Soon historians, students, and citizens will have a large part of the documentary record of Indiana State Government available to them online.  The IUB Digital Library Program, through support of a grant from the Indiana State Library in 2005, has completed the digitization and indexing of the Indiana Yearbook (http://www.iucat.iu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/MfI0ujJViL/B-WELLS/103171214/9 ).  See <http://dlib.indiana.edu/collections/yearbooks/>  for the full text of all volumes 1917-1950. 

 

Also exciting is the announcement by Connie Rendfeld, ISL Digital Initiatives Librarian, that the Indiana State Library is partnering with LYRASIS on a collaborative Mass Digitization Project.  The State Library will provide approximately 225 volumes that focus Indiana government documents printed from 1818 through 1900.  Titles to be digitized include: Documentary Journal of Indiana; Journal of the Senate; Journal of the House of Representatives and four volumes of the Messages and Papers of the Governors of Indiana (1825-1844).  These volumes include the reports of various commissions and state agencies, including the Wabash and Erie canal commission, State Librarian, Soldiers and Sailors Children’s’ Home, School for the Blind, Auditor,  and Adjutant General, among others. 

 

When the Lyrasis-State Library project is completed (projected for September 2010), researchers will have access to basic Indiana state government information (statistics, annual reports, legislative journals) from 1816 through 1950.  For earlier information related to the Indiana Territory, see IUPUI’s Digital Collection, Road to Indiana Statehood http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship/collections/ISC.  For historic maps related to Indiana history see: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1000963

 

One last note:  The Digital Library Program (IUB) has also completed the archives of Outdoor Indiana, 1934-1995: <http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/outdoorindiana> with the later years available at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources publications site: http://www.in.gov/dnr/4941.htm