The IU East Archives is busy these days with various projects related to the IU Bicentennial. The archives is working to not only expand and improve its collections, but help the IU East campus stand out as well. Here are some projects that the IU East Archives is currently working on.
Applying for an Indiana State Historical Marker
With the help of the Office of the Bicentennial in Bloomington, all of the IU campuses are applying for an Indiana State Historical Marker. This year, the IU East campus, along with South Bend and IUPUI, is applying for a marker and, if approved, will have a marker installed on campus in 2018. The marker application is granted and made by the Indiana Historical Bureau. In order to qualify, each campus needs to submit documentation about the historic importance of each campus, when it was formed, and its impact in the community. Archivist Beth South and library assistant Brittany Yoder dug through the collections we have here at the East campus, notably the Eastern Indiana Center Collection, The Chancellor’s Papers, Accreditation Reports, and the IU Board of Trustees Minutes to help find the required information. All documentation and photographs were scanned and submitted to the Office of the Bicentennial for review. The submission for the application is June 16, 2017. An example of what a state marker looks like is directly below and you can find out more about the Indiana State Historical Marker Program at http://www.in.gov/history/ProgramHistory.htm.
Figure 1 The Levi Coffin marker (89.2002.1) is located in Fountain City, Wayne County. This is an Underground Railroad Initiative marker with the Indiana Freedom Trails logo. Courtesy Indiana Historical Bureau, State of Indiana
Applying for an Indiana University Historical Marker
The IU East Archives is also applying to the IU Historical Marker committee to nominate our first building, Whitewater Hall, for an IU historical marker. The Indiana University Historical Marker program is modeled after the State of Indiana’s historical marker program and seeks to highlight significant people, events, places, and organizations that have had a major impact on any of the IU campuses. Anyone can nominate a topic for a historical marker if it meets the requirements and the IU East Archives has submitted an application and supporting documentation that highlights the significance of Whitewater Hall, its importance to the East campus and the Richmond community at large. To find out more about this program, go to https://200.iu.edu/signature-projects/historical-markers/index.html.
Indiana University East Campus History Course
Library director Frances Yates, Archivist Beth South, and Bicentennial Intern Hannah Castor are working on creating an online campus history course by using material from the archives, such as bulletins, student writing journals, and oral histories and photographs. Hannah and Beth are creating interesting and interactive modules around various aspects of the East campus’ history from the development of degree programs and courses, student activities and research, and the key faculty, staff, and community members who have had a major impact on IU East campus. The course should be completed and ready to go by spring semester 2018, so look out for more information about this in the near future.
Figure 2 IU Bicentennial Intern Hannah Castor in the IU East Archives.
Archives Development and Deployment Project
The IU East Archives is also working to improve itself by teaming up with the other IU regional archives for the Archives Development and Deployment Project. All the IU regional campuses archives are working on getting better equipment and making various collections more accessible. The digitization of student newspapers and A-V material from all the IU campuses are two initiatives in the works that will make two different, but popular collections easily available to the public online. All the IU regional archives are also getting new computer workstations and scanners that will improve workflow for scanning and documenting archival material. The IU East Archives looks forward to having a scanner big enough and with the right specifications to scan photos, brochures, and newspapers.
Currently we are discussing other initiatives, but the Archives Development and Deployment team from Bloomington are still making their site visits to other campuses and will have more to report once all the regional archives have been visited. We, at the IU East Campus Library, were happy to have them visit us on June 2nd to tour our archives and library and to discuss the future goals of the IU East Archives. It is always a pleasure to meet with our colleagues from other IU campuses and exchange ideas.
Figure 3 Beth South, Kara Alexander, Jon Dunn, Molly Wittenberg, Kristin Leaman, and Dina Kellams.
IU Bicentennial Oral History Project
We do not have an intern conducting oral histories this summer, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t still interested in hearing your story. If you are an IU East alumni or retired IU East faculty or staff member, sign up at https://200.iu.edu/signature-projects/oral-history/form.html, to tell us your story. Archivist Beth South is the one conducting oral histories and she’d be happy to schedule a time to meet with you.
The Indiana University East Archives is actively collecting material from IU East faculty and staff as well as IU East departments. If you are interested in donating your papers to the IU East Archives or want more information on accessing our current collections, then please contact archivist Beth South at eabrockm@iue.edu or call at 765-973-8204. You can also read more about the IU East Archives, our collections, and our policies at http://iue.libguides.com/iuearchives.