Resources & Archives

Research & archival resources

With over 25 separate libraries and archives on or near campus, student researchers at any level can work locally to investigate a broad array of fascinating projects. While the holdings at all of our libraries are impressive, four deserve special mention:

Black Film Center + Archive

The Black Film Center Archive was established in 1981 as a repository of films and related materials by and about African Americans. Included are films with substantial participation by African Americans as writers, actors, producers, directors, musicians, and consultants, as well as those depicting some aspect of black life, history, and culture.

Kinsey Institute

The collections within the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction include print materials, film and video, fine art, artifacts, photography, and archives of ephemera. The Institute has collected publications, objects, art, and scientific data from six continents, with holdings spanning more than 2,000 years of human history. These encompass a range of technologies: from ink on paper, to microforms and CD-ROMs.

The Lilly Library

The Lilly Library rare book and manuscript collection includes more than 400,000 books, 100,000 pieces of sheet music, and 7.5 million manuscripts. Holdings include a Shakespeare first folio, a Gutenberg Bible, the first printings of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and a significant collection of early printed material related to the early voyages of Columbus. You’ll find revised manuscripts of some of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, the principal archives of Sylvia Plath, and a fascinating collection of children’s toys and games, some dating from the 18th-century. Notable collections from Edith Wharton, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and several more recent writers are also housed at the Lilly Library.

The Wells Library

The Wells Library is named in memory of former IU President Hermann B Wells, who helped build IU’s strength in humanistic research and became famous in part for his support of the controversial research of Alfred Kinsey. The Wells Library houses one of the ten most extensive research collections in the United States, with excellent holdings in both standard and digital resources.

Departmental research collectives Interdisciplinary groups + centers

Department of English

Resources & Archives

Research & archival resources

Black Film Center + Archive

Kinsey Institute

The Lilly Library

The Wells Library

The College of Arts & Sciences

Resources & Archives

Research & archival resources

Black Film Center + Archive

Kinsey Institute

The Lilly Library

The Wells Library

Department of English social media channels

The College of Arts & Sciences