FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDIANAPOLIS — As part of ongoing efforts to preserve and share the history of Allison Transmission in honor of the manufacturer’s centennial in 2015, Allison and University Library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis have collaborated in the creation of a new digital collection.
The project, executed by the University Library Center for Digital Scholarship, enables unprecedented access to Allison Transmission’s heritage in a searchable database. The online collection includes newsletters, brochures, advertisements, press releases and selected photographs.
Following current preservation standards for scanning and metadata creation, the Center for Digital Scholarship has created the most comprehensive digital collection of Allison materials available to the public. The project, which began in December 2013 with a pilot collection of 137 digital objects, now includes more than 2,600 items. The selections are from a larger archival collection held by Allison.
“The digital collection has enabled us to improve the authenticity of Allison’s historic narrative,” said Lydia Spotts, corporate archivist at Allison Transmission. “As a company, we have already realized the benefits of this lasting investment and we are pleased to share the Allison collection with the community.”
Creating digital files allows rare and fragile original items to be preserved and protected. Preservation of the digitized copies is also secure in that high-resolution master files are backed up on multiple servers and protected by University Library for future generations.
”University Library’s collaboration with Allison Transmission is our second venture into digitizing historic corporate records,” Kristi L. Palmer, associate dean of digital scholarship at University Library said. “The images are a great example of how Indianapolis’s businesses are a vital part of our community history. The collection supports genealogists hunting down images of family members and researchers examining WWII industry, Indiana’s economy, development of engineering, and much more.”
The Center for Digital Scholarship works to provide open access to IUPUI scholarship, research data and the cultural heritage of Indiana communities. The center disseminates unique scholarship, data and artifacts created by IUPUI faculty, students, staff and community partners; advocates for both the rights of authors, and the public’s fair use and open access to information and publications; implements best practices for the creation, description, preservation, sharing and reuse of digital collections; and provides digital scholarship consultations and literacy services.
About Allison Transmission
Allison Transmission is the world’s largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and is a leading manufacturer of hybrid-propulsion systems for city buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915 by James A. Allison, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis with additional manufacturing facilities in Hungary and India.
About IUPUI University Library
Serving nearly 1 million visitors a year, 10 percent of them community users, the University Library at IUPUI supports students and faculty across all of IUPUI’s more than 200 degree programs with research expertise and a wide array of resources. Resources include signature collections like the Joseph and Matthew Payton Philanthropic Studies Library, the Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives and the Herron Art Library, plus over 60 digital collections.