From databases to digitized special collections and archives, Milner Library has many new digital offerings for Illinois State University affiliates to explore during the 2022-2023 school year. Here are just a few:
Cambridge University Press Read and Publish agreement
Illinois State faculty, staff, and students now have full-text access to all 400 titles available through Cambridge Core thanks to an innovative open access access contract with Cambridge University Press. Known as a Read and Publish agreement, this contract allows all research by Illinois State corresponding authors to be published in Cambridge’s open access and hybrid journals without the need to pay an article processing charge (APC). Normally, the average APC for journals from this publisher would be approximately $3,000 per article. Read more.
1980s Vidette
Beer riots, budget woes, and ‘Birds basketball, oh my! An additional 27,206 pages across 1,664 issues of Illinois State’s student newspaper the Daily Vidette published between 1981 and 1990 have been added to the Vidette Digital Archives platform. Previous digitization initiatives covered the period between the paper’s founding in 1888 and 1980. This most recent decade’s addition to the digital collection was facilitated by a Hatch crowdsourcing initiative undertaken in 2021. Many thanks to the generous backers who helped us make this piece of Illinois State history available online.
SAGE Knowledge e-books
Milner Library recently expanded access to 5,000 works of social science research, textbooks, and professional development resources by entering into a one-year agreement with SAGE Knowledge. We will retain access to those e-books that are best used, so please consult your favorites often.
Newspaper and magazine backfiles
Digitized back issues are now available for several high-demand newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times (1851-2018), Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), Chicago Tribune (1887-2005), and Chicago Defender (1909-2010), as well as Vogue (1892-present), Rolling Stone (1967-present), and Proquest’s Women’s Magazine Archive containing titles such as Good Housekeeping (1885-2005), Town and Country, (1846–2005), Cosmopolitan (1886-2005), Seventeen (1944-2005), and Essence (1970-2005). These additions to the library’s research databases have significantly expanded access to historical primary source materials and made it easier to navigate key titles.
LGBTQ Rights
This collection from HeinOnline charts the evolution of the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries as well as the inequalities that still exist today. It includes scholarly articles, legal briefs, and an interactive timeline plotting out an overview of LGBTQ legislation in America from 1950 to the present day.
Musselman family photographs
Robert and Frances Musselman, and later their daughter Maxine, performed under the professional name of Fisher during the kaleidoscopic “golden age” of trapeze throughout the first half of the 20th century. Their troupe was one of many that sprang from and/or associated themselves with Bloomington, Illinois—“The Trapeze Capital of the World.” This collection is comprised primarily of the cherished photographs of a family who traveled the world together as a working flying return trapeze troupe. Apart from stunning images of the Fearless Flyers defying gravity in front of enthralled crowds, many of the photos also document sights they saw and people, often fellow performers, they met in their travels.
Women: Transnational Networks
Issues of gender and class ignited 19th century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health, and many other concerns. Using a wide array of primary source documents—serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals—this collection from Gale Primary Sources focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of women’s suffrage in the early 20th century, all through a transnational perspective.
ISU Alumni & Marketing publications
First published in February 1912, The Alumni Quarterly of Illinois State Normal University was one of seven periodicals produced over the past 110 years that have sought to connect alumni, encourage engagement with the Illinois State community, and keep the public informed about university happenings. All 11,592 pages across 494 issues have now been fully digitized and are available for download from ISU ReD. Read more.
Milner Library welcomes requests for the resources you need to thrive as a scholar. Please let us know your book, journal, database, or other media needs by filling out a purchase requests form or sending an email to Chad Buckley, head of Collection Development at cebuckle@ilstu.edu. To discuss the digitization of materials held by Milner’s Special Collections and Archives—or other unique and historical collections on campus—please reach out to Digitization Center coordinator Karmine Beecroft by emailing kbeecro@ilstu.edu.
