Digitizing the IDS with student power

It is all in the details

On one half of the page a young woman in green looks at old newspapers. On the other half of the page, a young man looks at images of newspapers on a computer.

Students Meredith Dwyer and Evan Kern prepare the IDS for its final digitization.

For IU Day, IU Libraries is raising money for the IDS Digitization project. Funded by donors who give to the Mary Brown Craig University Archives Special Projects Fund, this inaugural project is several years old and going strong. This year’s campaign is already generating enthusiasm thanks to a generous $1,500 gift from an anonymous donor, who gave in the spirit and memory of Dr. S. Kay Burrus, a significant advocate for women’s sports for 39 years. Already digitized newspapers can be found on IU Libraries Digital Collections.

Before digitization 

Meredith Dwyer, a sophomore studying art history, and Evan Kern, a political science and history major, are two students helping IU Archives with the project. They both do systemic, detailed work that ensures the success of the project.

Going page by page, Dwyer makes sure that every physical copy of the newspaper is in order and accounted for. She enters her information into a spreadsheet. Because of her vital, meticulous role, the IDS papers are ready to go to the vendor in perfect order.

Dwyer looks forward to reviewing the issues from the 1980s and 1990s. “It’s like holding history in my hands. I love looking at the lost and found section. Humans have always been losing their belongings. I like to imagine that they were eventually reunited with their items, even if it was 70 years ago.”

A young woman with curly dark hair, glasses, and a bright smile looks at the camera. She is weating a white t-shirt.
Meredith Dwyer
A young man with a HUGE smile looks at the camera with big, blue eyes. He has blond wavy hair and light facial hair. He is wearing a dark shirt and a grey suitcoat.
Evan Kern

After digitization

Kern, a junior who is a Libraries Undergraduate Scholar and a Democracy Fellow with the Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) Program, works on the newspapers after they have been scanned, checking them against the vendor’s inventory spreadsheet. He does visual quality control. Looking at each complete issue, he makes sure Meredith’s work was executed correctly. Were the dates attributed to each IDS correctly? Are the pages in order?

Perhaps most interestingly, Kern makes sure there are no “blurs, printing errors, or black spots.” He says that the vendor is excellent; there has been no need to request any re-scans. 

"The IDS digitization project has shown me how behind-the-scenes library work fundamentally opens direct gateways into the past for users, without the usual barriers,” Kern says. “Knowing that I’m helping to remove those barriers to access has made my contributions feel more immediate and tangible.”
 

Grateful for our donors

Dina Kellams, Director of University Archives and Special Collections, expresses gratitude for the support the project has received to date. “Thanks to Archives donors, researchers are now able to search across decades of Indiana Daily Student from anywhere in the world, rather than traveling to Bloomington to scroll through microfilm. And I will add that I have personally benefited from the digitized papers in some of my own work in the Archives. We are thrilled with the project’s momentum and look forward to the day when all the papers are readily available.”

This April, you can donate to the IDS Digitization project by going to the IU Day crowdfunding site and help give the gift of IU’s past to alumni, students, and scholars.

Who was Mary Brown Craig?

Mary Brown Craig was IU’s first archivist. Don and Fran Jackson started the Mary Brown Craig University Archives Special Projects Fund in honor of her. Fran worked with Mary Brown Craig while Don earned his master's. 

Contributors

Christine Wagner.
Authored by

Christine Wagner

Stewardship Officer

cwagner@iu.edu

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