Navigating Knowledge: A Guide to Indiana University Library Resources and Services

Indiana University (IU) Libraries serve as vital hubs for academic exploration, student success, and community engagement. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or just beginning your academic journey, IU Libraries offer a wealth of resources and support to facilitate your research endeavors.

Mission and Access

The IU East Campus Library's mission is to provide resources and services supporting academic excellence, student success, personal development, creative endeavors, and community engagement for all participants in the teaching and learning community. The Indiana University East Campus Library recognizes the value of all individuals and strives to engage and include the full diversity of the IU East community without regard for any personal characteristic, belief, experience, or learning style.

Accessing Resources

Online Resources

IU Libraries provide access to a vast collection of online resources, including:

Databases: Search databases of academic journals, newspapers, and other sources available through IU Libraries subscriptions.
E-journals: Access full electronic versions of academic journals available in the IU Libraries catalog.
Streaming Videos: The University Library provides access to streaming videos that are licensed for classroom use.
IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks: Archive your scholarship in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks and make it easier for people to access your work, increasingly the likelihood it will get cited and used by others.

Physical Resources

Books, Journals, and Multimedia: Find books, journals, and multimedia materials available in the IU Libraries catalog.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Request books and other materials available at other IU campuses and university libraries in the Big Ten, and beyond.
- You may check to see if the item has arrived by calling 765-973-8204 or by asking at the Circulation Desk. After that time, the item will be returned to the lending library.
Find-It: If you would like to request an article found in one of our databases, the best way to request it is to use Find-It. Use Find-It to make sure the article you want is not available in another database before requesting it through ILLiad 2.0.

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are freely accessible teaching and learning materials that can be used, adapted, and shared.

Services and Support

IU Libraries offer a range of services to support students, faculty, and researchers:

Read also: Navigating Accreditation

Research Assistance

Subject-Specific Research Guides: Subject-specific research guides and course guides are compiled to help you begin your research journey.
Personalized Support: Assistance is provided to researchers of all experience levels as they explore our collections and databases.
Information Literacy Instruction: Librarians can come into your classroom to teach information literacy, the usage of library resources, or any other library related concepts.
Consultations: Talk to the librarian for your subject for research help or schedule classes.

Digital Scholarship Support

Center for Digital Scholarship: The Center for Digital Scholarship assists in publishing open access scholarly journals.
Open Access Publishing: Support faculty in the responsible use of research metrics and evidence. Thinking of publishing in an open access journal?
ORCID iD: ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) provides a persistent digital identifier to set you apart from other researchers.
Wikidata: Let us help increase your representation as an author and your work in Wikidata. Wikidata allows you to use Scholia, a service that can create a visual scholarly profiles for you and shows the impact of your work.
Data Management: The IU Indianapolis DataWorks is a repository for preserving and sharing IU Indy digital research data. It is a place to make research data available for other researchers to find and use. Many research funders have requirements for data sharing and data management plans. We can help you store your data where others can access and reuse it. The IU Indianapolis data repository is available at no cost to help you share data with collaborators or the public.
Digital Preservation: Digital preservation services currently provided by the Indiana University-Bloomington Libraries include file and media migration, file format recommendations, and overall project guidance. If you have any general questions regarding digital preservation or you would like guidance in managing a personal, institutional, or consortial collection, please contact the Digital Collections Services department. Assistance is also provided for archival-quality scanning and digitization of print materials, and with management/migration of born-digital objects.

Spaces and Technology

Collaborative Study Rooms: Reserve collaborative study rooms and other spaces available in IU Libraries.
Tools and Technologies: Explore, learn, and create using a wide variety of tools and technologies.

Collections

IU Libraries boast diverse collections, including:

Cushman Photograph Collection: The photographs in this collection bridge a thirty-two year span from 1938 to 1969, during which time Cushman extensively documented the United States as well as other countries.
Digital Library of the Commons: A gateway to the international literature on the commons.
Frank M. Hohenberger Collection: The collection, dating from 1917-1960 and housed in the Lilly Library, consists primarily of photographs by Frank Michael Hohenberger, 1876-1963, Brown County photographer and newspaperman.

Access Policies

Access to most of IU Bloomington Libraries' electronic resources are governed by license agreements which restrict use to defined roles within the Indiana University Bloomington community (students, faculty, and staff) and to walk-in patrons of the libraries. Individual authentication for access is required as part of these license agreements. However, some of the IU Libraries’ resources are available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Services for visitors depend on a variety of factors.

IU Alumni Association Members

When you join the IU Alumni Association (IUAA) at the Life level, you gain access to JSTOR and Project MUSE.

Special Events and Initiatives

Revolution & Reflection: Campus Experiences in Art, History, & Ideas

Revolution & Reflection: Campus Experiences in Art, History, and Ideas is an arts plaza invitation to everyone to imagine the people and ideas of the United States of America at its founding and as it expanded west. Look for your guide, President George Washington, as you drop in to visit three revolutionary destinations: the Lilly Library, the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, and the IU Auditorium.

Anniversary Celebrations

In 2026 we are helping our campus celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with our remarkable collections at the Lilly Library.

Read also: IU Bloomington Fall Semester

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