Notes

Funding

• The Degree Compendium project began with seed money from the Indiana University Bicentennial Office to the Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) to digitize the paperbound degree cards, the Official Lists of Graduates, and Commencement programs, enabling the manipulation of degree data for future research, and the preservation and maintenance of the integrity of the academic record.
• The resulting data were used to support a data visualization of the physical trajectories of Indiana University graduates from 1830 to 2020, our bicentennial year.
• The Office of the Registrar (part of OEM) capitalized on the existence of these digitized data, in conjunction with the Office of Strategic Planning and Research (also part of OEM), to compile a first-of-its-kind online and publicly searchable database of nearly 200 years of alumni. This is a work in progress.

Method

• Prior to 1966, all records are paper-based. Indiana University contracted with a vendor to index close to 100,000 records by hand.
• Only Bloomington degrees are included.
• All indexed data were collected together and stored in a database for further cleanup. A number of queries were written to piece the data together. With no unique keys available such as social security number, it was challenging to join tables without creating large numbers of extra records. This was especially the case for women, many of whom had one or more last name changes indicated at various times during the student’s time at IU and often long afterward. Variant spellings, nicknames, and misspellings also created challenges. Student name and degree year, and sometimes birth date, were the most common ways of joining tables together to populate the final data set. While this created the final set of data, it also introduced some duplicate records. Part of the process of finalizing the data is cleaning this up.
• Once all data were collected into a single table, a user interface was built in order for staff in the Office of the Registrar to go record by record and look for missing data, additional data, and discrepancies in as many as six data sources. After updating by staff in Strategic Planning and Research, certified records were then fed to this online degree compendium.
• From 1966 to near present day, degree records and their accompanying data are computerized. Since these data are already vetted by the University and are part of each student’s academic record, these data can be published as is without reviewing every record. Going forward, the intent is to publish new degree data every month as well as any updates to already published data.

Sources

• Official List of Graduates (OLG)
  • The Official List of Graduates is a compiled list of Indiana University graduates (1830–1965). This data is the source of the root record for the most part.
  • While in theory this should be complete, upon closer inspection, we found gaps in the data (1936-1940, 1951-1965) which meant for these periods, we use other sources as the root data.
• Commencement Program Data
  • Commencement programs are lists of students who were eligible to graduate and are available starting in 1893.
  • Commencement program data is used for the root record from 1936 to 1940.
• Alumni data
  • The Indiana University Alumni Association has a long history of keeping records of our alumni. These data go back as far as 1884 and have a consistent presence starting in the 1920’s.
  • Alumni data is used as the root record from 1951 – 1965.
• SIS (Student Information System)
  • Computerized records started at IU in 1965. 1966 is the first set of graduates.
  • SIS data are used as the root records from 1966 onward.
• Degree Cards
  • Degree cards exist only for the earliest records (1830-1925).
  • Degree cards were the way for the Office of the Registrar to prepare records for certification by the schools.
• HORNS (Historical Optical Record Name Search)
  • HORNS is comprised of scanned files of historical paper transcripts (1881–1965). Records only exist en masse for students after the IU fire of 1883.
  • HORNS image data is especially rich – everything from birth date and location to deceased date, matriculation location, and entry semester/year.
• Indiana University Register of Graduates was a centennial effort to help celebrate one hundred years since Indiana became a state. It covers the period 1830-1916.
  • The 1916 registry may have been the start of ongoing alumni record maintenance. It also includes data from Theophilus Wylie from 1830–1887. It is the best source of early location data that we have. It is used to validate the location data that is part of the root record.
• Wylie, Theophilus A. (1890) Indiana University, Its History from 1820, When Founded, to 1890, with Biographical Sketches of Its Presidents, Professors, and Graduates, and a List of Its Students from 1820 to 1887. Indianapolis: William M. Burford.
  • (a history of Indiana University up thru 1890, written by Theophilus Wylie, a cousin of Indiana University’s first President, Andrew Wylie)
• First 200 project research data pool
• Family members online sources (genealogical) used to correct / fill in data
• Internet research for more concrete data from multiple sources
• Contemporary newspapers
• Ancestry.com
• FamilySearch.org
• Findagrave.com
• US Census records
• Military draft records
• Names / dates / locations engraved onto tombstones / gravesites given special weight