Libraries' Web Site Offers Historical Articles on Nebraska Birds

More than 1,000 newspaper articles on Nebraska birds are available to bird lovers everywhere with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, thanks to a new link at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries' Web site.

"Birds of Nebraska: Newspaper Accounts, 1854-1923" can be reached at http://libr.unl.edu:2000/birds_of_nebraska/index.html. This Web site, developed in time for the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the territory of Nebraska, presents many delightful and informative newspaper columns about Nebraska birds, including those by two early nature writers, Sandy Griswold and Miles Greenleaf.

UNL Libraries worked with donor James E. Ducey to convert his research into an online resource of interest to environmentalists, students of ecological literature and teachers. Project team advisers included Sharon Stephan of the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center and the University of Nebraska, Marian Langan of the Wachiska Audubon Society of Southeast Nebraska, John Janovy of the UNL School of Biological Sciences, and Barbara DiBernard of the UNL English Department.

Ducey, an independent researcher, located and transcribed articles from microfilm produced by the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraska Newspaper Project, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1992-2000. In creating a database of Nebraska birds, Ducey noted that historical information about birds from Nebraska's territorial years helps researchers determine changes in species, habitat and population.

For more information, call Brian Pytlik Zillig, digital initiatives librarian at UNL Libraries, (402) 472-4547, or Katherine L. Walter, chair, UNL Libraries, Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, (402) 472-3939.

CONTACT: Brian Pytlik Zillig, UNL Libraries, (402) 472-4547