The gaming system Nintendo warned users, “Everything not saved will be lost.”
The prophetic message drew chuckles — and knowing nods — from guests attending the Wabash Valley Visions and Voices 10th Anniversary dinner.
10th anniverary – WV3 members
The 50 honorees recognized during the Monday night event at Indiana State’s Cunningham Memorial Library are part of a collaborative effort spanning six counties. WV3, as it is known, includes West Central Indiana’s libraries, museums, cultural organizations and community groups that work to preserve the region’s history in print, image and sound.
“We offer you thanks for hitting the save button,” said Gregory Youngen, interim library dean. Youngen’s thank you was among the evening’s numerous appreciative words.
In 10 years, WV3 accomplished more than they ever thought was possible, amassing more than 160,000 items from 21 partners and 44 collections, said Cinda May, special collections chair at the library and project director of WV3.
She offered a champagne toast to the “folks who made it all possible — past, present and future.” The group also welcomed its “first partner of the second decade,” the Merom Conference Center, which dates back to 1865, when it was the Union Christian College.
In 2004, the technology landscape was much different than it is now — Bluetooth capability was new, the now obsolete TiVo was all the rage and iPhones had not yet been invented. So, creating the state’s oldest ongoing collaborative digitization project took nearly a planetary alignment, May said.
Myrna McCallister, who was dean of the library in 2004, developed the idea of a collaborative project, and May created the concept of a digital memory project focused on local history and culture. WV3 has always been based at Indiana State, which provides server capacity, resources and staff.
After a decade, the university remains just as committed to WV3, because of the experiential learning and community engagement it provides.
“We want everyone to have professional experience,” said Dan Bradley, president of Indiana State. “Whether you’re a nurse or a teacher, an art major or a historian, you need to understand and, hopefully have some experience, related to that degree before you leave. Working on real-world projects, both inside and outside the university, is part of that effort, and Wabash Valley Visions and Voices definitely fits that category.”
Good citizenship is an expectation in a democracy, Bradley said, and the university strives to lead by example with its community engagement activities.
“ISU is engaged with our community, because we want to be part of the Wabash Valley, not just located in the Wabash Valley,” Bradley said.
The evening’s speaker, David Nichols, who is a professor of history at Indiana State, provided an entertaining account of Terre Haute’s colorful past and explained why the city was known as “Indiana’s Delinquent City.”
At the start of the function, the partners posed for a group photo, which will fittingly be digitized for posterity: city of Terre Haute, Clinton Public Library, Coal Town and Railroad Museum, Educational Heritage Association, Eugene V. Debs Museum, Indiana State University, Knox County Public Library, Little Italy Festival Town Inc., Lost Creek Grove Preservation and Restoration Foundation Inc., Native American Museum, Princeton Public Library, Rockville Public Library, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library, Rural Community Academy, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Sullivan County Historical Society, Sullivan County Public Library, town of Seelyville, Vigo County Historical Society, Vigo County Public Library and Wabash Valley Genealogy Society.
To access the free digital collection of artifacts, administrative and personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, texts, yearbooks, maps, oral histories and other audio/video files, go to http://visions.indstate.edu.
Photos: Partners of the Wabash Valley Visions and Voices pose for a photograph at the 10th Anniversary dinner at Indiana State’s Cunningham Memorial Library Monday night.
Cinda May, special collections chair at Indiana State’s Cunningham Memorial Library and project director of Wabash Valley Visions and Voices, greets a guest (Cheri Howe, VCPL)
Guests raise their glasses in a toast to the accomplishments of Wabash Valley Visions and Voices Digital Memory Project.
Contact: Cinda May, special collections chair at Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library and project director of Wabash Valley Visions and Voices, 812-237-2534 or Cinda.May@indstate.edu
Writer: Libby Roerig, media relations assistant director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3790 or libby.roerig@indstate.edu
Reprinted
Indiana State University Library 
New Library Homepage (Beta)
Posted by isulib on June 10, 2014
A link to the beta library homepage is displayed on the current library homepage (since May 19). We are still working out some bugs but the structure is static. Currently the footer is made up of links to pages that receive high hit counts, but that may change over time. Our next step is to work on mobile development of the library homepage.
Once the mobile homepage is functional we will begin work on the second level pages.
Our pages will eventually reflect the university’s new identity standards and guidelines. Throughout the next year we will use the Drupal theme the university will supply to populate a Drupal site that we will migrate to next summer.
Questions or comments? Email Systems Department Chair, Stephen Patton.
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