The Indiana Historical Bureau has worked with communities and organizations on the installation of state historical markers dating back to the 1940s. These markers serve as tangible reminders of the state’s past and help return stories to the physical landscape. In this program, learn about the process and criteria for obtaining a state historical marker, why markers matter, and their continued relevance in today’s digital age, using examples from the collection of over 750 state markers that currently exist.
Date Recorded: 11/5/2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Casey Pfeiffer, Historical Marker Program Director / Indiana Historical Bureau Division, Indiana State Library
The national network of State Data Centers in every U.S. state and territory provides the public with access to data and training on current data tools. We partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure you have the most recent population data. Here at the Indiana State Data Center, we also partner with several other state agencies and organizations to create a strong network of data and geospatial professionals to help provide insight into to today’s top social and economic questions. Katie Springer, Director of Indiana’s SDC Program, explains what our State Data Center @ the State Library does for the public and what kinds of questions we handle. Librarians and Educators alike can learn how to be ready for demographic questions and how our connections strengthen our network.
Date Recorded: 11/26/2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Katie Springer, Director, Indiana State Data Center / Indiana State Library
The Indiana Collection at the Indiana State Library offers a wealth of published material about our great state. Among the most widely used are local daily newspapers, maps, local histories, and state agency documents, including historical laws. Our collection includes historical runs of many titles, essential for researching the past and preparing for the future. In this webinar, you’ll be introduced to fascinating items within the collection, receive tips for exploring the resources, discover where to find online materials, and learn how you can help us grow this unique collection.
Date Recorded: 04/09/2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Monique Howell, Indiana Division Supervisor, Indiana State Library
Indiana Disability Resource FINDER, administered by the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community (IIDC), is a FREE 24/7 online state-wide disability-related database designed to connect individuals to providers, resources, and events across Indiana. We will explore program features and demonstrate how to use FINDER to help individuals with disabilities and family members connect with services and resources in Indiana.
Date Recorded: 2/25/2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Peggy Holtz, Research Assistant, and Joel F. Fosha, Director of communications / Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana University, Bloomington.
The Indiana Young Readers Center is proud to announce new kits coming in 2025 for check-out to Indiana’s teachers and librarians. Indiana Escape Rooms (in a box!) focus on Indiana history, build on primary resources from the Library of Congress, and were developed with the help of a Teaching with Primary Sources grant. Join this one hour webinar to learn all about the kits and the TPS Grant.
Please join us on a behind the scenes & public area tour of the Indiana State Library. Suzanne Walker will be taking us on this journey, Paula Newcom will be behind the camera and Courtney Brown will host and monitor the chat. This will be in real time and you will have the opportunity to ask questions of library staff as we walk through the different divisions. We will begin the journey at the public entrance on West Ohio Street. These are the places we will visit: Circulation; Indiana Historical Bureau; Genealogy; and Indiana Education Center. Next, we well walk up the Grand Staircase that leads to the beautiful Great Hall; History Reference Room; Author’s Room; Young Reader’s Center; Browsing Room & Manuscripts; Indiana Division and Reference; and Newspaper Room. We’ll go behind the scenes to the stacks Cataloging division; Preservation Lab; and finish in the Administration office. Other ISL services will be highlighted in webinars this year: the new Imagination Library initiative (February 14) and the Talking Books & Braille Library (February 28) and will be eventually linked on our Archived Webinars webpage.
Date Recorded: 6/26/2024
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Suzanne Walker, Paula Newcom & Beth Yates, Indiana State Library
When digitizing materials from your library, preservation is just as important as access. In this presentation from representatives of Indiana Digital Preservation, or InDiPres, you will learn what digital preservation entails, including the processes that InDiPres uses to prepare and include content into its preservation network, and how this practice is essential to any library’s digital initiatives plan.
Date Recorded: 2/22/2024
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Justin Clark, Digital Initiatives Director of the Indiana Historical Bureau, a division of the Indiana State Library and serves as Chair Emeritus of Indiana Digital Preservation (InDiPres)
When digitizing materials from your library, preservation is just as important as access. In this presentation from representatives of Indiana Digital Preservation, or InDiPres, you will learn what digital preservation entails, including the processes that InDiPres uses to prepare and include content into its preservation network, and how this practice is essential to any library’s digital initiatives plan.
Date Recorded: 1/25/2023
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Justin Clark, Digital Initiatives Director / Indiana Historical Bureau and Charla Gilbert, Director / Vincennes University and Janice Gustaferro, Metadata Librarian / Butler University
Description: Join the Indiana Center for the Book and the Rhode Island Center for the Book for “An Evening with Laird Hunt,” author of the 2021 National Book Award finalist, “Zorrie.” This title is being featured by both Indiana and Rhode Island at the 2022 National Book Festival. “Zorrie” tells the story of one Hoosier woman’s life convulsed and transformed by events of the 20th century, specifically the Great Depression. Set in Clinton County, Indiana, Zorrie is orphaned twice, first by her parents and then her aunt. She ekes out a living, eventually finding work in a radium processing plant in Illinois. However, when Indiana calls her home, she returns and works to build a new life, yet again. Laird Hunt’s novel is a poignant study in rural Midwestern life and an exploration of the passage of time through individuals and communities. Join us to learn more about the author and this fascinating novel.
Date Recorded: 8/2/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Speaker: Laird Hunt is the author of eight novels, including the 2021 National Book Award finalist “Zorrie.” He is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, the Bridge Prize and a finalist for both the Pen/Faulkner and the Prix Femina Étranger. His reviews and essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his fiction and translations have appeared in many literary journals in the United States and abroad. A former United Nations press officer who was largely raised in rural Indiana, he now lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he teaches in Brown University’s Literary Arts Program.
Join staff of the Indiana State Library to learn about how to use the historical collections, Talking Books, and the Young Readers Center. This program may benefit librarians looking for ways to assist their patrons or researchers wanting to know more about the Indiana State Library.
Date Recorded: 11/24/21
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Indiana State Library’s Public Services Librarians – Monique Howell, Jamie Dunn, Marcia Caudell, Victoria Duncan and Laura Williams