During the 1930s, the Utah State Agricultural College (Utah State University) began employing students to comb through local newspapers to extract and transcribe articles concerning the institution. The college used depression-era funding provided through the National Youth Administration for this purpose. The college paid students a maximum of 25 cents per hour for the work. It enabled many students, Dello Dayton for instance, to stay in school and eventually earn their degrees. Following graduation from USAC Dayton pursued graduate training in California, returning to Utah as a teacher and administrator at Weber State University.

Most of the articles originated in the Logan Journal, hence the collection’s title, the College Journal. According to the former Curator of Special Collections and Archives, the late A.J. Simmonds, "where the original volume was lost, the typists took articles from the Logan Republican or the Daily Herald, other Cache Valley newspapers that gave major coverage to the College."

The College Journal provided a major source for History Professor Joel E. Ricks as he wrote the college’s semi-centennial history in 1938. Thereafter, the History Department continued to keep a clipping file of articles from local newspapers. Although not transcribed, these form a part of the College Journal collection from approximately 1938 to 1954. Later, the President’s Office maintained scrapbooks of newspaper articles. These, however, are not part of the College Journal collection.