The mission of Archives and Special Collections is to collect, preserve, and provide access to archival and printed materials that support the research and instructional needs of students, faculty, national and international scholars, and the general public.
Housed in the Digital Media Repository, the Chapbooks digital collection of 173 chapbooks includes many items contributed by Elisabeth Ball and formerly held in the Ball State University Libraries Educational Resources Collections, in addition to 50 chapbooks purchased by Special Collections through the Martin and Helen Schwartz Fund.
The subjects covered in the chapbooks range from moral instruction to the ABCs to advertisements for patent medicines and soap. Many have colored paper covers, some are hand sewn, and others contain hand-colored illustrations. The originals are available in Archives and Special Collections