Researchers now have an easy way to search back issues of the Ocracoke Observer. Issues from the newspaper’s founding in 1999 to the present have been scanned into the digital newspaper collection in the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (NCDHC).
Each newspaper can be viewed page by page online at https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/ocracoke-observer-ocracoke-n-c/
In May, Observer publishers Connie Leinbach and Peter Vankevich hand delivered the print copies to the NCDHC in the Wilson Special Collections Library of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Kristen Merryman, digital projects and outreach manager, oversaw the digitization.
The NCDHC aims to preserve various types of cultural and historical resources, including photographs, documents, maps, and newspapers, and to provide access to them across North Carolina.
“The Ocracoke Observer richly deserves all the accolades it has won from the NC Press Association,” said Jock Lauterer, a retired senior lecturer emeritus of community journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. “It certainly deserves its legacy inclusion in the North Carolina Newspaper database at UNC’s Wilson Library as well as the Library of Congress.”
Inclusion in this collection will ensure that the Observer will be preserved for future generations.
“Everyone in NC deserves access to trustworthy, high-quality local news, and we at NC Local are inspired that the Ocracoke Observer has been a dependable resource for residents in one of the most isolated places of our state,” wrote Shannan Bowen, CEO of NC Local, an online news organization. “Their inclusion by the NC Digital Heritage Center will ensure that this resource is archived and can be used by people who want to learn more about the island’s culture, the events that have shaped its history, and the news that people there need.”
Paul Jones, retired professor from UNC-Chapel Hill, said the NCDHC is an important research asset. “To have the rich and particular reporting of the Ocracoke Observer in such a collection ensures that the lives of islanders will be available to researchers and families and those who love the island for decades to come,” he said.
Founded in 1999, the Ocracoke Observer, an independent community newspaper, has been owned and operated by Connie Leinbach and Peter Vankevich since March 2014. Online news publication began in the fall of 2014.
Since 2016, it has won more than 60 awards from the North Carolina Press Association, including two first places for editorials and one for breaking news coverage.
The Observer also received a Pelican Award in 2020 from the North Carolina Coastal Federation for its “dedicated service to coastal community journalism.”
The Ocracoke Observer is the only active print news source in Hyde County.
Great news! And so well deserved.
Good work in keeping the OO on the cutting edge!
Fantastic news. Now everyone can view the Observer.
l live in NY state, have never been to Ocracoke, came across The Observer and subscribed. in a time of glossy virtual everything and very little authentic human anything; this special place, it’s people, and lifestyle still speak so beautifully to what American living is really about. l appreciate and enjoy it, and celebrate that others do, too.
You need to visit and enjoy the magic.
Congratulations!!! Well deserved.
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