IDS 1930s-1940s issues now available online

Based on regular research requests for digital issues, University Archives decided to expand its IDS digitization efforts into an ongoing priority.  The high costs for such a large volume of digital page scans could have seemed daunting, but Archives Director Dina Kellams was confident in the support of the IU community and asked for help on IU Day, 2024.

Donations from about 50 people – 60% of them first-time donors to IU or the Libraries – brought in $10,440 during the April IU Day crowdfunding event. The IU Foundation, which sponsors the university-wide initiative, added $1,000 to celebrate meeting the original $10,000 goal. 

Much support came from alums, former IDS staffers, and IU Libraries staff. “They knew that having the papers digitized was going to be transformational to our work and the work of our researchers,” Kellams said.

The funds financed digitizing 45,000 IDS pages published from 1949 to spring 1973. Northern Digital Preservation Specialists, of Wisconsin, is scanning and converting these issues. The first batch is expected to be posted early in 2025, with additional uploads three times annually. 

Two major donors, Ellen Jay and Gayle Hart, IU graduates, said they gladly contributed to the IDS digital project after spending weeks combing through decades of IDS issues on microfiche. Hart called on Jay to help find articles on the early years of field hockey, IU's first intercollegiate sport for women, its first coach, (Kay Burrus 1962-75), and its pioneering female student athletes.

“I know how much time it takes to go through microfiche to find what you’re looking for,” said Jay, a retired school librarian and teacher who moved back to Bloomington in 2019. “This will be a big help to researchers and anyone interested in IU history and what’s going on,” added Jay, who played field hockey and basketball in the 1960s. She also noted digitized issues will be a huge time-saver and will offer another way to teach students how to conduct data searches.  

Hart said her initial motivation was to collect information to support the nomination of Burrus to the IU Athletics Hall of Fame. Burrus, who died in 2018, was inducted in 2019. Hart spent months using materials in the Wells Library and University Archives and sees enormous benefits to those who will be able to access digitized copies of the IDS.  

“I think the IDS Archives project is wonderful. It will make research on field hockey and other sports and topics easier and more efficient,” said Hart, who continues her research. “My goal is to find every article in the IDS about women's field hockey and document it to institutionalize the history of the sport.”  

Both Hart and Jay said they plan to support digitizing the next group of issues and hope others will contribute to the Archive's ambitious IDS project. Kellams said a student already has prepared issues from April 1973 to April 1983 for digitization. Vendor fees for those issues will be $40,000, approximately 90 cents per page.  

“This is amazing, and I’m so glad we’ve had this support. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time,” said Dina Kellams, director of University Archives. 

Donations can be made to the Mary Brown Craig University Archives Special Projects Fund, created in spring 2024 by IU alumni Fran and Don Jackson, to honor Craig, IU’s first University Archivist from 1943-1977.  The IDS digitization is the first project the ongoing fund is supporting.