A New Home for the IU Archives
Vacating space it had occupied since 1936, the Office of University Archives and Records Management relocated from Bryan Hall to the Herman B Wells Library.
Bryan Hall had long been home to the university’s records. Clerks filed the records of administrators like Herman B Wells, who transferred materials from their offices just steps away. “Visitors knew how crowded we’d been for many years,” says University Archivist Phil Bantin of the Bryan Hall location the Archives had occupied since 1936.
New offices, located on the fourth floor of the Wells Library east tower, offer more space for researchers, staff, and exhibitions. “The new space not only provides welcome room to process and organize the university’s history,” Bantin says, “ but more importantly also gives researchers room they need to use the materials efficiently.” The offices include a conference room to accommodate instruction and group assignments.
Bantin says the reading room in the Wells Library location provides at least three times more space for researchers, is quiet, and offers more privacy. Researchers and staff shared the same room at the Bryan Hall location, surrounded by about 15,000 boxes of the university’s records, administrative files, and photographs.
In preparation for the move, about 95 percent of the Archives’ collections have been transferred to the Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF) located on the edge of campus. The ALF, kept at constant 50 degrees and 30 percent relative humidity, provides ideal environmental conditions to preserve archival materials.
“Visitors to the new location will also benefit from complementary collections, expertise, and technology in the Wells Library,” says Patricia Steele, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries. “This is a great opportunity for us to integrate the Archives with the full range of activities that makes the Wells Library such a popular student destination.”
As the largest and most comprehensive source of information on the history and culture of Indiana University, the IU Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to the administrative files of IU offices and departments and the personal papers (classroom and research materials, research files) generated by prominent IU faculty.
Today the IU Archives, a part of the IU Bloomington Libraries, also preserves and manages digital information ranging from electronic records to university Web sites.
