Daily Observer Digital Archive

An Open Access collection sponsored by the Center for Research Libraries

The Daily Observer or Liberian Observer is an independent national newspaper founded in 1981 by Kenneth Y. Best, a renowned Liberian journalist, and his wife, Mae Gene Traub Best. For more than 40 years, the Daily Observer has chronicled all facets of life, culture, and political development in the key West African state of Liberia. Due to its independent editorial stance, the Daily Observer has been recognized for its coverage of public life.

This archive makes the complete digital archive of the Daily Observer available in Open Access for the first time, serving to document a dynamic phase in the modern history of Liberia, from the late twentieth century, through a civil war, and through its current phase of development.

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Daily Observer

Key Stats

  • Archive: From 1981
  • Language: English
  • City: Monrovia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Format: PDF, page-based
  • Producer: East View Information Services
  • Platform: East View Global Press Archive

About the Archive

The Daily Observer Digital Archive contains the most complete collection available for this title, since 1981. The archive features full page-level digitization, complete original graphics, and searchable text, and is cross-searchable with other Global Press Archive collections.

The Daily Observer Digital Archive is a part of the East View Global Press Archive®, which is the result of a landmark initiative of Stanford Libraries and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives to digitally preserve and make more accessible thousands of original print newspaper publications collected by the Hoover Institution and now housed by Stanford Libraries.

Product Fact Sheet

About the GPA CRL Alliance

East View and the Center for Research Libraries have created the GPA CRL Alliance to steer the development of a series of thematically designed databases for East View’s Global Press Archive program to meet the specific needs and priorities of CRL members. Launched in 2019, the charter phase of the GPA CRL Alliance resulted in the creation of nine collections, encompassing hundreds of newspaper titles and totaling over 4.5 million pages, of which 3 million pages are fully Open Access.

The first of these collections – Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers, Middle Eastern and North African Newspapers, Independent and Revolutionary Mexican Newspapers, Imperial Russian Newspapers, Southeast Asian Newspapers, South Asian Newspapers, and El Mundo Digital Archive – are all Open Access collections and are the result of close collaboration between East View and CRL, with CRL advisors selecting and curating the content, and CRL members funding the collections to facilitate global Open Access.

Encouraged by the positive results of Phase 1, a second phase of the GPA CRL Alliance is now underway. The continuation of this highly successful academic-commercial partnership between CRL and East View will serve our shared values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and continue to extend access to global newspaper collections to the widest possible audience. Fundraising for Phase 2 has ended but CRL members are still encouraged to contribute to the program.

Click the link below to learn more about the GPA CRL Alliance, available collections, and plans for the next phase of the Alliance.

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