Guantanamo Naval Base Newspaper Digitization

Since 2006, The Guantanamo Bay Gazette, the weekly newspaper at the Guantanamo Naval Base (GTMO), Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been available as an open access resource via the Digital Library of the Caribbean. Prior to 2006, the base newspaper existed under successive titles only in paper format with the only nearly-complete run held at a small community library located on the Naval Base. The history and chronology of the newspapers was not compiled or explored until 2012 when the Duke Libraries’ Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies was invited to come to GTMO to organize the newspapers at the base. A search of WorldCat reveals that the only holdings of the paper outside the community library, are scattered microfilm issues from 1983-2007 at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Correspondence with the Navy History and Heritage Command and the Office of the Archivist of the United States verified that no other copies were known to exist.

The Duke Libraries seeks LAMP support to digitize these rare and fragile historical resources in partnership with the Digital Library of the Caribbean at Florida International University, the Digital Library Center at the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries and the Guantanamo Public Memory Project at Columbia University. These partners have established the chronology of the base newspaper since its inception in 1948 (a total of 10 successive titles) and have secured temporary loan of the newspapers from 1948 to 2005 (missing issues for 1960 and 1962 but otherwise complete) through the generous cooperation of the GTMO community library. The complete digital collection will be mounted on dLOC under the Duke Collections page. The newspapers are currently at the Smathers Libraries at Gainesville. The newspapers chronicle major events in the history of GTMO; Cuba and of U.S. military involvement in the Caribbean and beyond.