The Missouri State University Libraries on the main Springfield campus continues to add primary source materials — recordings, images, and documents — about the Ozark Jubilee for the use of students, faculty, researchers, and members of the general public.

The MSU Libraries already has the following key resources online and ready to use:

• 74 half-hour segments of the Jubilee, with heavy emphasis on 1955, the first year the program was broadcast live nationally over ABC-TV. 
• The Bryan T. E. Bisney Collection, containing materials collected by Bisney, who was the producer and director of the Jubilee during it’s nearly six-year run as a live weekly national television broadcast. 
• The Jubilee Backstage Collection, an extensive collection of photographs taken backstage at the Jubilee shows from 1957 to 1960. Taken by a group of fans who regularly attended the live broadcasts, these rarely seen photos show the performers backstage at the Jewell Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, greeting and posing with fans, and relaxing in local restaurants.

Two recent gifts of recordings of various episodes of the show are being processed and made ready to free online use by researchers and members of the general public. 

• Six DVDs, each containing approximately 120 minutes of Jubilee programs, primarily from 1960. 
• A collection of 46 VHS and Betamax tapes of various episodes from all six years (1955-1960), plus some related programs and interviews. 

When these two recent gifts have been fully processed, the Ozark Jubilee Digitization Project will offer a substantial collection of primary source materials for students, scholars, and the general public who are interested in the Ozarks musical tradition, the development of country music during the early rise of rock and roll, and the early years of live network television.