Make a Donation
Help the Indiana State Library Foundation support its programs, including the Talking Book & Braille Library, Young Reader Center, Genealogy, Materials Preservation, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Your donation can go towards one of the programs described below, or you can make an unrestricted donation, which allows us to support any ISLF program.
Talking Books & Braille Library
The Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL) provides free library service to residents of Indiana who cannot use standard printed materials due to a visual, physical, or reading disability. There are approximately 5,000 current active users of the TBBL program, and about 6,000 registered.
Patrons may borrow braille books, digital audiobooks, large print books, audio magazines, and special playback equipment from the library; materials will be mailed directly to patrons’ homes.
Genealogy
The Genealogy Collection has developed over time to become one of the largest collections of family history information in the Midwest. The collection includes more than 40,000 print items (family histories, indexes to records, how-to-books, cemetery transcriptions, family history magazines, and more), as well as military pension information.
The emphasis of the collection is on Indiana and bordering states, as well as eastern and southern states. Your support helps purchase books for the collection and fund events and programming.
Indiana Young Readers Center
The Indiana Young Readers Center Collection includes books by Indiana authors and illustrators for children and young adults. Indiana authors and illustrators are defined as having been born in Indiana, having lived in Indiana for a significant period of time, or currently living in Indiana.
The Indiana Young Readers Center opened in October 2016. It is a place for kids to learn more about Indiana and explore the literary works of Indiana authors and illustrators.
Dolly Parton Imagination Library
The Indiana State Library Foundation is proud to partner with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Indiana, a program dedicated to fostering a love of reading from the very beginning of a child’s life. Through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, children from birth to age five across Indiana gain free access to high-quality books delivered directly to their homes each month.
The Imagination Library envisions a future where every child starts their academic journey with a strong foundation. By building inclusive home libraries, children are encouraged to explore new worlds, strengthen their literacy skills, and succeed academically. This creates not only thriving readers but a vibrant, healthy community where education possibilities feel limitless.
Join us in supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and help spark a lifelong love of learning for Indiana’s children from birth to age five.
Rare Books and Manuscripts
The Rare Books & Manuscripts division at the Indiana State Library is dedicated to preserving and making accessible the history of Indiana with collections ranging from the early 15th century to present day.
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Division includes over 3 million manuscripts; 5,200 collections, ranging from the early 15th century to present day. Among the collection’s strengths are Civil War-era letters and diaries, family papers and the records of many political figures from the Hoosier state. We provide reference services, instructional sessions, scanning and photocopying services, finding aids, and a variety of digital resources.
Conservation and Preservation
The mission of Indiana State Library Preservation Services is to improve and ensure long-term, ongoing access to the cultural and historical collections of the Indiana State Library.
The department, staffed by one full-time conservator, as well as volunteers and occasional interns, fulfills this primary goal by providing conservation treatments of collections items and implementing preventive care and administrative policies. The conservator also provides information and training to the statewide library community and, on occasion, the general public through consultations and workshops.
Unrestricted Donation
When you donate to the Indiana State Library Foundation’s unrestricted fund, you allow us to directly support the Indiana State Library without stipulations. Donations to the unrestricted fund allow the Indiana State Library to best fulfill its mission of serving Indiana residents, leading and supporting the library community and preserving Indiana history. Unrestricted funds support the areas that are most essential for the Indiana State Library to have the greatest impact on the community. Examples of how your donation may be utilized include: technology, equipment, investing in new programs, essential operating costs and maintaining stability as we adapt to changing needs. Your support makes a difference!