Indiana University Becomes New Home to Historic State Newspapers

Gift Honors Dean Suzanne Thorin


Indiana University will safeguard historic state newspapers as a result of a partnership that maximizes state resources, say officials from the Indiana University Libraries and the Indiana State Library.    

Issues of the Indianapolis News dating back to 1869 will be transferred from the newspapers’ current location in Indianapolis to Bloomington beginning today. The run of newspapers is the most complete known to exist for this newspaper and includes the last remaining copies of dozens of issues. 

Indiana University Libraries will house the newspapers in its climate-controlled Bloomington facility. The newspapers, published from 1869 to 1999, are bound in oversized volumes or bundled together and wrapped in protective paper.  Space considerations at the newspapers’ current location, the Indiana Commission on Public Records, prompted the move.

“Preserving and providing access to research materials is what we do as a research library,” says Suzanne Thorin, Ruth Lilly University Dean of University Libraries. “In this case, because the materials have such interest to the state, our obligation is even stronger.”

Although access to the content of the newspapers has long been available at IU on microform, there’s no substitute for the original artifact, librarians say.  Researchers will be able to view the newspapers at IU or they may request digital images captured on-site and sent electronically.  

The newspapers are a gift from the Indiana State Library to Indiana University to recognize the contributions of IU’s departing dean of libraries Suzanne Thorin.  In 2004 Thorin received the Indiana State Library’s Synergy Award for her outstanding efforts to further the partnership and collaboration between the university and the Indiana State Library.

Newspapers from this era are acidic, and some are extremely brittle.  Conditions at IU’s Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility, located in Bloomington and kept at a constant 50 degrees and 30 percent relative humidity, are ideal for their long-term preservation.

All Hoosiers may use the materials of the IU Libraries and the Indiana State Library. The Indiana University Libraries system across the state offers more than 7 million bound volumes and 26 million other materials. 

The Indiana State Library is the largest repository of Indiana newspapers in the world, with almost 80,000 reels of microfilmed newspapers available for use on-site or through interlibrary loan.