From the Dean's Desk
Greetings University Library Friends, Supporters, and Colleagues,
In Fall 2024 Mrs. Denise Rayman, formerly the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives Digital Preservationist, became the inaugural IUI University Library Director of Distinctive Collections. This Directorship carries responsibility for the afore mentioned special collections and archives as well as the Herron Art Library and our library’s cultural heritage digital collections and preservation work. This restructuring allows us to develop and elevate a programmatic approach to collecting, describing, preserving, creating access to, fundraising, and celebrating our distinctive print and digital collections archived at both University and Herron libraries. Our University and Herron libraries have been collecting unique materials since their founding and in the late 1990s leapt into the creation of digital collections highlighting content we owned as well as historical maps, documents, photographs and more with collaborative partners across the city. This digitization work was spread across several library units with moments of collaboration but also multiple approaches to overall collection cultivation.
We also said farewell to long-serving (29 years!) Herron Art and Design librarian with the retirement of Sonja Lehman. Ms. Lehman began her career at the 16th St. campus and her careful development of the Herron Artists’ Book collection helped elevate the reputation of the library locally, as well as nationally. In January we will welcome a new Art and Design Librarian, Jackie Huddle who is currently the Visual Literacy and Resources Librarian at the IU Bloomington Libraries. Ms. Huddle brings valuable experience in teaching visual literacy and is an active member of Art Libraries Society of North America and the International Visual Literacy Association. Additionally, will hold a search for a Digital Collections and Preservation Librarian. I’m thrilled that our new structure will continue our exceptional collection work through a deeply collaborative and unified approach.
I want to recognize all the folks who embraced this new approach to distinctive collections including Herron Art Library personnel: Deedee Davis and Kyle Kingen; Digitization Manager: Anna Proctor; and Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives personnel: Sam Bruer, Meg Lloyd, Molly LaPorte, Emily Nejako, Denise Rayman, and Steve Towne.
To learn more about our distinctive collections and the library personnel supporting this important work visit our digital collections, Herron Art Library Artist Book Collection, and Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives.
Kristi L. Palmer
Herbert Simon Dean of IUPUI University Library
University Library and Wikipedia
For the past several years, Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis has come to be known as BUTTER weekend. BUTTER is a fine art fair that highlights the work of Black visual artists. This year, University Library collaborated with BUTTER organizers and hosted a Wikipedia edit-a-thon that focused on updating or creating Wikipedia pages for underrepresented artists.
This isn't University Library's first time supporting BUTTER or a BUTTER artist. In 2023, the library acquired a painting from BUTTER-affiliated artist Kevin West. The painting is titled “Madam” and portrays a young girl in front of the historic Madam Walker Theatre building.
As University Library continues to expand our reach into the Indianapolis community and art scene, we look forward to partnering more with the BUTTER organization.
As an advocate of information literacy, University Library finds great importance in making sure that Wikipedia is an accurate and reliable source of information. To do so, the library regularly hosts Wikipedia edit-a-thons that focus on various subjects and this past fall, hosted the WikiConference North America where our Library was well represented: Stephen Lane served as a panelist for the "Banned books and representation at the crossroads" session and Olivia MacIsaac, Gemmicka Piper, Jere Odell, along with student worker Tapiwa Mzumara presented on "Wikimedia Indiana: A growing Indiana cultural heritage hub". You can view media coverage of the conference on WishTV and Wikimedia.
Save the Date for the 2025 Libraries & Literacy Symposium
Our 3rd Annual Indiana Libraries and Literacy Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 17, 2025 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm at the IU Indianapolis Campus Center. More details to come.
Keep Reading Jags
We kicked off the 2024-2025 academic school year off with the launch of a pilot program called Keep Reading Jags. Keep Reading Jags is a leisure reading program that promotes lifelong literacy, while at the same time strategically connecting the Library to new student orientation. While touring the library, each student gets to select a new leisure book to take home and learns about how the library will support their academic and social goals. The purpose of this program is to : 1) Encourage new students to continue (or begin) reading for leisure; 2) Cultivate use of our library space and services earlier in the student's academic career; 3) Deepen the Library's recognition by campus administration as a key factor in student recruitment, retention, and graduation; 4) Enhance student's sense of belonging, comfort, and community within higher education generally but IU Indianapolis specifically.
The Library collaborated with the campus Orientation Team through the Office of Enrollment to integrate our building as a stop on the Explore the Roar (orientation) campus tour and with such success this first year, we look forward to continuing this partnership as the program grows.
The Art of Harry Davis exhibit
In partnership with Indiana Landmarks and Herron School of Art + Design, University Library hosted an exhibit and event honoring the work of artist & Herron School of Art alumnus Harry Davis. Harry was well-known for his paintings of Indiana landmarks. Learn more about the event at IU Indianapolis Today.
Student Employment in Academic Libraries Conference
University Library hosted the second virtual Student Employment in Academic Libraries (SEAL) Symposium on October 24-25 and it was a great event! The theme was Ethics of Care as it applies to student employment. There were over 450 registrants for the event, from all over North America and presentations from 14 different institutions, which included over 15 student presenters and panelists, and members of our Student Employment Program Research and Design Partners team! Check out the digital posters and presentation recordings from this year’s symposium in the SEAL collection in ScholarWorks!
Faculty & Staff Recognition
Our Library has some pretty awesome faculty & staff members that are constantly serving as leaders, not just at University Library, but also in the overall academic library world. Please help us celebrate recent accomplishments by our some of our beloved faculty & staff members.
- Mahasin Ameen - served as co-chair conference organizer for the National Conference of African American Librarians Conference; also at this conference, she won the Advocacy Award and presented a poster titled "Black Caucus American Library Association New Member Toolkit" at the above mentioned conference (she also presented this poster at the American Library Association conference); moderated a panel at the National Conference for African American Librarians; was a guest interviewer on episode 7 of the Women of IU Podcast, titled "Unmasking Misinformation: Donell Probst on How Media Literacy Empowers You".
- Randall Halverson was the winner of the IU Trustees Teaching Award.
- Nikki Johnson presented a poster at the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) conference titled Inclusive Library Leadership: ILLID Focus Group. Nikki also spoke on that same topic along with Dean Kristi Palmer at the Indiana Library Federation annual conference.
- Rachel Hinrichs - had the following articles published in health journals "Public Health Research in the News: An Exploratory Study of Topics, Coverage, and Open Access Status" and "Massage Therapy as a Self-Management Strategy for Musculoskeletal Pain and Chronic Conditions: A Systemic Review of Feasibility and Scope". Rachel also presented "Get Credit for Your Searches: Our Experience Using search Rxiv" at the Library Evidence Synthesis Services Symposium and at the Midwest Medical Library Association Conference
- Nikki Johnson - participated in a panel presentation titled "Strategic Ambivalence: The Narratives of Black Librarianship" at the National Conference of African American Librarians; invited to participate in the 7th cohort of The Diversity in Leadership Program.
- Stephen Lane - awarded the Tyson Leadership Award at the National Council of African American Librarians Conference; selected as a 2024 Wilma Gibbs Moore fellow; participated in a panel presentation about the conflict in Gaza at Earlham College.
- Molly LaPorte (who was a library student employee at the time) - presented a poster at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists; Molly is now the Philanthropic Studies Archivist at University Library.
- Katharine Macy - presented "Launching A Negotiation Curriculum: Discovering and addressing challenges faced during resource negotiations" at the Electronic & Libraries Conference. Katharine also presented "ONEAL's gambit: Improving library advantage during the game" at the Academic Libraries of Indiana 2024 Resource Rendezvous and co-presented "Learn How to Negotiate for a More Sustainable Future at the 2024 American Library Association Conference.
- Olivia MacIssac presented "Beyond the metrics: What do Wikipedia citations mean?" at the Bibliometrics and Research Impact Community Conference.
- Gary Maixner - co-presented "The power of ensembles: How Warhammer novels introduce worldbuilding and create tension through multi-perspective storytelling" at the Warhammer Conference; presented "Vampires in tabletop wargaming: Representing hunger, control, and nobility on the battlefield" at the Popular Culture Association Conference and he co-presented "Board Games in Your Library: How to Create Polished Tabletop Games to Use in the Classroom for Years to Come" at the California Conference on Library Instruction. Gary has also been promoted to Associate Librarian and is Tenured.
- Jere Odell has been promoted to Full Librarian.
- Jason Peercy - co-presented "The power of ensembles: How Warhammer novels introduce worldbuilding and create tension through multi-perspective storytelling" at the Warhammer Conference; received the 2024 Champion for Teaching Excellence Award from the Center for Teaching and Learning.
- Gemmicka Piper was the 2024 recipient of the Alvin S. Bynum Faculty Mentor Award.
- Jad Rea(student employee) - presented a poster at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists.
- Denise Rayman - received the 2024 IU Indianapolis Student Employee Supervisor of the Year award; chosen as the Midwest Supervisor of the Year by Midwest Association of Student Employment Administrators (MASEA); elected as the treasurer of Society of American Archivists; co-presented "Graduate School Archives Internships: High Impact or High Barrier?" at the Society of American Archivists Research Forum.
- Steve Towne has published "Soldiers are continually advised by letter to desert: Finding Democratic voice in the 1863 campaign to discourage Civil War Soldiers".
- Billy Tringali - co-presented "From fan blogs to fruit baskets: Documenting the recommended resources of anime studies" at the the FanLIS2024 conference; presented "Actually playing vampirism: Lore, mechanics, and canon in 'actual-play' D&D vampires" at the Popular Culture Association Conference; served as the conference organizer for the JAMS @ AX Symposium for which he serves as Editor-In-Chief of the scholarly journal, Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS); presented at Console-ing Passions: International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media, and Feminism; presented "Anime in Academia" at New York Comic Con; selected for the second year to be a faculty sponsor in the 1st Year Research Immersion program (project #54).
Alumni Library Resources
Did you know that IU/IUPUI alumni still retain access to some library resources?
Seed Library
Are you an avid gardener or have recently been thinking about starting a container garden? If so, then we have seeds for you!
Library Hours
For our current hours of operation, please refer to our website.
Library Cards for Residents
Residents of the State of Indiana aged 18 years or older can get an IUPUI University Library Borrower’s Card if they visit our Reference Desk to complete an Indiana Resident Library Card/User Agreement and provide a photo ID and proof of current address.
Would you Like to Make a Gift?
If you are interested in making a gift to University Library, contact Tanika Scott (Director of Development) at 317-278-2322 or talscott@iu.edu. You can also visit our Make A Gift page for additional information.
Photo Caption Contest
Our monthly photo caption contest, put on by the IUPUI University Library Special Collections and Archives, is a chance to attach your funny captions to some of our favorite IUPUI photos from our huge collection. Each month, the funniest caption (as judged by the expert judges in Special Collections and Archives) wins a fabulous prize! Click the button below to add your caption to this month’s photo and review previous months.