South Carolina Wildlife magazine goes digital!

September 19, 2022

South Carolina Wildlife magazine, in partnership with the South Carolina State Library, is proud to announce that many of its almost seventy years’ worth of magazines are available to the public in digital form at no cost.

“The South Carolina State Library is pleased to partner with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to digitize the South Carolina Wildlife magazine collection,” said South Carolina State Library Director Leesa Aiken. “The South Carolina State Library is committed to protecting and promoting cultural heritage in the state and providing equal access to information. Additionally, digitization of the South Carolina Wildlife magazine provides us with an opportunity to highlight our incredibly diverse state and resources. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the preservation of South Carolina’s natural heritage for generations to come.”

Access all the South Carolina Wildlife (SCW) issues that have been digitized so far. Visitors to this site are not required to have a South Carolina State Library card, although the free card will open a world of information to those who possess it — visit theState Library website.

“For seven decades, South Carolina Wildlife has been centered in the heart of many homes, with special memories tied to it,” said SCW Editor Joey Frazier. “The digitization of this iconic magazine offers us a way to look back in time at the evolution of our state’s natural resources agency and the ages and stages of the magazine itself. The South Carolina State Library made it all possible.”

“We are very excited about the South Carolina Wildlife magazine archive project and the progress that has been made at the South Carolina State Library,” said SCW Associate Editor and Marketing Manager Cindy Thompson. “Our staff is extremely grateful for the Library’s support for South Carolina Wildlife and the emphasis that their staff has put on preserving each issue of the magazine for future generations. This is an extraordinary initiative that our small staff would not be able to accomplish without their help.”

The digital archive project started in August 2021, when the Library got in touch with SCW staff at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which publishes the magazine. SCDNR Director Robert H. Boyles Jr. signed a letter of partnership with the Library, and the Library’s staff began to work its magic.

In addition to preserving each page of South Carolina Wildlife, which began publishing in 1954, the Library’s staff also catalogues the “metadata,” a library science word that means “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.” In plain English, that means that entering metadata for each issue allows a person to search by key words to find the content that interests them.

It’s a laborious, time-consuming process, and so far the Library has digitized up to the year 1981. It may take a year or more to digitize all SCW issues up until a year before the present date, where the Library will stop, out of courtesy to South Carolina Wildlife’s current subscribers.

South Carolina Wildlife (SCW) magazine, a showcase for the state’s natural resources and outdoor recreation opportunities, earns respect among its peers and subscribers year after year. A multiple-award-winning publication devoted exclusively to South Carolina’s great outdoors, SCW gets the attention of readers across the Palmetto State and beyond with excellent feature writing, photography, and design. SCW has been published by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources continuously since 1954 and has for many become a part of the state’s outdoor heritage. For more information about South Carolina Wildlife magazine, or to subscribe and receive the magazine in print visit the SCW website.

The South Carolina State Library is the primary administrator of federal and state support for the state’s libraries. The Library is a national model for innovation, collaboration, leadership, and effectiveness. The Library’s mission is to serve the people of South Carolina by supporting state government and libraries to provide opportunities for learning in a changing environment.