Author Archives: indianastatelibrary

Watermelon, baked beans and picnics… oh my!

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When I found out that this article would be posted near July 4, I knew I wanted to talk about holidays! So, then began my research into what holidays are in July. The most known American holiday in July, of course, is the Fourth of July! The Fourth of July, also known as Independence Day or July Fourth, became a federal holiday in 1941. Celebrating the Fourth of July dates back to July 2, 1776, when the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence. Two days later, delegates for the 13 colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 to the present day, July 4 has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with celebrations like parades, cookouts, picnics and fireworks!

Did you know that there are hundreds of daily, weekly and monthly holidays in July? I sure didn’t! The unique national month-long holidays in July that caught my eye are National Baked Beans Month, National Blueberry Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Picnic Month and National Watermelon Month! When I think about the Fourth of July, all of these things come to mind, but I’m going to talk a little about the history of picnics.

The English word for picnic comes from the French word “pique-nique.” The French word originally referred to a meal where everyone paid for or contributed a share of the food, but it later came to mean a meal eaten outdoors. In England and France picnics became popular in the 18th century among the upper class, but they were held indoors. It was closer to the 19th century when picnics were taken up by the emerging middle class and moved outdoors. The outdoor picnic then made its way to the United States. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that outdoor picnics prevailed over indoor. During that time picnic baskets started being produced for the mass market.

Will you be celebrating the Fourth of July at a picnic eating hot dogs, baked beans and watermelon? I’ll be at my family cookout with this blueberry cake and vanilla ice cream! Happy Fourth of July!

The following recipes are from “Celebrating Indiana Hospitality Picnics, Potlucks & Prizewinners with 4-H Families and Friends” (ISLI 641.5 P597P).

Easy Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (yield six servings)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 cups half and half
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions: Combine the condensed milk, half and half and vanilla in the ice cream freezer container and mix well. Freeze according to manufacturer’s instruction.

Berry Batter Cake (yields six servings)
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries or blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries
¼ cup lemon juice
1 ¾ cups sugar, divided
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
½ cup milk
¼ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 or 9-inch square or 7×11 inch baking dish. Arrange the berries over the bottom of the dish. Drizzle with lemon juice. Combine ¾ cup of the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix well. Add the milk, almond extract and vanilla, stirring just until blended. Spread evenly over the berries.

Combine the remaining one cup sugar and cornstarch and mix well. Sprinkle over the batter. Pour boiling water over the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

This blog post was submitted by Lacey Klemm, Northwest regional coordinator in the Professional Development Office of the Indiana State Library.

Resources
“July 2024 Official, Fun, Crazy and Bizarre Holidays” (brownielocks.com)
“Fourth of July – Origins, Early Celebrations & Traditions” | HISTORY\
“Celebrating Indiana Hospitality Picnics, Potlucks & Prizewinners with 4-H Families and Friends” (ISLI 641.5 P597P)
“The Picnic Book; 100 Outdoor Recipes” by Marian Tracy (ISLM 641.5 T762P)
“The Picnic: a History” by Walter Levy (ISLM GT2955 .L48 2014)

Indiana State Library renews INSPIRE contract; offers new learning resources for Hoosiers

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The Indiana State Library has announced the renewal of its INSPIRE contract with EBSCO Information Services and TeachingBooks. INSPIRE, Indiana’s Lifelong Learning Library for Hoosiers, is a collection of more than 70 online academic databases and other information resources that can be accessed by Indiana residents at no cost at inspire.in.gov. The new contract enhances INSPIRE product offerings to provide a robust collection of online resources to all residents of Indiana who have internet access at school, home or work. 

Beginning July 1, residents of Indiana will have access to all EBSCO resources that have previously been available through INSPIRE, as well as a few new databases. Resources span across various research needs offering academic, business and general interest resources, including EBSCO’s distinguished Academic Search Complete™ and Business Source Complete™ resources. EBSCO databases available through INSPIRE also include medical research resources, as well as children’s and teens’ resources, e-book collections, communications and literature resources, newspapers and multilingual materials.  

New to the collection, Job & Career Accelerator™ provides job seekers with tools to explore careers, build resumes and find and apply for open positions. Rosetta Stone Library Solution Plus™, an interactive world language immersion program, will also be accessible and includes more than 50 hours of foundational instruction in each level of each language. LearningExpress Library Complete™ is also now part of the collection and provides academic skill-building, test prep and career-related resources.  

Additionally, the Indiana State Library has renewed its contract with TeachingBooks, a resource collection that includes author and illustrator interviews, video book trailers, audio book readings, book discussion guides and more. TeachingBooks can be accessed via INSPIRE.  

Indiana State Librarian Jacob Speer anticipates continued success with the wealth of resources INSPIRE provides to the residents of Indiana. “We look forward to continuing our relationship with TeachingBooks and EBSCO and to seeing the benefits that our residents gain from the comprehensive collection of resources made available to encourage lifelong learning,” Speer said. 

This blog post was submitted by John Wekluk, communications director. 

Luther Donnell and the escape of the Beach family

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Luther Addison Donnell was born July 6, 1809 in Nicholas County, Kentucky. His father, Thomas Donnell and uncle, Samuel Donnell, were involved in the Kentucky Abolitionist Society at its onset. By 1823, the Donnells and other abolitionists had moved to Decatur County, Indiana. In 1836, Luther Donnell established the Decatur County Anti-Slavery Society and helped found the Indiana Anti-Slavery Society in 1838.

Donnell aided a woman – identified in court documents as Caroline, but who later changed her name to Rachel Beach – and her four children in their flight from enslavement. They escaped Oct. 31, 1847, from Trimble County, Kentucky and were in Decatur County the next day when they were assisted by Donnell and other residents. After crossing the Ohio River into Madison, Indiana, they were transported by a man named Waggoner to Douglas McCoy at McCoy’s Station before attempting to make it to Clarksburg under the cover of night. The woman and her children were housed with Jane Speed, a black woman who unfortunately lived near a refuted “slave-hunter,” Woodson Clark, who spied Speed’s son delivering food to the family in an un-used building on the property. Clark lured and entrapped Caroline into a building on his son’s property, insisting that she was unsafe and with promises to deliver her to the African American settlement near Clarksburg. African American residents who had been expecting the family, tracked them to the home of Woodson Clark and enlisted the assistance of Donnell to reunite and free the family. Mr. Donnell and a Mr. Hamilton applied for a writ of habeas corpus to search Clark’s property for the detained woman. Not finding her on Clark’s property, the search was extended to include the property of his sons. Caroline, bewildered and searching for her children, was found on one of the sons’ farms. George Ray and several slave-hunters appeared in town with their own writ allowing them to search for the family, however they had been hidden in a deep ravine. The usual route of the Underground Railroad from that point had recently been discovered and in order to evade the men hunting for her, she was disguised as a man and separated from her children, who were couriered on to the next point. Donnell, Hamilton and several other local men then escorted the family via carriage to William Beard’s home in Union County, Indiana. According to Canadian census records and a reference to a letter made by Hamilton, the family did make it across the Detroit River to Ontario, Canada.

Donnell was convicted in 1849 in Decatur Circuit Court of aiding fugitive slaves. The document in the Indiana State Library’s collection is an early 1848 affidavit which identifies only Amanda, one of Caroline’s daughters. George Ray also filed a civil suit against Donnell for the “value of his property” and received a judgment of $3,000 including court costs. In 1852, Donnell’s appeal went to the Indiana Supreme Court and he was a defendant in State of Indiana v. Luther A. Donnell which overturned the verdict against him based on the unconstitutionality of the earlier law.

This blog post was written by Lauren Patton, Rare Books and Manuscripts librarian, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at 317-232-3678 or “Ask-A-Librarian.”

Related digital collections: https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll31/id/2462/rec/3
https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p1819coll6/id/81818/rec/2

Sources:
Luther A. Donnell court document, 1848. S3480. Indiana State Library, Manuscripts Division, Indianapolis, IN. 17 June 2024.

Atlas of Decatur Co. Indiana. Knightstown, Ind.: Decatur County Historical Society, Inc., 1976.

“State of Indiana v. Luther A. Donnell collection, 1848-1849.” University of Michigan William M. Clements Library. Accessed June 17, 2024. https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-wcl-M-7175sta.

“The Story of Luther Donnell.” Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Accessed June 17, 2024. https://www.in.gov/dnr/historic-preservation/files/donnell.pdf

“Escape of Caroline 1847.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed June 17, 2024. https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/escape-of-caroline-1847/

Eliason, Laura. “Luther A. Donnell court record.” Indiana State Library. Last modified October 7, 2021. https://archives.isl.lib.in.us/repositories/2/resources/6179

“Donnell v State 1852.” Indiana Historical Bureau. Accessed June 17, 2024. https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/donnell-v-state-1852/

Interested in pre-made escape room kits starring primary sources? Let us know!

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The Indiana Young Readers Center at the Indiana State Library has been hard at work developing six circulating escape room kits for Indiana librarians and teachers to check out and use with their patrons and students. The kits are not yet ready, but the IYRC is looking for Indiana librarians and teachers who might be interested in testing the kits while they are still in beta form. We are also interested in knowing how many librarians and teachers might be interested in checking out the kits once they are completed in early 2025.

The kits are “escape room” type experiences where students are left in a room with clues, puzzles and locked boxes and must work together to search the room, crack codes and eventually unlock the last box that will allow them to escape. All six experiences include narratives based on Indiana history and feature facsimiles of actual primary source documents located in the Indiana State Library’s collections or collections from the Library of Congress. Most of the experiences have the same “villain,” Sammy, the Interviewing Toucan, who you might be familiar with from Author Interviews available on the Indiana State Library’s YouTube channel.

Escape rooms are perfect for teens – and even adults – as they promote teamwork, collaboration, communication, problem solving, independent thinking, leadership, curiosity and more. The Escape Room Experiences can be used independently or can be used with lesson plans to further explore the topics. Topics covered by the Escape Rooms include:

  • President Benjamin Harrison – Featuring the only Indiana president to date.
  • Genealogy – Featuring a diary written in 1904 by a 9-year-old from Rensselaer, Indiana.
  • Aviation – Featuring Octave Chanute, an early aviator from Indiana who worked with the Wright Brothers.
  • Basketball – Featuring the Crispus Attucks High School state championships in 1955 and 1956.
  • Quakers – Featuring Levi and Catherine Coffin, Indiana Quakers and abolitionists.
  • Hoosier Women – Featuring Madame C. J. Walker, Amelia Earhart, Eva Kor and more.

The kits have been designed with varying levels of difficulty, so that students young and old will be able to enjoy the mysteries.

Interested librarians and teachers should fill out this form. You’ll be able to indicate if you want to be notified in early 2025 so you can get a first crack at booking a kit. You’ll also be able to indicate if you are more specifically interested in testing a kit out this fall in 2024. If you test a kit for the IYRC, it is expected that you’ll provide feedback to the Indiana State Library on how the test went. The kits were designed for middle and high school students and are best used in small groups of four to eight students. If you have a larger group of students, you might consider booking multiple kits as four copies of each kit will be available.

Three in-person trainings as well as a webinar about these kits are coming in October. Trainings are currently open for registration. Click here for training dates and to register. In addition to these up-coming trainings, you can view a webinar on this topic that was done for Government Information Day in May of 2024. It is already available and can be viewed here.

This program is sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Midwest Region Program, located at Illinois State University. Content created and featured in partnership with the TPS Midwest Region does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.

If you have questions or would like more information, please reach out to Suzanne Walker, the Indiana Young Readers Center Librarian and the Director of the Indiana Center for the Book. She’d be more than happy to answer your questions about this exciting upcoming program from the Indiana State Library.

This blog post was submitted by Indiana Young Readers Center librarian Suzanne Walker.

‘In war, truth is the first casualty’

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Any account of the first World War is grim. Battles lasted months and soldiers died by the thousands while “attacking” between enemy trenches, but for the United States Army Signal Corps – the official photographers of the American Expeditionary Forces – their task was to present the conflict in such a way that it bolstered morale both in the trenches and back home.

The thousands of images retained by the AEF suggest a history at odds with the realities of the war. The Indiana State Library houses four small scrapbooks of labeled photographs, all taken by the Signal Corps, that appear to focus on the lighter aspects of the conflict while glossing over the darker aspects of the war.

These posed images…

…stand in stark contrast to the few action shots captured from the front lines.

During the less than two years the AEF saw action in Europe, 50,000 US soldiers died in combat and over 200,000 troops were injured, yet photographs of No Man’s Land and the wounded are scarce.

There are, however, plenty of photographs of men playing volleyball, sorting mail and repairing holes.

Along side the United States Signal Corps, and despite being forbidden by their governments to do so, soldiers also photographed the war, many using a Kodak Vest Camera that really could fit into a pocket and even enabled photographers to scribble notes on the back of the film before it was developed. Photographs taken by these troops bear witness to a different conflict.

Promoting the image of a necessary and successful war, the Signal Corps also turned its lens on women serving donuts, entertaining the troops and embroidering.

There are also snaps of women more immediately involved in the conflict, French women assisting with camouflage and the Hello Girls commissioned by General Pershing to handle communications as female operators were significantly faster than their male counterparts.

The thousands of images taken by the Signal Corps to document The War to End All Wars are worthy of attention for a host of reasons, and perhaps one of those is to remind us that every picture tells a story, if not a complete one.

This blog post was written by Kate Mcginn, reference librarian, Indiana State Library.

Register now for the 2024 Difference is You Conference

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The Professional Development Committee of the Indiana State Library has a mission to support all libraries – academic, public, special and school – and offers events for library workers at every level to learn, teach, share and to make connections with others in the library world of Indiana.

The theme of this year’s Difference is You Conference is “Grow Your Garden” and we hope you can develop and cultivate what you learn at this event and that you can expand upon this knowledge at your own library. Friday, Sept. 20 is the date of the conference and it will run from 9 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time at the Indiana State Library, located at 315 W. Ohio St. in Indianapolis.

The Difference is You Conference is the only statewide conference designed especially for library support staff and non-MLS librarians, but all are welcome. Come get inspiration and motivation, as well as several ideas for programming. Consider registering your staff as a group as a team-building outing.

The cost is $30 per person, which includes a boxed lunch. There will be a variety of options, including meat and vegetarian. A total of five LEUs are available for the conference, if you take the Indiana State Library tour.

Click here to register before Friday, Aug. 9. Payment is due by Aug. 23. Your library will be invoiced. Full session descriptions and presenters biographies are found on the Difference is You Conference page.

Conference Schedule
Registration – 9-9:30 a.m. Great Hall desk.
Welcome – 9:30-9:45 a.m. Jacob Speer, Indiana State Librarian and announcement of DIY Award Winner.
Keynote – 9:45-10:45 a.m. “Artificial Intelligence in Libraries,” presented by Amanda Papandreou and Cassandra Jones-VanMieghem.
Session 1 – 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

  • “Building Relationships with Local Officials and Organizations,” presented by Vanessa Martin and Julie Wendorf.
  • “Communicating Across Generations,” presented by Amanda Stevenson-Holmes.
  • “Teen Mental Health – Taking Action and Sharing Resources,” presented by Jason Murray.

Lunch and Indiana State Library Tour – 12:15-1:15 pm – Meet at the Great Hall desk.
Session 2 – 1:30-2:30 p.m.

  • “Welcoming People with Disabilities to the Library,” presented by Jessica Minor.
  • “Services from the Indiana State Library,” presented by Paula Newcom.
  • “Teaching Technology to Your Community,” presented by Beth Gaff.

Session 3 – 2:45-3:45 p.m.

  • “Immigrants in Indiana: Data, Needs and Resources,” presented by Bekah Joslin.
  • “Emotional Intelligence,” presented by Amanda Stevenson-Holmes.
  • “State Data Center and Grant Data,” presented by Katie Springer.

This is a program of the Indiana State Library’s Professional Development Committee.  Committee members include: Paula Newcom and Kara Cleveland, co-chairs; David Eisen; George Bergstrom; Holley Nickell; Jenny Hughes; Jenny Kobiela-Mondor; Kimberly Brown; Lacey Klemm and Susie Highley. Special thanks to Courtney Brown.

Pro tips for attending conference:

  • Make sure you dress in layers, as some rooms are warm and others cooler.
  • Bring these items if needed – a water bottle, notebook and tote bag.
  • Make sure to bring your parking voucher in with you so it can be validated at the registration desk.

Click here for a map to the parking areas.

We hope you can attend this year’s Difference is You Conference. It is a wonderful way to network with staff from libraries across the state and to be able to explore the beautiful historic Indiana State Library.

This post was written by Northeast regional coordinator Paula Newcom of the Indiana State Library Professional Development Office.

The Rock House

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The striking Rock House on State Road 252 in Morgantown, Indiana catches the eye of many a passer-by. It started life as a home for a local businessman and his very large family. Construction on the house began in 1894 and was completed two years later. James Smith Knight, the builder and owner, used cement blocks more than a decade before they became widely used in construction. He then embedded them not only with rocks and geodes, but also colored glass, keys, coins, dice, pottery, marbles, seashells and even doll heads. Most of the rocks came from nearby Bear Creek. Knight’s name, as well as that of his first wife Isabelle, were embedded into the house using small black stones. A side porch contained a block with a tusk of a wild boar that Knight had killed. The interior of the home included a dumbwaiter, laundry chutes and a bedroom designed for the delivery of Knight’s 22 children born between 1891 and 1932. The second story of the round tower was intended for the upkeep of Isabelle’s plant collection. The total cost of the construction was $9,000 or around $328,000 today.

The Rock House, courtesy of morgantown.in.gov.

There are several legends associated with the Rock House. Family lore holds that Knight was friends with the father of John Dillinger, and that Dillinger himself stayed in the house for a night along with a friend. Some of Knight’s children claimed that another man on the run from the law was hidden in the attic for several years. Certain versions of the story state that the man was driven out from his hiding place after he accidentally set a small fire.

James Smith Knight and his first wife Isabelle with their six oldest children: Fred, Regina, Charles, Inez, Nadene and Garnet, in 1903. Pallas Houser Collection, Genealogy Division.

Knight married Myrtle Settles after the death of his wife Isabelle in 1915, and they lived in the Rock House until James’ death in 1943. More information about Knight and his family can be found in the Pallas Houser Collection in the Genealogy Division.

This post was written by Laura Williams, genealogy librarian at the Indiana State Library.

Save Woodruff Place

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On Sept. 18, 1953, residents of Woodruff Place were invited to attend a town hall meeting via a flyer proclaiming that “time is of the essence.” The flyer – a copy of which can be found in the Small Broadsides Collection at the Indiana State Library – provides a glimpse into the hard-fought battle that ultimately resulted in the annexation of Woodruff Place into the city of Indianapolis.

Now a near-east side neighborhood, the town was established in the 1870s by James O. Woodruff, best known for creating the city’s water system, and it remained an independent town within city limits after it was incorporated in 1876. Councilman J. Wesley Brown introduced the annexation ordinance multiple times in 1953 before it was passed in September, but it was formally enacted only after nine years of protests and legal battles. The final blow to resistant Woodruff Place residents came in February 1962 after the Supreme Court decided not to review the case, the next logical step after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the annexation the previous year. At the time of annexation, it comprised around 1,700 residents.

The reason for annexation cited by the city was the need for Woodruff Place residents to pay their share of taxes, though the incorporated town did already pay the city fees for trash, sewage, education, police, fire and the General Hospital. Residents cited concerns over losing zoning power – which was eventually addressed – amid increased industrialization of the surrounding area and control over the features that typified the area, such as the iconic fountains. The debate was often heated, with one resident in the Sept. 4, 1960 issue of the Indianapolis Star comparing the city’s views on their right to annex Woodruff Place to “what the Russians think about the people of Hungary.” The press could also be critical of Woodruff Place in turn. In an Indianapolis Star op-ed supporting annexation in Oct. 22, 1953, for instance, the author likened the city to a Roman town, referring to both as “tombs of entanglement.”

One of the fountains in Woodruff Place. From the Indiana State Library’s Oversize General Photograph Collection.

In 1954, amid a drastic increase in service fees levied after annexation was initially challenged by residents, the town agreed only to pay for fire and for a period the city was only served by county sheriff’s office. Later, after it was determined that the Indianapolis treasury could not be used to fight the legal battle, Woodruff Place residents raised the money via donations from both resident homeowners and renters. This fund was referred to as a “War Fund” in the press.

With many residents now only ever knowing Woodruff Place as a charming neighborhood, it is now perhaps best know for its flea market, which has taken place the first week of June as a neighborhood fundraiser since 1975.

This post was written by Victoria Duncan, Rare Books and Manuscripts supervisor.

Indiana resource sharing update – May 2024

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A lot of positive things have been happening in resource sharing these past few months, so we wanted to provide an update on how books are currently moving around the state.

InfoExpress courier service
We are pleased to report that the InfoExpress Courier Service, currently operated by Indianapolis’s NOW Courier, has almost completely recovered, and over 90% of expected stops are being made weekly. The Indiana State Library truly appreciates everyone’s patience and willingness to help with the recovery process, whether it was reporting missed stops, or visiting the Indianapolis warehouse to collect items.

The renewal period is open for participation for the 2024-2025 service year, with registrations being due June 1. Claims for lost materials are still being collected for any materials that were lost last summer during the courier transition. Indiana State Library staff encourage any libraries with extra shipping bags to return those to the State Library at their convenience, as supplies are running low. Finally, please let the InfoExpress coordinator know if your library will be closed for any portion of the summer.

Discovery to Delivery Conference
Plans are underway for this year’s Discovery to Delivery Conference, tentatively scheduled for Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. Two big changes this year will include a change of venue – Ivy Tech Community College – Bloomington – and a new virtual attendance option for many sessions. State Library staff are happy to be working with members of ALI and their Resource Sharing Committee on plans for the conference. A save the date announcement will be shared widely soon, as well as a call for proposals for conference sessions for anyone interested in presenting.

SRCS
The current SRCS contract with Auto-Graphics, Inc. expires Sept. 30, and the Indiana Department of Administration is currently completing the request for proposals – also known as an  RFP –  process for the continuation of the service which is required to be bid out periodically. A committee of State Library staff and volunteers from public and academic libraries statewide have reviewed the proposals, have participated in product demonstrations and have submitted recommendations to IDOA. The results of this RFP are still forthcoming, and the State Library will notify libraries about any upcoming changes to the service or its providers as soon as they are known.

Evergreen
Evergreen Indiana continues to grow, most recently welcoming the Morrisson-Reeves, Jasonville and Owensville Public Libraries, for a total of 132 of Indiana’s 236 public libraries sharing a catalog and transiting materials between each other.

The consortium also welcomes Courtney Brown, previously the Indiana State Library’s Southeast regional coordinator, as the new Evergreen Indiana Consortium director. We truly thank Ruth Davis for all her years of service and dedication to the consortium and Resource Sharing Committee, and wish her well in Virginia!

This blog post was written by Jen Clifton, Library Development Office.

Indiana State Library’s new Digitization Lab

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On April 17, 2024, the Indiana State Library held an open house for its staff in our new digitization lab. Many attended and were impressed with the new setup, which brings all of the Indiana State Library’s major internal digitization devices into one roomy, comfortable space.

The process started two years ago, when the Indiana State Library purchased a new Phase One camera system, which beautifully digitizes large items such as maps, posters and broadsheets. Our conservator, Seth Irwin, had envisioned installing it in the old digitization lab, but its small size could not accommodate the new camera system. One room that was for consideration was the fourth-floor computer lab, room 428, which provided a space for state government employees to conduct training seminars. Unfortunately, the computer lab wasn’t going to be decommissioned in time to install the Phase One system, so we settled on installing it in the conservation lab. Additionally, the Indiana State Library purchased a state-of-the-art archival box making machine, which could only be installed in the old digitization lab. That made the room even more crowded.

Cut to last year, when the administration team of the Indiana State Library informed Irwin, Indiana Division supervisor Monique Howell, internal digitization librarian Chris Marshall and myself that the computers would be removed from 428 in the spring of 2024. We were ecstatic! We were finally going to move the digitization lab to the room we all wanted after all.

The Digitization Equipment Committee, composed of myself, Marshall, Irwin, Howell, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division librarian Brittany Kropf and Genealogy Division librarian Sarah Pfundstein, all began planning the move to the new digitization lab. We decided which devices were moving, the layout of the room, which tables and shelving we would need and any modifications of the devices. Our three Bookeye overhead scanners, which are primarily used for books, newspapers and pamphlets, would need larger tables to accommodate their weight and size. Fortunately for us, the State Library decommissioned some of the old microfilm readers on the second floor, and the tables for those devices were perfect for the Bookeye scanners. We had Damon Lawrence, our director of building operations, move those tables into 428. We also repurposed many of the tables used for the computer lab, as they were sturdy and provided ample space for the Epson flatbed scanner and the two desktop computers needed for the Bookeye scanners.

The computers were removed on March 20, way ahead of our schedule for moving our equipment. Once they were gone and the old microfilm tables were moved to 428, we transferred all of the digitization equipment from the old lab into our new one on March 28. Irwin and Marshall moved the Phase One system out of the conservation lab into the new digitization lab on April 1, weeks in advance of our original plan.

The new digitization lab now houses our three Bookeye scanners, our PlusTek photographic slide and negative scanner, our Epson flatbed scanner, the Phase One camera system and all of our other equipment we lend to libraries pursuing digitization projects. Other than the cost of installing new locks and self-closing mechanisms on the two outside doors, we were able to do this move without additional costs to the Indiana State Library.

The new digitization lab will provide library staff with an opportunity to learn more about our equipment and how they can use it for their respective divisions. It also provides space for growth when the Indiana State Library decides to acquire new digitization equipment, especially for audio/visual digitization, an area where we anticipate growth in the coming years. All of us at the Indiana State Library are proud of our new digitization lab and look forward to our continued work digitizing the history of the great state of Indiana.

If you’re interested in learning more about our digitization division and the services we provide, please reach out to me via email.

This blog was submitted by Justin Clark, digital initiatives director at the Indiana Historical Bureau, a division of the Indiana State Library.