Over the past 168 years, a lot has changed within the Indianapolis Public Schools system. From the progression of womens’ rights and civil rights to the detailed requirements of a school teacher, you can now get a glimpse of the evolution with just the click of a mouse.
Does it seem too good to be true? Well, it isn’t.
The Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) in partnership with IPS and Easterseals Crossroads created the IPS collection, the culmination of a three-year effort to digitize 430,000 pages of history from 120 schools.
That’s right. A century’s worth of IPS history right at your fingertips. For free.
No longer do locals or researchers have to go from building to building to locate records.
“Prior to this, people would have to go to one of the five locations to search for what they wanted,” IPS Media Relations Coordinator Carrie Cline Black, said. “As you can imagine, it would have been a time-consuming process. Now, for anyone that is searching for IPS history with just a few key strokes, it’s easy.”
Since its founding in 1853, IPS has played an integral role in preparing thousands of youth every year for academic excellence.
These records include yearbooks, board meeting minutes, school history, registers of children, teacher contracts, photos and much more.
“For researchers who have been interested in IPS, this will provide a much more accessible way to obtain more information and research it,” Mary Jo Gremling, document services manager for Easterseals Crossroads, said. “It’s a treasure chest. This stuff would have been lost. No one knew how valuable it was until everyone started to look at it.”
IndyPL media specialists and facilities staff were the keepers of these records. While documenting the records, they realized it would be more convenient for the historical items to be in a centralized location, IndyPL Digital Projects Manager Meaghan Fukunaga said.
After compiling all records and receiving a $1.8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, IndyPL partnered with Crossroads Document Services to digitally record the documents.
This project not only preserved IPS history, but also helped locals with disabilities by providing jobs through Crossroads Document Services.
Black expects this to be an ongoing project as there could be unknown historical records floating around. She said people can submit those records to continue to make this information available to people worldwide.
The IPS collection is just one of four major digitization projects sponsored by the Lilly Endowment. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Indianapolis Fire Department and Indy Parks and Recreation will have similar projects completed and displayed on IndyPL’ s website by 2020.
Contact staff writer Loren Dent at 317-762-785.
IPS Archive
