Redfield High School yearbooks from 1946-1989 now digitalized

Redfield High School yearbooks from 1946-1989 now digitalized

By Shiloh Appel
In April of 2018, Oklahoma Correctional Industries (OCI) reached out to the the Redfield Carnegie Library. Oklahoma Correctional Industries, which is tied to the state prison in Oklahoma, wished to digitalize the oldest Redfield High School yearbooks stored at the library.
According to librarian Sarah Jones, this is something that OCI has done for many libraries and schools throughout South Dakota. "They gave us a list of the libraries and schools in South Dakota who have done it," said Jones, adding that it is the inmates at OCI that do the work.

According to the OCI website, their programs "effectively reduce offender idleness" and "provide inmates with job skills, enabling them to successfully reenter society, obtain employment and contribute as tax-paying citizens."
One of those job skills is successfully making digital copies of yearbooks online without damaging the books.
Not surprisingly, the Redfield Carnegie Library agreed to the idea and Jones mailed the RHS yearbooks from 1946 to 1989 to OCI to be digitalized.
"It was completely free for us," said Jones. She also said that OCI even covered the mailing fees.
The entire project was completed within six weeks, and Jones received the books back before the end of the summer. Although the library was missing the years 1955 and 1957, an RHS alumni has offered to provide those to the library to be digitalized as well.
"The newer ones will be done later on, there is just no set date yet," said Jones.
Meanwhile, those that are currently digitalized can be easily accessed online and even downloaded. The link to the google drive the books are stored in can be found on the  Redfield Carnegie Library web page and the Redfield Carnegie Library Facebook page. The Redfield School will also be including the link on their website in the near future and Jones said she will be putting fliers up around town concerning the digitalized yearbooks.
"The fliers have a QR code that people can scan [to access the yearbooks]," said Jones.