The Cooperative Africana Materials Project (CAMP) recently completed the latest phase of its effort to preserve newspapers from Liberia. Michigan State University, which has collected extensive holdings of newspapers from this West African nation, contributed most of the newspapers. CAMP efforts have resulted in a collection that is unique in North America and will now be available on microfilm to CAMP and CRL members.

Liberia was plagued with civil war and unrest for most of the 1990s and early 2000s. Charles Taylor, President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, has since been convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague of aiding and abetting war crimes. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first elected female head of state in Africa when she was elected President of Liberia in 2005. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. 

The newspapers microfilmed by CAMP (listed below) cover this turbulent time in Liberia from a variety of perspectives:

The Analyst (August 1998–December 2011)
Daily Observer (June 2005–December 2011)
Heritage (October 1996–November 1998, September 2003–December 2011)
The Independent (June 2002–December 2011)
The Informer (January 2004–December 2011)
The Inquirer (January 1991–December 2011)
Liberian Express (January 2004–December 2011)
The National (January 1996–January 1998)
National Chronicle (October 1995–December 2011)
New Democrat (July 1998–June 2000, April 2005–December 2011)
The New National (April 1998–June 2005)
The News (January 1992–December 2011)
Public Agenda (July 2006–December 2011)

At its meeting in November 2012, CAMP approved a proposal to microfilm recent holdings of seven additional Liberian newspapers from Michigan State’s collection.