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The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife was first held in 1967. This festival brings together craftspeople, musicians, dancers, and other folk artists from every region of the United States and from scores of American ethnic communities. The 1987 festival was attended and documented by students in the Indiana University Folklore Department. Students photographed and recorded (video and audio) the presentations at the 1987 festival.

The Bloomington Gay Alliance was an umbrella organization that coordinated many smaller activist and social groups of the Bloomington LGBTQ+ community during the 1970s and 80s. This collection consists of ten newsletters the group published.

Joy Unspeakable is a 1981 documentary that was produced by Indiana University Folklore Institute researchers and film crews from IU's Radio & Television Services. Examining the spiritual lives of Pentecostals living in Bloomington—especially women—the ethnographic film earned academic and public accolades. It also represented an early success in the research career of Elaine Lawless, an esteemed folklorist whose 1988 book God's Peculiar People: Women's Voice & Folk Tradition in a Pentecostal Church undertook a broader exploration of southern Indiana Pentecostalism based partly on the materials gathered in this project.

Esther Thelen (1941-2004) was a professor of psychology at Indiana University Bloomington and a well-known researcher in the field of developmental psychology. She is known for applying the dynamic systems theory to the study of infant motor development; this has since become the dominant theoretical viewpoint in the field. Much of Thelen's research was done at Indiana University Bloomington's Infant Motor Development Laboratory, which she established and directed. This collection contains personal files and correspondence; documents related to public speaking appearances, publications, and roles in professional organizations and committees; educational materials from psychology courses taught by Thelen; and materials related to Thelen's research, including handwritten notes, drafts of studies, and videotapes of research subjects.

The Columbian project was a grant-funded, multi-sited, ethnographic research project organized by Indiana University's Folklore Institute and undertaken between 1987 and 1990. Titled "Hispanic Folk Poetry in Performance," the project focused on the influence and persistence of Spanish forms of folklore in Latin America five centuries after the landing of Christopher Columbus and subsequent conquests. Folklore researchers from IU and elsewhere completed fieldwork for the project, which occurred in tandem with the quincentenary of the Columbian voyage.

Martha M. McCarthy is the Chancellor's Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University. McCarthy's research focuses primarily on Education Law. Collection includes publications, drafts, teaching materials, grant proposals, and project reports. Also included are materials relating to McCarthy's involvement in professional organizations, conferences, and research data.

The IU Axolotl Colony, started in 1957, was a National Science Foundation -funded breeding colony of Mexican axolotl located in the Department of Biology at Indiana University in Bloomington. The colony supplied axolotl embryos, larvae and adults to laboratories for use in genetic research and to classrooms until the colony was moved to the University of Kentucky in 2005. Collection consists of newsletters.

Formed in 1977, the Indiana Religious Studies Project (IRSP) brought Indiana secondary teachers to Indiana University to improve how the study of religion was taught in high schools. The collection consists of participant information (applications, course projects, correspondence), sample lesson plans, and a variety of records that pertain to the growth, successes, and shortcomings of the project over its seven year existence. The project's funding ended in 1984.

Thomas Ehrlich served as the 15th president of Indiana University, from 1987 to 1994. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, serving in several legal and academic posts before his appointment as IU president. The collection consists of administrative files and correspondence related to the performance of duties as IU president.

Danilo Orescanin was a long time administrator associated with Indiana University in a variety of administrative roles. This collection contains speech files from his time as Chancellor of IU Northwest between 1976 and 1983.

The Indiana Communities Folklore Project was a joint effort between the Folklore Institute and Oral History Research Project of Indiana University which spanned 1980-1982. The aim of the project was to expand beyond the University to meet the growing requests by the community for aid in works pertaining to oral and folkloric activities and history, such as surveys and directories, collections, and festivals. The collection consists of materials that trace the development of the project. These materials include the project proposal, a list of the various community residencies undertaken for the project, conference and evaluation papers, and drafts of a resource handbook.

Established in 1975 as the Annuitants' Association of Indiana University, the Indiana University Retirees Association is an organization for retired IU employees. Its primary purpose is to make information on retirement funds and on local social activities available to its members. The IU Retirees Association records contains correspondence with university administrators, minutes of the board, membership rosters, and copies of the association's newsletter, Newswatch.

The groundbreaking feminist scholar and literary critic, Susan Gubar, began teaching at Indiana University in 1973 and retired as Distinguished Professor Emerita of English in 2010. This collection contains teaching and research material; material related to professional activities such as conferences, workshops, and committees; an extensive collection of news clippings with reviews and interviews; Gubar's publications and information related to the development of those publications, and both personal and professional correspondence.

The Polish Studies Center was established at Indiana University on October 30, 1977. The purpose of the Center was to promote activities such as lectures, discussions, academic courses, and an exchange program with Warsaw University that would increase the knowledge and cultural awareness of Poland and Eastern Europe, while bringing the areas closer together. The collection consists of a wide-variety of information pertaining to the various programs, events, lectures, and conferences formed by the Polish Studies Center, along with administrative materials that show the growth and development of the center.

Completed in 1955, the Center was originally known as the Smithwood Center and intended as a new dormitory for female students. In 1960, the Center was renamed Daniel Read Residence Center to honor the late professor of ancient languages who taught Indiana University's first female students. The Council is made up of representative groups from within the Center, including center staff. It oversees any aspect of center life affecting students and staff and serves as an open forum for staff and students to proactively address center issues, to create center programming, to efficiently use community resources, and to help sponsor events. The collection spans the years 1975-2002 and consists primarily of minutes from Council meetings but also includes handbooks and manuals related to the Council and residence hall living. The folders, and the materials in them, are in their original order.

Founded in 1972, the Program for Advanced Studies in Institution Building and Technical Assistance Methodology (PASITAM) was supported by a grant by the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) and represented Indiana University's major contribution to that program. PASITAM's mission was to to acquire, develop, and disseminate information about project design and implementation. Collection is organized in three series: Project, containing files maintained for use in developing their training materials and newsletters; Analytical Skills Workshop, containing files pertaining to PASITAM's major project which produced a series of training modules; and Reports, consisting of PASITAM's annual reports.

New Horizons was an independent community center founded in 1975 that intended to serve the increasingly open LGBTQ+ population in Bloomington. It did so by providing a physical space for the community to meet and gather, as well as supporting programming such as classes, organization for protests, and dances. This collection consists of newsletters and flyers produced by this organization.

The Indiana University School of Business 50th anniversary in 1970 generated interest in documenting the foundation and history of the school. School of Business faculty decided to create an oral history series called "An Oral History of the Origin and Development of the Indiana University School of Business" that was recorded on videotape. This collection contains these tapes, which are also digitized.

After a long career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Irvin K. Owen joined the staff of Indiana University in 1970, where he served as Special Assistant to the President of Indiana University for Safety Affairs before becoming Director of University Safety, a position he held from 1971 until his retirement in 1977. This small collection contains material pertaining to an article he authored entitled "What about Dumdums?" Included are research and lecture material, correspondence, and copies of the article.

The Chi Chapter of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library and information studies, was established at Indiana University in 1971. Collection consists of administrative files that were created by various officers of the Chi Chapter from the first years of the group's existence through 2010.