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January 27th, 2025
In honor of Black History Month, Purdue Libraries and the Black Cultural Center invites you to attend a lecture by Sheryll Cashin titled, “Residential caste: How West Lafayette can transcend segregation and opportunity hoarding” on Wednesday, February 19, 10:30–11:30 AM in STEW 202.
About the lecture
How does a community with a history of segregation and disenfranchisement move forward to heal, repair, and transform?
West Lafayette is not different from other cities where Black migrants landed. As a professor of law at Georgetown University, Cashin has experience applying her theories to the particulars of multiple communities, with examples of hope, transformation, and repair from other cities. Repair requires building a multiracial coalition that supports policies that include and lift up vulnerable people. Dismantling and repairing residential caste requires perfecting local mulitracial democracy, or what W. E. B. DuBois called abolition democracy.
About Sheryll Cashin
Author of works centered around race relations and inequality in America, Sheryll Cashin is a professor of law at Georgetown University. Her latest book “White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality” published in September 2021 shows how the government created “ghettos” and affluent white space and entrenched a system of American residential caste that is the linchpin of U.S. inequality, while issuing a call for abolition.
Cashin is an active member of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council; worked in the Clinton White House as an advisor on urban and economic policy, particularly concerning community development in inner-city neighborhoods; and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, where her parents were political activists, and currently resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.
View her website to learn more about Cashin and her work.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 27th, 2024
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—Purdue University Archives and Special Collections (ASC) is pleased to announce the digitization of paper transcripts used by Neil Armstrong for his public addresses and select speeches. The nearly 500 transcripts—totaling 7,700 pages—were generously donated by his wife, Carol Armstrong, in 2011. The speeches are available for public viewing, text-searchable, and accessible on Purdue’s online archives platform, e-Archives.
The speeches are annotated by Armstrong with comments, quips, and jokes, or with arrows in the margins suggesting changes to word or phrase order. Jo Otremba, Barron Hilton Archivist for Flight and Space Exploration and clinical assistant professor at Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, said Armstrong frequently added information that provides readers with additional context of the speech.
“He often added notes on the speeches sharing the date and location the speech was given, which is an interesting feature for the readers to consider,” Otremba said.
Some of the most notable speeches were given at Purdue University events such as the dedication of Grissom and Chaffee Halls and Armstrong’s acceptance of an honorary doctorate degree in 1970. The halls are named after two Purdue astronauts who both lost their lives in a NASA pre-launch fire at Cape Kennedy in 1967—the late Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and the second American to fly in space, and Roger B. Chaffee, a Navy pilot and NASA astronaut.
The Neil Armstrong papers continue to be one of the most accessed collections for research requests and instructional usage through ASC. Increasing ease of access to the archival collection through digitization has been a goal since the acquisition of the speeches in 2011. Work to digitize the speeches, funded by the Purdue Research Foundation and Carol Armstrong, began in 2022. The digitization process itself is lengthy and requires that each speech be described, vetted for third-party copyright, and uploaded to e-Archives.
“This project highlights the continuous effort required to make these resources accessible, and it’s wonderful to celebrate the speeches’ public availability through our e-Archives,” said Otremba.
Building this digital collection would not have been achieved without the detailed and steady collaboration between ASC’s Otremba; graduate assistant Camryn Beeman; Neal Harmeyer, Archivist for Digital Collections and Initiatives, Interim Head of Archives and Special Collections, and clinical associate professor; Sammie Morris, former Head of Archives and Special Collections and former director of the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center; and members of Purdue Libraries’ Digital Programs team—Cliff Harrison, operations manager; M Lewis, digital collections photography assistant; and Samuel Wilson, digitization project assistant.
Purdue University Archives and Special Collections
Purdue University Archives and Special Collections, housed within Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, aims to support the discovery, learning, and engagement goals of Purdue University by identifying, collecting, preserving, and making available research records and papers of enduring value created or received by the university and its employees.
To learn more, visit lib.purdue.edu/spcol.
Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, general, News and AnnouncementsOctober 1st, 2026
What does it mean to build a meaningful career in a world of rapid technological change and uncertainty?
That question was at the center of a recent event featuring Arun Gupta, CEO of the NobleReach Foundation and co-author of “The Mission Generation: Reclaim Your Purpose, Rewrite Success, Rebuild Our Future.” Gupta joined Purdue students on September 24 for a reading, conversation, and book signing in the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library.
Gupta challenged students to rethink the traditional idea of a linear career. With artificial intelligence, longer working lives, and rapid changes across industries, he encouraged students to focus less on titles and institutions and more on the problems they care about solving.
“You can’t just wait for clarity and then go act on it. You’ve got to put yourself out there and be acting and getting feedback.”
His emphasis on experimentation, curiosity, and continuous learning has strong ties to the values of Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies. In a world where information and technology are changing rapidly, information literacy is not simply a skill students develop for a particular course or assignment. It is a foundation for lifelong learning—helping people ask meaningful questions, evaluate information, adapt to new circumstances, and make informed decisions throughout their careers.
As Gupta put it, “You’re learning for the rest of your life.”
From Purdue to public service
Purdue alumnus Tarun Prakash joined Gupta for the conversation and provided a firsthand example of these ideas in practice. After graduating from Purdue with a degree in mechanical engineering, Prakash became part of NobleReach’s inaugural cohort and spent a year working with the U.S. Space Force in El Segundo, CA.
He described the experience as a “force multiplier” for his career. Working in government gave him an understanding of public-sector priorities and relationships that later became valuable when he moved into the private sector.
Prakash’s experience illustrated Gupta’s argument that an unconventional career experience can become an important source of learning, relationships, and perspective rather than a detour from a traditional career path.
Connecting NobleReach and Purdue
Prakash’s experience also reflects the growing connections among NobleReach, Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, and the Purdue University College of Engineering.
The College of Engineering’s Innovation for Public Service Certificate, developed in collaboration with NobleReach, gives students opportunities to explore how technology, innovation, and public service intersect. Libraries courses ILS 230, ILS 300, and ILS 301 are selective courses in the certificate program.
These connections reflect a shared interest in preparing students to navigate complex problems that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries. For Libraries and School of Information Studies, that work includes helping students develop the information-literacy skills and habits of lifelong learning needed to remain adaptable in a rapidly changing world.
The Mission Generation ultimately asks students to think differently about both careers and learning. Rather than waiting for certainty, Gupta encourages people to experiment, learn from experience, build trusted relationships, and continually reassess where they can contribute.
That message aligns closely with the role of Purdue Libraries: supporting students not only in finding information today, but in developing the curiosity, critical thinking, and lifelong learning practices they will need for whatever comes next.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 30th, 2026
At Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, with a joint appointment in the School of Applied and Creative Computing within the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Dongfang Liu is helping build a new model for applied AI, bringing together advanced AI expertise, library and information science, research data, and disciplinary knowledge from across the university. Working with researchers, librarians, archivists, and information professionals across colleges and disciplines, he will explore how AI can support research, discovery, and learning while advancing responsible and effective uses of emerging technologies.
Dongfang joins Purdue sharing the vision for Libraries as a hub for AI learning, research, and innovation. His work will create new opportunities to connect Purdue Libraries’ strengths in information studies, research data management, archives and special collections, and research discovery with advances in artificial intelligence.
“AI is hungry for data, and libraries are where the knowledge of humanity lives,” Dongfang said. “For centuries, libraries have collected, curated, and safeguarded the record of what we know. Today, that record has become the most valuable resource of the AI era.”
Purdue Libraries has long played a central role in supporting research and scholarship through expertise in data stewardship, information discovery, archival collections, and knowledge organization. Dongfang’s work builds on these established strengths by exploring how artificial intelligence can enhance research data management, improve access to archival and cultural heritage materials, and support evidence synthesis and scholarly discovery. Through collaborations with faculty and staff across the Libraries and campus, he hopes to identify responsible and impactful applications of AI that advance research across disciplines.
Choosing Purdue
Dongfang’s interest in Purdue grew from the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI, information studies, research data, and interdisciplinary research at a major research university.
“I was fortunate to hold offers from several R1 universities across the United States and from globally ranked universities in Asia,” Dongfang said. “I chose Purdue because it offered what no one else could, the chance to lead an AI initiative from the very heart of a great university.”
At Purdue Libraries, Dongfang plans to work with the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) team, a group of data management and data curation experts led by Dr. Reid Boehm who support researchers in sharing, publishing, and preserving research data. Dongfang will collaborate with the team to advance the management of research data and AI models while exploring new applications of AI with researchers across disciplines.
His research interests encompass three key areas where Purdue Libraries has established strengths and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.
First, he sees opportunities to apply AI to research data management, helping researchers organize, curate, preserve, and responsibly use data throughout the research lifecycle.
Second, he is interested in exploring how AI can improve access to and engagement with archival and special collections materials, creating new ways to discover and analyze unique historical and cultural resources.
Third, he sees significant potential for AI to support evidence synthesis and research discovery, including systematic reviews and large-scale analyses of scholarly literature that help researchers navigate increasingly complex bodies of information.
The interdisciplinary nature of Purdue was a major attraction.
Purdue’s culture of collaboration and its breadth of disciplinary expertise create opportunities to explore how AI can be applied in different research contexts. Engineers, agricultural scientists, life scientists, humanists, and researchers in other disciplines generate unique data and confront different research challenges. Dongfang sees Purdue Libraries as a place where researchers can connect with the expertise, collections, data resources, and technological tools needed to explore new applications of AI.
From AI research to real-world problems
Dongfang’s approach is grounded in experience applying AI beyond the laboratory. His work with the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in Rochester, New York, a U.S. Department of Energy-supported national laser facility and major center for fusion energy research, has involved using AI to address challenges related to the development of clean energy.
“We apply AI to real challenges on the path toward clean and abundant energy, and the tools we built are in use there today,” Dongfang said.
Seeing research move into real-world applications changed how he thinks about impact.
“Watching research leave my lab and go to work on one of the hardest problems of our time changed how I measure success,” he said. “I no longer count only papers. I count problems solved.”
That perspective will inform his work at Purdue, where he hopes to help researchers in different disciplines move AI from an emerging technology into a practical research tool.
Shaping the future of AI learning and research
As AI becomes increasingly important to research and education, Dongfang sees Purdue Libraries playing a central role in helping the university prepare for what comes next.
“We will make Purdue’s data AI-ready, connect it with the models and the people who can learn from it, and let researchers in any field move faster and see further than they ever could alone,” he said.
For students, that vision creates opportunities to learn not only how to use AI, but how AI can be applied within their own disciplines. For researchers, it means making high-quality data more accessible and useful for new forms of analysis and collaboration. It also opens possibilities for new approaches to discovery within archival collections and for more efficient evidence synthesis across large bodies of scholarly literature.
By combining AI expertise with the Libraries’ established strengths in data stewardship, archives and special collections, and research support, Dongfang hopes to create new opportunities for collaboration across disciplines and advance Purdue’s leadership in both information science and artificial intelligence.
“When that happens, Purdue Libraries will stand as a national model for what a library can be in the age of AI,” Dongfang said.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 29th, 2026
On Thursday, September 24, Purdue University Archives and Special Collections welcomed members of the Purdue community to a reception celebrating the current exhibition, “The History of Home Economics at Purdue: How It Shaped Our Campus and Our Lives.” Marking 100 years since Purdue established the School of Home Economics, the evening offered guests an opportunity to explore the exhibition, connect with Purdue’s history, and hear firsthand reflections from professionals whose education and careers were shaped by home economics.
The evening began with exhibition viewing and a book sale and signing featuring authors Angie Klink, John Norberg, and Frederick Whitford. Presented with books from the Purdue University Press, the sale featured titles exploring Purdue and Indiana history, including works connected to the people and stories highlighted in the exhibition. Guests had the opportunity to meet the authors and have books signed.
Following remarks from Neal Harmeyer, assistant dean and head of Purdue University Archives and Special Collections, and Katey Watson, exhibition curator, France A. Córdova Archivist, and clinical assistant professor, guests heard from a panel of home economics professionals.
Celebrating a lasting legacy
Moderated by Klink, the panel featured home economics professionals Joyce Miles, Olivia Bennett Wood, and Mary Alice Nebold. The panelists shared memories of their time at Purdue, reflected on their experiences in home economics, and discussed how their education and careers shaped their lives.
For Wood, her path to Purdue began with an unexpected opportunity. She recalled that the position she ultimately accepted had mistakenly been advertised as requiring a Ph.D.—one she did not have and, as a result, would not have applied for. Purdue was looking for someone with recent clinical experience as it developed a new didactic dietetics program, and Wood’s background made her a strong fit.
“I was the one with the most clinical experience, and I also had a passion for dietetics.”
Hired as an instructor, Wood went on to help develop and secure accreditation for Purdue’s coordinated dietetics program. Her career at Purdue spanned 35 years and included teaching, research, leadership in dietetics, and retirement as a professor.
Miles reflected on how her connection to Purdue began long before her career. “My 4-H agent said, ‘You will come to Purdue,’” she recalled. That early connection grew into a lifelong relationship with the university, including leadership roles and continued involvement with Purdue and the field of family and consumer sciences.
Nebold likewise traced her career from teaching to Purdue faculty and administrative leadership. Reflecting on her decades in the field, she said, “Except for two years, my entire career was spent with home economics.”
Together, their stories illustrated the breadth of home economics and the lasting ways the discipline shaped their professional lives—and, in turn, the lives of the students and communities they served.
From the classroom to communities
The exhibition explores home economics’ lasting impact through photographs, documents, artifacts, and archival materials highlighting the people, programs, and innovations that shaped Purdue and communities beyond.
The panelists also discussed why the field remains relevant today, pointing to connections between home economics and issues such as health, nutrition, financial management, relationships, education, and family well-being.
As Miles reflected, “Our discipline touches education, research, and outreach. I can’t think of a discipline today more relevant.”
Wood highlighted the expanding role of registered dietitians, including opportunities in sports nutrition, while the panel reflected on the continued importance of applying research and education to the everyday lives of individuals, families, and communities.
A legacy that continues
Although Purdue’s School of Home Economics is no longer a standalone academic unit, its influence remains visible across the university. Programs that developed within the school continue through the College of Health and Human Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts, while organizations and initiatives with roots in home economics continue to serve students and communities.
“The History of Home Economics at Purdue: How It Shaped Our Campus and Our Lives” remains on view through December 11, 2026, Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM, at the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center on the fourth floor of the HSSE Library in Stewart Center.
Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 24th, 2026
Parrish Library’s Get Started series will give you a brief introduction to the basic features of one of Purdue Libraries’ subscription resources. In this edition, we’re featuring Data Axle Reference Solutions.
Data Axle Reference Solutions provides basic directory for millions of current and historical U.S. businesses, and individual U.S. consumers. This database can be used to build lists like “all coffee shops in Indianapolis” or “all semiconductor machinery manufacturers in California and Indiana.”
To access Data Axle Reference Solutions, visit the Libraries’ A-Z List of Databases.
For a brief demo of this database, check out the Data Axle Reference Solutions Get Started video.
If you have a specific database you would like to see promoted in an upcoming edition of Get Started, send an email to parrlib@purdue.edu.
Filed under: database, general, MGMTSeptember 22nd, 2026
What can a 1791 printing of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense tell us about the founding of the United States? And what happens when it is considered alongside a contemporary publication arguing against Paine’s ideas? Students, faculty, and visitors will have an opportunity to explore those questions firsthand through Purdue University Archives and Special Collections (ASC) during the upcoming Cornerstone for Business conference.
On Tuesday, September 29, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, ASC will open its reading room on the fourth floor of the HSSE Library in Stewart Center to visitors for a special display of historical materials selected for the conference. The display will showcase rare books, pamphlets, and other primary sources that offer a window into the political, intellectual, and cultural debates surrounding the founding of the United States.
Among the materials featured will be ASC’s 1791 printing of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, one of the most influential political pamphlets associated with the American Revolution. Published originally in 1776, Common Sense made a widely circulated argument for American independence.
Visitors will also be able to see ASC’s 1776 printing of James Chalmers’ Plain Truth, a direct response to Paine’s arguments. The two publications provide an especially compelling opportunity to encounter competing perspectives from the revolutionary era through the original historical record.
The display will also include first or early editions of groundbreaking works by Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, and Benjamin Franklin.
Explore history through Purdue’s collections
The display highlights one of the central strengths of Purdue University Archives and Special Collections: providing access to original materials that allow students and researchers to engage directly with the past. Rather than encountering the founding era only through textbooks or secondary accounts, visitors can examine the publications that participated in these historical debates.
The display offers a unique opportunity to experience history through original sources while discovering the breadth of resources available through Purdue University Archives and Special Collections. Students, faculty, and visitors are invited to explore these materials on September 29 and discover how ASC can support learning, teaching, and research. When not part of this special display, these materials and over 32,000 other rare books are available to anyone by appointment in the Archives and Special Collections reading room.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 16th, 2026
Purdue Libraries provides access to thousands of eBooks for teaching, learning, and research. Most eBooks can be read online in your browser, and many also offer the option to download individual chapters as PDFs.
If you need to download an entire eBook for offline reading, however, you may need to use a dedicated eReader app. Because of licensing and digital rights management (DRM) requirements, eBooks from some of our major vendors use specific applications for full-book downloads.
Purdue Libraries supports two apps for downloading entire eBooks: ProQuest Ebook Central and Thorium Reader, which is used with EBSCO eBooks.
ProQuest Ebook Central
ProQuest Ebook Central provides access to eBooks available through the ProQuest platform. The Ebook Central Reader app allows you to download eligible eBooks and read them offline. If you regularly work with eBooks for research or teaching, our Ebook Central Reader App guide provides step-by-step instructions for setting up and using the app.
Using a Purdue-owned device? If you don’t have administrator privileges, submit a ticket to Purdue IT to request the Ebook Central app. Ask them to add your device to the EbookCentralReaderApp-2.05.04 software package, which is the current version.
Thorium Reader for EBSCO eBooks
EBSCO eBooks are available through a variety of library databases. Eligible titles can be downloaded as entire books and read offline using Thorium Reader, an open-source eReader application. Our EBSCO eBooks and Thorium Reader guide provides instructions for downloading and reading EBSCO eBooks with Thorium Reader.
What about chapter downloads?
If you only need a chapter or a small portion of an eBook, you can continue to download individual chapters as PDFs when that option is available (download options and limits are set by the publisher and cannot be changed by Purdue Libraries). You do not need one of these apps for chapter-level PDF downloads. The apps are primarily useful when you need to download and read an entire eBook offline.
Need help?
September 10th, 2026
Parrish Library’s Get Started series will give you a brief introduction to the basic features of one of Purdue Libraries’ subscription resources. In this edition, we’re featuring Morningstar Investing Center.
Morningstar Investing Center includes information on stocks and mutual funds, allows for screening using a variety of criteria, and includes Morningstar Analyst Reports. Please note that this database has a five concurrent user limit, so it is important to log out when you’re finished.
To access Morningstar Investing Center, visit the Libraries’ A-Z List of Databases.
For a brief demo of this database, check out the Morningstar Investing Center Get Started video.
If you have a specific database you would like to see promoted in an upcoming edition of, Get Started, send an email to parrlib@purdue.edu.
Filed under: database, MGMTSeptember 1st, 2026
Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies faculty have received three grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), totaling more than $818,000 to support Purdue-led innovation at the intersection of artificial intelligence, research data infrastructure, digital humanities, and AI literacy.
Led by Gang Shao, Spencer Stewart, Samantha LeGrand, and Zoeanna Mayhook, the IMLS-funded projects underscore the expanding role of libraries in advancing research and learning in an AI-driven environment. Together, the three awards support efforts to strengthen research infrastructure, develop innovative approaches to digital scholarship, and equip students and researchers with the skills needed to navigate an evolving AI landscape.
The awards were recently recognized by U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, who highlighted Purdue Libraries’ ability to leverage this funding to expand research capabilities and enhance services for the university community:
“The Purdue library system has proven itself well-equipped to put these resources to good use, expanding research capabilities and strengthening the services available to its students, faculty, and university community,” said Congressman Baird. “As a Boilermaker myself, I am proud to see Purdue receive this funding to boost its important work.”
Associate Professor Gang Shao: Building an AI infrastructure for metadata
Associate Professor Gang Shao, along with the Purdue Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, is leading a three-year implementation project to develop the Agentic AI Infrastructure for Metadata Intelligence, or AIMI, through the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. AIMI will establish a modular, human-centered architecture in which multiple AI agents work together to analyze and improve metadata records. The agents will identify gaps in existing metadata, retrieve authoritative vocabularies and ontologies, generate standards-aligned enhancements, validate outputs against established schemas, and document provenance, confidence measures, and decision-making processes.
The project will be prototyped across four data ecosystems: the Purdue University Research Repository, Illinois Data Bank, Amazon Web Services Open Data, and NASA Open Data. The goal is to transform how libraries move from records to actionable knowledge and to create an infrastructure that prepares metadata and digital collections for emerging AI-driven discovery, research, and service environments. By making digital collections more understandable to both people and AI systems, AIMI will explore how libraries can prepare their collections to be AI-ready and agent-ready while maintaining human-centered oversight, standards compliance and transparent documentation of how metadata is enhanced.
Assistant Professor Spencer Stewart: Advancing AI research in historical archives
In this Early Career Research project, Dr. Spencer Stewart is exploring how artificial intelligence can help restore lost structure and context to digitized historical records. Although millions of archival materials are now available in digital form, the process of digitization can strip away important relationships and connections—for example, identifying who is speaking in a transcript or who is the recipient of a letter.
Spencer’s project will use generative AI to develop a structural recovery framework that can automatically identify and reconstruct these relationships while maintaining archival accuracy, transparency, and accountability. Working with Purdue University Archives and Special Collections and external disciplinary consultants from major U.S. institutions, the project will develop a generalizable and reproducible AI workflow and test it through three case studies.
The project will also produce online learning modules to make the resulting tools and methods more accessible to researchers, archivists, and other cultural heritage organizations. By restoring context that can be lost during digitization, the research aims to make historical collections more useful for discovery and analysis while preserving the integrity and transparency essential to historical and archival work.
Clinical Assistant Professor Samantha LeGrand and Assistant Professor Zoeanna Mayhook: Preparing librarians to lead AI literacy initiatives
Clinical Assistant Professor Samantha LeGrand, with Co-PI Assistant Professor Zoeanna Mayhook, is leading a national initiative in collaboration with Ohio State University Libraries to prepare academic librarians to lead conversations about artificial intelligence and AI literacy on college campuses.
The project builds on Purdue’s validated Partners for AI Literacy (PAL) program, which brings students and instructors together to collaboratively shape how AI is used in teaching and learning. Over two years, a cohort of 15 academic librarians will participate in professional development designed to help them adapt the PAL framework to the needs of their own institutions.
The project aims to give librarians the training, confidence, and institutional framework to facilitate meaningful campus conversations about AI while giving students and faculty a greater role in shaping responsible AI use. Its broader goal is to create a scalable model for AI literacy leadership that can be adopted by academic libraries nationwide. The project’s resources and lessons learned will be shared through a PAL Implementation Toolkit, extending the initiative’s impact beyond the participating institutions.
Extending AI expertise to museum collections
Separately, Gang is also the AI consultant for Building a Smarter Museum: AI-Integrated Curation Excellence and Workforce Development, a project supporting the Haan Museum of Indiana Art. The initiative will pair Purdue University, Indiana University, and Ivy Tech Community College in evaluating and deploying AI tools to accelerate collection documentation and cataloging.
At the Haan Museum, AI tools will support collection-management activities including metadata generation, image recognition, transcription, and provenance research. The project will also strengthen the museum’s collections workforce through a new full-time collections manager position and a structured internship program focused on collections care, cataloging, database management, and educational interpretation. Together, these efforts are intended to move museum collections care from a reactive, fragmented process toward a systematic, AI-assisted professional function with documented standards and trained personnel.
Advancing the role of libraries in the age of AI
Together, these IMLS-supported projects highlight Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies’ commitment to advancing AI and innovation across three areas central to its academic mission: research data and information infrastructure, digital humanities and cultural heritage scholarship, and AI literacy and education. By combining emerging technologies with human expertise, Purdue researchers and partners are developing new approaches to preserve, organize, discover, and engage with knowledge in an increasingly AI-driven world.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsAugust 28th, 2026
Purdue Libraries welcomed thousands of new students during Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) 2026 last week, connecting with students through activities, giveaways, and opportunities to learn more about the Libraries. The Libraries’ booth outside the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC) remained busy throughout BGR, with volunteers serving 4,000 snow cones using more than 1,500 pounds of ice. This year’s total represents a 10% increase over last year.
Students share their Purdue stories
More than 700 students participated in video interviews at the Libraries booth, sharing their thoughts, interests, and experiences as they began their Purdue journeys. Each participating student received a Purdue Libraries t-shirt. The first four videos posted to Instagram throughout the week received more than 80,000 views and helped Libraries gain 200 new followers.
Creating a quilt of the Boilermaker experience
Students also contributed to a collaborative project at the Knowledge Lab activity table. More than 200 fabric squares were created, with students designing each square to represent themselves and their Purdue journey.
Patricia Swanson, Knowledge Lab manager, will sew the squares together into a quilt that will be displayed in WALC later this semester. The finished piece will provide a visual representation of the many individual experiences that make up the Purdue community.
Thank you to BGR volunteers
Purdue Libraries thanks all of the employees who volunteered during BGR 2026. Special thanks go to the Libraries Facilities team for their essential behind-the-scenes support, including transporting equipment, setup, and an efficient breakdown at the end of the week.
View photos from the Purdue Libraries BGR booth in the photo gallery.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsJune 26th, 2026
Purdue University Archives and Special Collections invites you to view a new exhibition, “The History of Home Economics at Purdue: How It Shaped Our Campus and Our Lives,” which will explore the origins, growth, and lasting impact of home economics at Purdue University.
Exhibition on view
About the exhibition
Established in 1926 after decades of development, Purdue’s School of Home Economics applied scientific study to the home—from nutrition and child development to household management and public health and education. In addition to traditional domestic training, the program prepared students for careers in teaching, dietetics, extension work, institutional management, interior design, and research, supported by coursework in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Purdue faculty and students contributed to significant innovations, including the establishment of Indiana’s first nursery school, advances in maternal and infant health, nutrition science research, nutrition guidelines, and early work in convenience foods and space nutrition. Purdue Extension’s home economics specialists disseminated this knowledge to communities across Indiana and the country, directly impacting daily life.
Although the School of Home Economics no longer exists as a standalone entity, its legacy remains deeply embedded in the university. Many of the programs established within the school continue to thrive under the umbrella of the College of Health and Human Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts. Organizations that originated from the school continue to advance its mission, while several campus buildings stand as enduring reminders of its lasting impact on education, research, and community engagement.
Exhibition reception
The exhibition will be marked by a reception on Thursday, September 24, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on the fourth floor of the HSSE Library in Stewart Center. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the exhibition and hear from home economics educators, administrators, and career professionals in a panel discussion. Local author Angie Klink will be interviewing home economics professionals Joyce Miles, Olivia Bennett Wood, and Mary Alice Nebold about the field, their careers, and the impact of the profession. The campus community and public are invited to attend.
Panelists
Authors and books