Lilly Library’s Hyku collection is moving digitization forward for Earlham

Earlham’s Lilly Library has been a pioneering contributor to archival and digitization efforts. That work was recently recognized with a prestigious $248,600 national grant given to the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), of which Earlham is a contributing institution. The grant was specifically for further development of Hyku, a digitization platform helping to move digitization efforts forward for Earlham and other colleges.

Since 2021, Earlham has been a contributor to the Hyku community, providing 5,048 public items and 14 collections to the platform. At the heart of Earlham’s contribution to Hyku is the Friends Collection and College Archives, which houses the institution’s historical records. The archives serve as the official repository for all college-related materials, including photographs, documents, and artifacts, as well as records from committees, departments, and student life. Additionally, the Friends Collection boasts one of the largest Quaker collections in the world, with over 13,000 books and a wealth of pamphlets dating back to the 17th century. These unique collections are invaluable for researchers and the broader community alike.

“Earlham has been working for decades to digitize and make our archival collections available to a wider audience,” says Amy Bryant, director of Lilly Library. “One of Earlham’s first digitization projects was the Josiah Parker Papers, which were originally digitized in 2000. Since then, there have been several digitization projects, including multiple student-faculty collaborative research projects.”

The grant, awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and co-administered by the Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation (PALCI), will ensure that Hyku remains a solution for managing and preserving digital content.

“We’d heard about plans for Hyku for several years, and we jumped at the chance to use it as soon as it became a reality,” says Jenny Freed, Lilly Library’s director of special collections and archives. She beta-tested Hyku during its development. “Our old system wasn’t really user-friendly. The nice thing about Hyku is that it’s still in development. The amount of progress it’s made in the last four years is incredible. We have a lot of say in recommending features, usability, things like that.”

Several years ago, Lilly Library moved to digitize Earlham’s newspapers from 2011 onward.  The library needed a new platform to do this. Hyku gave them the opportunity to digitize items much more easily. They’ve also now gone on to start digitizing issues of the Earlhamite, the College’s bi-annual magazine, explains Freed, and have plans for yearbooks too. “Some of our old yearbooks have already been digitized by the Internet Archive. We want to digitize the remaining ones. At some point, I’ll put those up in Hyku.”

“By actively contributing to Hyku’s development, Earlham College is helping to create a future where digital collections—whether photographs, manuscripts, or archival records — are preserved with care, shared widely, and accessible to all,” says Amanda Hurford, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director.

Earlham College’s contributions to the advancement of the Hyku repository platform are noteworthy and showcase its leadership in digital stewardship, dedication to historical preservation, and collaborative approach to information sharing — all are instrumental in ensuring the long-term accessibility of its own and other institutions’ historical artifacts.

By Jay Kibble, writer/editor for Earlham’s Marketing department