Diversity Resources from IU Libraries

The African Studies Collection's vast print, audiovisual, and digital holdings include a significant body of materials on and in African languages as well as two special collections: the Somali Collection, considered one of the top three in the world; and the H.K. Banda Archive, a collection of primary materials on Malawi and southern and central Africa.

Established in 1991, the AAAMC is a repository of materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era. In addition to housing extensive materials documenting Black radio, the AAAMC’s collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC supports the research of scholars, students, and the general public worldwide by providing access to holdings which include oral histories, photographs, musical and print manuscripts, audio and video recordings, educational broadcast programs, and the personal papers of individuals and organizations concerned with black music.

Archives Online at Indiana University provides access to online descriptions, finding aids, guides and inventories to collections held in archives and libraries at Indiana University.

The Black Film Center/Archive was established in 1981 as the first archival repository dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about black people.

The AAAMC Black Radio Collections consist of a number of collections documenting the history of Black radio. Many of these collections also contain print and audiovisual materials.

The Mesoamerican Archiverepresents a digital archive consisting of historical and ethnographic recordings, assembled in collaboration with these respective institutions: the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS, Mexico), the Institute for the History of Nicaragua and Central America (IHNCA, Nicaragua), and the Museum of the Word and the Image (MUPI, El Salvador). Collectively, the archive consists of materials ranging from 1974 to 2007, presenting a variety of pertinent topics: human rights, political violence, international relations, and Sandinismo. It also includes several subtopics: guerrilla tactics, revolutionary literature, armed conflicts, and youth movements. Finally, this collection emphasizes the linguistic, historical and ethnic legacy of indigenous communities,

This collection of Stephanie C. Kane’s ethnographic photographs documents everyday life and holidays among the Emberá people living along the rivers of the Darién tropical forest between 1983 and 1985. This region of riverine forest is known as the Darién Gap, as it is the only gap in the Pan American Highway that runs from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The photographs also include images of the Wounaan and Catio (along with the Emberá, the three indigenous groups known collectively as the Chocó) and people of African descent. After coming across the forested mountains by canoe from the Department of Chocó, Colombia, mostly in the 20th century, these groups resettled along the rivers of the Darién and became Panamanian citizens. Kane studied the Emberá’s transition from dispersed settlements to villages, focusing on the ways in which women and men negotiated changes inherent in development and national integration. The Organization of American States and the Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Texas at Austin funded her field research. The photographs were taken during the years when the Emberá were writing their constitution and establishing their indigenous reserve. For the first time, the Pan American Highway reached as far as the regional town of Yaviza, two to three days travel time downriver by canoe from the villages, while upriver, a large swath of forest became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Between these large scale events, initiated by forces outside their realm, the Emberá, among whom Kane lived, continued to survive principally by hunting, fishing, cultivating staples (plantains, corn, rice, manioc), gathering wild foods and medicines. In addition, they built canoes and open-walled, stilt homes using materials gathered in the forest and healed the sick with plants and shamanic ritual. For stories that will animate these images, see Kane’s book, The Phantom Gringo Boat: Shamanic Discourse and Development in Panama (Smithsonian, 1st ed, 1994; Cybereditions, 2nd ed, 2004).

The Folklore and Ethnomusicology Collection at IU is the largest, most comprehensive library collection devoted to this subject in the world. The Archives Online repository offers finding aids for the collection; other digitized objects can be found at the Open Folklore project and at Google Books or Hathi Trust.

This is the collection of anthropologist Fred McEvoy’s photographs from his 1967-1968 research among Sabo labor migrants in southeastern Liberia.

The Kinsey Institute houses extensive archival collections, including the papers of Dr. Alfred Kinsey, the records of the Institute and materials of other research scholars and institutes. The collections encompass print materials, film and video, fine art, artifacts, photography, and archives.

The IU Liberian Collections include historical and ethnographic documents, multimedia, and artifacts in a variety of formats. The IU Liberian Collections is collecting, preserving, and making available a comprehensive range of materials and information about Liberia for researchers, students, and teachers, with special emphasis on reaching Liberians in Liberia and in the diaspora.

Letopis' Zhurnal'nykh Statei provides access to the periodical literature of an essential time in modern Russian history (1955-1975), beginning with the period of the Khrushchev "Thaw" following the 20th CPSU Congress and continuing through the first half of the so-called Brezhnev "Period of Stagnation."

Logan H. Westbrooks is widely recognized as one of the central figures responsible for opening the doors of the music industry to black artists and executives. The photographs in this collection primarily document Westbrooks’ work in the music industry from the mid-1960s on, including his interactions with other top-level executives, artists, and radio personalities affiliated with WVON (Chicago), WDIA (Memphis), Capitol Records, CBS, Mercury, MCA, Stax, Philadelphia International Records, Soul Train Records, and Westbrooks’ own company, Source Records. Extensive manuscript and print materials are also available as part of Westbrooks’ collection.

The RIFIAS Library Online Catalog is one of North America's premier resources for teaching and research in the history, languages, literatures, geography, religions, and cultures of Inner Asia.

The Victorian Women Writers Project produces literary works by British women writers of the 19th century. The works selected include anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, and volumes of poetry and verse drama.