Tag Archives: digital

Indiana Digital Library users borrow 6.6 million digital books in 2023

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The Indiana Digital Library has announced that its patrons reached a new milestone: 6.6 million digital books borrowed in 2023. This achievement illustrates the library’s commitment to serving all members of the community in innovative ways, including with a large catalog of e-books, audiobooks and other digital media. Indiana Digital Library is ranked fifth of all public library e-book consortia and one of 152 total public library systems worldwide that surpassed one million checkouts last calendar year. View a complete list here.

Indiana Digital Library member libraries have been providing readers continuous access to e-books, audiobooks, magazines, comic books and other digital content for several years through the award-winning Libby app, the library reading app created by OverDrive. The large collection serves readers of all ages and interests, and usage has grown throughout the years. Some of the member libraries include Plainfield-Guildford Township Public Library, Perry County Public Library, Whiting Public Library, Brownstown Public Library and Berne Public Library.

“The Indiana Digital Library has, once again, exceeded expectations. The consortium is beyond thrilled to have reached the one million digital book checkout milestone for the second consecutive year,” said Jacob Speer, Indiana State Librarian. “The State Library will continue to support the Indiana library community’s collaborative effort to bring e-book access to the public while saving taxpayer funds.”

The highest-circulating title Indiana Digital Library readers borrowed in 2023 was “It Starts with Us” by Colleen Hoover. The top-circulating genre, romance, represents the most popular in a vast catalog that also includes thriller, suspense, children and young adult, mystery and more.

The top five e-book titles borrowed through Indiana Digital Library’s digital collection in 2023:

  • “It Starts with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
  • “Verity” by Colleen Hoover.
  • “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
  • “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus.
  • “Spare” by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.

The top five audiobook titles borrowed through Indiana Digital Library’s digital collection in 2023:

  • “False Witness” by Karin Slaughter.
  • “A Darker Shade of Magic” by V. E. Schwab.
  • “It Starts with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
  • “The Coworker” by Freida McFadden.
  • “Happy Place” by Emily Henry.

Residents of Indiana only need a valid library card from a member library to access digital books from Indiana Digital Library’s OverDrive-powered digital collection. Readers can use any major device, including Apple®, Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle®.

Download the Libby app, or click here, to get started borrowing e-books, audiobooks and more anytime, anywhere.

Recently, Speer was in studio for an interview with WISH-TV in Indianapolis, in which he discussed the Indiana Digital Library. Click here to view the interview.

OverDrive is a mission-based company that stands with libraries. Named a Certified B Corp in 2017, OverDrive serves tens of thousands of libraries and schools in over 100 countries with the industry’s largest digital catalog of e-books, audiobooks, video and other content. Award-winning apps and services include the Libby library reading app, the Sora student reading app, Kanopy, the leading video streaming app for libraries and colleges and TeachingBooks.net, which offers one of the largest catalogs of supplemental materials that enhance literacy outcomes.

This post was written by John Wekluk, communications director at the Indiana State Library.

From our shelves to your computer screen, part two

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“Thank you so much! This is so amazing! I appreciate you so much!,” responded a patron about an item in our digital collections here at the Indiana State Library.

Our digital collections have grown over the past few years to include more and more from our fragile, rare and vast collections. In a previous blog post, we talked about selecting materials and here, in this second part, we’ll show you how materials make it into the collections.

Once we’ve selected materials to add, we evaluate them by asking some questions. Is this fragile? Does it need some conservation work? Or is it ready to go and if so, how do we digitize it? For example, some of our maps need to be cleaned or repaired before being scanned or photographed to get the best quality image for you to see.

It may also go to our catalogers to make sure the bibliographic record is correct and up to date. Once their work is done, the materials come back to the digitization coordinator and are prepared to be scanned. We have a workflow that includes naming the item for the image files, deciding how and what scanner to use and keeping a record of everything we scan.

Here are some photographs of materials and collections after they have been prepped and are waiting to be scanned.

Here at the Library, we have our own equipment for scanning materials.

First, we have our Epson flatbed scanner. It is our workhorse for many items that are small than 11”x17”. We can do pamphlets, photographs and letters, to name a few, on this scanner.

We’ve done a lot of materials on this scanner, including almost all of our Civilian Conservation Corps newsletters found here.

We also have two larger scanners we refer to as the Bookeyes, which is their official name by the manufacturer. These are used for bound periodicals, broadsides and newspapers. For example, we’ve used these to scan many of our items in the Company Employee Newsletter collection.

For maps and broadsides, we use our Pro Scanner. We feed encapsulated items through this scanner and it often requires having two people when working with fragile items. Many of our maps are encapsulated, meaning that they are sandwiched between sheets of Mylar, making them easier to handle.

After we make the scans, we upload them into our digital content management system called ContentDM, a well-known entity in the digitization world. It is in this program that you get to see our digital collections.

This year, we’ll be adding more materials to our county collection in the Indiana Historic Print Collection as well as a great new collection called Open Space, Historic Places: Parks, Memorials, and Landmarks. We hope to launch that collection this summer. We just keep adding more great materials to our collections. Keep checking back – you never know what we’ve found and added.

This post was written by Christopher Marshall, digital collections coordinator for the Indiana Division at the Indiana State Library.

R.I.P. VHS

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Most sources say VHS magnetic tape has a life-span of about 30 years. For many tapes in our collection their 30th birthday has come and gone. The degradation is evident. The sound goes tinny, the image begins to streak and rattle across the screen. Have no fear, we are currently in the process of migrating our VHS to DVD and digital format.

Until now, I had hardly browsed our VHS collection, but this project has given us a chance to view some real gems. VHS was the main form of commercial video for about 20 years in the ’80s and ’90s, so this collection falls heavily within those decades. We have VHS tapes of A&E Biographies of famous Hoosiers. Many contain original local programming. Do any of these programs jog your memory: “Hoosier History” with Rick Maultra on TV-16, “Across Indiana” on WFYI or “Our Hoosier Heritage” on WFBM?

Some of the VHS is footage originally transferred from 16mm film. It was converted to VHS to preserve the film and make it accessible. From the VHS we will make DVDs. We have a couple of these on the State Library’s YouTube channel.

YouTube and Archive.org have a lot of neat historical films available:

  • Bernie Sanders’ film about the Socialist-party leader from Indiana, “Eugene V. Debs.” The film was made in 1979. Sanders doesn’t appear on screen, but you’ll recognize his voice as Debs.
  • “Family of Craftsmen” is a promotional company film from 1953. The film follows the Bokon family of South Bend who work at the Studebaker plant. “Family of Craftsmen” is available on Archive.org.
  • Madison, Indiana is featured as an ideal American town in the 1945 Office of War Information film, “The Town.”

Moving images capture our attention and allow us to see the past more vividly. We’ve transferred footage of the Foster P. Johnson family hamming it up for the home camera in the 1930s.

Do you have any interesting videos in your home collections? It’s time to get in touch with a professional and have them transferred!

This post was written by Indiana Collection Supervisor Monique Howell. 

Indiana Memory – Digital Public Library of America Fest 2017

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The second annual Indiana Memory – Digital Public Library of America (IM-DPLA) Fest is set for Sept. 8, 2017 at the Indianapolis Public Library Central Branch. IM-DPLA Fest is a free, one-day conference running from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The fest was created to address topics on digitization and provide networking opportunities for those interested in working on digital projects. Past attendees include representatives from large public universities, public libraries and small cultural organizations. Everyone interested in digitization is welcome to attend.

This year’s keynote speaker is Kendra Morgan. She is a senior program manager with the Online Computer Resource Center (OCLC) and the co-author of the recently published report “Advancing the National Digital Platform: The State of Digitization in the US Public and State Libraries.” In addition, there will be several other presentations on topics in digitization. The lightning talks and poster session will highlight different digital projects from around the state. Proposals to participate with a lightning talk or poster session need to be submitted by June 30, 2017. See the IM-DPLA blog for more information about submitting a presentation, lightning talk or poster.

“Advancing the National Digital Platform: The State of Digitization in the US Public and State Libraries,” by Kendra Morgan and Merrilee Proffitt was release in 2017. It can be downloaded as a free pdf from the OCLC website.

Registration, and a more detailed schedule, will be announced at a later date on the IM-DPLA blog. So, whether you’re a seasoned digital veteran or just dreaming of acquiring your first flatbed scanner, we look forward to seeing you at the 2017 IM-DPLA Fest!

This blog post by Jill A. Black, a library technician with the Indiana Memory Project. For more information contact the Library Development Office (317) 232-3697 or ldo@library.in.gov.