrina; Loyola's role in rebuilding New Orleans; examples of what community means to you; and the broader roles communities play in defining and transforming society.
Loyola University Electronic Theses Collection
The electronic thesis collection consists of theses from Loyola graduate and undergraduate students dating back to 1958. Some items are restricted for use to on-campus Loyola users.
The Loyola Bulletins act as course catalogs for the university. Bulletins for 1855-56 through 1876-77 are for Jesuits' College. The name of the school changed to College of the Immaculate Conception later that year. Bulletins for early 1910s through early 1920s are for high school and grammar school departments. Loyola College was the next forerunner of Loyola University. After Loyola University was formed, the college was a grammar and high school. The general bulletins continued to be published to the present day. Individual colleges and schools within Loyola published bulletins as well. The University Bulletin is an annual publication of Loyola University New Orleans that itemizes academic polices, academic program requirements, and a catalog of course descriptions. Updates to academic regulations, policies, and procedures take place on an annual basis and cover these items for all students attending Loyola University.
The Maroon, the student newspaper of Loyola University New Orleans, has been published since 1923. The Maroon covers student life, campus activities, cultural and athletic events, Loyola University New Orleans administration, faculty and staff, and other features.
Loyola University Wolf Yearbooks
The Wolf, the yearbook of Loyola University, has been published since 1924. The yearbooks contain invaluable information about student life, classes, and faculty.
Digitized Loyola University Athletics Collection
his is an artificial collection consisting of Loyola University New Orleans ephemera created to promote and support sport teams at Loyola University between the years of 1908 – 1992. Archery, basketball, baseball, boxing, football, golf, soccer, and tennis are represented as well as Hall of Fame awards and items detailing the discontinuation of intercollegiate sports in 1972. Films from the Loyola University Athletics Collection were digitized by the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette thanks to generous donations from John Erb and Charles Young.
New Orleans Opera Association Archives
The New Orleans Opera Association Archives documents the business operations of the NOOA, one of the oldest continually performing opera companies in the country, from its inception in 1943 to 2015. Board minutes, budgets, personnel files, promotional materials, and media documenting both performances and outreach efforts by the NOOA are just some of the facets of this collection. The digital collection includes images, audiovisual media, programs, and more from NOOA performances.
New Orleans Review, a journal of contemporary literature and culture, is a publication of the Department of English at Loyola University New Orleans. Since its founding in 1968, the journal has published an eclectic variety of work by established and emerging writers. Work published in the New Orleans Review has been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize, Best American Nonrequired Reading, New Stories From the South, Utne Reader, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies. This digital collections contains issues of the Review digitized by students in the Editing & Publishing/New Orleans Review Internship class at Loyola University.
WYES Informed Sources Collection
In 1984, WYES, New Orleans' public television station, began broadcasting Informed Sources, a program devoted to in-depth discussion of the news by local journalists. The Informed Sources collection consists of DVDs, originally recorded in both VHS and Betacam formats. The size of the collection expands as the show continues to broadcast and the programs are transferred from WYES to the Loyola University Monroe Library Special Collections & Archives for cataloging and safekeeping.
Anthony J. Stanonis Pamphlet Collection
The Anthony J. Stanonis Collection is comprised of materials relating to the New Orleans tourist industry. Dating from 1902 to 1960, the guides, maps, brochures, books, and other literature document public and private tourism businesses. Anthony J. Stanonis gathered the materials during his research on the cultural and economic implications of urban tourism.
Loyola University New Orleans Scrapbook Collection
This collection showcases scrapbooks from various manuscript and archival collections in Loyola University's Special Collections & Archives.
Germany’s Wild Medicinal Plants (Deutschlands wildwachsende Arzney-Pflanzen)
Deutschlands wildwachsende Arzney-Pflanzen by German botanist Johann Gottlieb Mann. Published in 1828, Deutschlands wildwachsende Arzney-Pflanzen (Germany's Wild Medicinal Plants) contains hand-colored lithographs of medical plants, flowers, and fruits. Following the illustrations is the Latin name and German description for each plant.
In the introduction to the volume, Mann states that his goal in publishing the work was two-fold: to present a collection of realistic drawings of medicinal plants for the use of doctors, veterinarians and pharmacists who would not otherwise have the time or opportunity to study the plants in nature, and to give a simple and precise description of the plants along with where they may be found and when they are in season. Mann's illustrations transcend their original, utilitarian purpose of assisting medical professionals, however; they are works of art.
This digital collection includes selections of illustrations from the book. To view the book in its entirety, please visit the Loyola University Special Collections & Archives in person.
John Gould's Birds of Great Britain
John Gould, a British zoologist active throughout the mid-19th century, is known chiefly for the over 3000 hand colored lithographs he produced throughout his career. The first volume of one of his most successful publications, The Birds of Great Britain, can be found in Special Collections & Archives at Loyola's Monroe Library.
Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, F.S.C. Collection
The Field Research Archive of Frère Joseph Cornet was established at Loyola University New Orleans when Fr. Cornet gave his field notebooks to the University between 1998 and 2001. The remainder of his collected papers and scholarly research was bequeathed to Loyola following his death in 2004. The archive is the result of Fr. Cornet's 28 year residency in the Congo which began with a teaching appointment at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1964. He also lectured at Lovanium University of Kinshasa. Fr. Cornet was appointed director général adjoint of the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo (IMNC) when it was founded in 1970 and was appointed the museum's directeur général in 1975. In addition to the field notebooks, the Cornet Archive includes over 500 large binders containing approximately 50,000 pages of research documentation on the arts of the Congo. These include photographs and other data on thousands of central African art objects in all media. The research files were compiled by Cornet with the intent of developing a ten volume History of Congolese Art. This material remains an important resource for the study of central African art, culture, and history.
The papers of Joseph H. Fichter, S.J., document the life of a priest, scholar, and social reformer. As a pioneer in the sociology of religion and as a champion of social justice, Father Fichter has frequently found himself embroiled in controversy and conflict. That vigorous engagement with his times is reflected in these papers, which shed light upon the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus, academic sociology, and the quest for social reform. These audiotapes contain interviews conducted by Fr. Fichter including those related to his research on Alcoholic Clergy.
Lafcadio Hearn was a writer during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth. His writings--fiction and nonfiction alike--typically drew on his firsthand observations of life in what were then considered exotic places: New Orleans, the West Indies, and Japan. The Lafcadio Hearn Collection at Loyola University New Orleans consists primarily of letters written by Hearn to Page Baker. Baker was the editor of the Times-Democrat when Hearn worked for that newspaper; he was also a steadfast champion of Hearn's literary ambitions. Hearn wrote Baker from various places--New Orleans, the West Indies, and Japan. In these letters, which ranged from one paragraph to many pages, Hearn touched on many subjects, including his work at the Times-Democrat, his literary efforts, and his travels.