Elizabeth South

Elizabeth South

Volunteer from Home – Crowdsourcing Transcription of Historical Documents

Volunteer from Home – Crowdsourcing Transcription of Historical Documents

This month is Preservation Month (https://savingplaces.org/) and while much of the focus is on the preservation of historic places, the IU East Campus Archives would like shine a light on the preservation of historic documents and how you can get involved with preserving history from the comforts of your couch, desk, bed, or wherever you have access to a computer. Museums, historical societies, libraries, and other heritage sites often have a lot of paper collections that need to be transcribed and made available, but not a lot of funding, time, or staff to go through them all, at least not quickly. However, now thanks to the internet, social media, and other evolving technologies, many of these places are crowdsourcing for … Continued
From the past to the present: Continuing community engagement at Indiana University East

From the past to the present: Continuing community engagement at Indiana University East

The IU East campus has a long history of community engagement. IU Bicentennial intern Maureen Girdler is learning about that throughout the Spring 2018 semester. From interviews with students, staff and faculty, and research using historical documents in the IU East archives, she presents here some highlights of the past editions of the Pioneer Press student newspaper, as well as some reflections from members of the IU East community who have been engaged in service. Circle-K Club, then and now Circle-K Club originally started in 1976. It is a college-based service organization affiliated with the national Kiwanis. After several years’ hiatus, a new Circle-K club was chartered at IU East, in 2016. Rachel Johnson, President of Circle-K at IU East, … Continued
Out of the Archives – A Brief History of the Indiana University East Student Newspaper

Out of the Archives – A Brief History of the Indiana University East Student Newspaper

As IU East Archivist, Beth South is the go-to person to help guide you through the IU East Archives. Recently, she’s been researching Indiana University East’s mascots – the Pioneers and the Red Wolves. Flipping through all the past issues of the physical newspaper (we have more than 40 years of them!) she noted the paper’s name and logo changes, the articles, ads, and editorials. It is our most popular archival collection and provides the best record of the various events and developments that shaped IU East, so we wanted to share a brief history of the IU East student newspaper.   The student newspaper was a student organization, a club that had a faculty advisor and it regularly had … Continued
A Modern Prometheus

A Modern Prometheus

On January 15, 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published her first book. Subtitled “A Modern Prometheus,” this book began as part of a storytelling contest among herself, her then-boyfriend Percy Bysshe Shelley, their host Lord Byron and Byron’s physician, John Polidori. In Geneva, Switzerland, on a particularly dreary summer night, the four precocious thinkers and authors began to compose ghost stories. Percy Shelley wrote about an incident from his childhood. Rumor has it that Byron’s work was about a vampire. But the other two people in this group, neither of them accomplished authors in 1816, launched the modern horror tale with their works: John Polidori’s The Vampyre, and Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. At the IU East Campus library, we are putting … Continued
New Year, New You: Introducing Nexis Uni and a few IUCat Updates

New Year, New You: Introducing Nexis Uni and a few IUCat Updates

Starting this semester, there are a few changes that took place within the library online catalog, IUCAT. First, IUCAT Classic has officially retired and can no longer be accessed. The IU Libraries have been working for several years to update and make improvements to the online catalog, IUCAT. While all this has been happening, IUCAT Classic was kept around as a way to search for items, specifically Class Reserves, while improvements and changes were made to the new and improved IUCAT that is now in place. Now that the current IUCAT has all the necessary features ready and everything is working smoothly, IUCAT Classic retired on December 17, 2017. Most users may not have noticed a difference or may not … Continued