My Library Is... Storied

With celebrations for the 175th anniversary of our university slated for 2025, librarians at Illinois Wesleyan University envisioned a digital humanities project that would share the story of libraries on campus from the institution's founding in 1850 forward. That vision resulted in our application for a My Library Is… Grant from RAILS to support the work of two student scholars in the summer Digital Humanities Fellowship Program at IWU. The DH team was able to realize that original vision in the form of both digital and physical exhibits illustrating how the concept of library space has shifted and evolved over time in response to students’ needs.  

To pinpoint the exhibit’s narrative, students first delved into the archival material documenting IWU’s library history at the Tate Archives & Special Collections in The Ames Library. The Ames Library is the third building on campus designed as a library. The first building, Buck Memorial Library, opened in 1922, still stands as a repurposed academic building, while the second, Sheean Library, was razed in 2011, nine years after Ames opened. The DH fellows explored planning documents for each of the three buildings. They looked at library annual reports, administrator correspondence, library committee minutes, floor plans, blueprints, photographs, and more, to understand and give meaning to the storied history of libraries on campus. Through hands-on work with these documents, they began to connect pieces of that history to a larger narrative about how library use can influence library space. That narrative became the driving force for the development of their digital exhibit.  

Using research strategies, analysis techniques, and critical thinking skills honed during the DH Fellowship Program, the students conceptualized an exhibit powered by Scalar and complete with a StoryMap to guide users through the library’s multiple campus relocations. They selected photographs, documents, floor plans, and oral history interviews to illustrate the narrative, allowing the archival material to serve as both evidence and visual support.  

The three students in the library team — two of whom were supported by the MLI grant program — presented their work at the Digital Humanities Fellowship Symposium on July 19, 2024. They later curated a physical exhibit on the first floor of The Ames Library that was installed prior to the fall semester. The physical exhibit will be recreated as a section of the larger Homecoming Museum to share with the campus community during the upcoming 175th Anniversary activities in October 2025. We will also use the exhibit materials when The Ames Library celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2027. The digital exhibit has been promoted in multiple ways, including: 

• A university-wide social media post,
• Exhibit flyers with a QR code to the digital exhibit,
• A link on The Ames Library website, and 
• Featured on a touchscreen on the entry level of the library for visitors to explore.  

The My Library Is... Storied project demonstrates how libraries can effectively investigate and recognize their own history when considering larger institutional anniversaries. The project allowed the librarians at IWU to create a meaningful, high-impact learning opportunity for students interested in digital humanities that would support the celebration of university history as we approached a milestone anniversary in 2025. 

This week’s blog post was written by Liz Bloodworth, University Archivist & Special Collections Librarian, Illinois Wesleyan University. 

This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.