Welcome to the What Middletown Read Project:
Welcome to the updated What Middletown Read website (June 2026). Ball State University’s IDIA Lab produced the redesigned site with support from Muhammad Hafeez-ur-Rehman of the Center for Middletown Studies. Please note that search results may vary slightly in format from the previous site, depending on how the query is structured. We will be updating the supplemental materials linked below in the coming days. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with questions.
“What Middletown Read” is a database and search engine built upon the circulation records of the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library from November 5, 1891 through December 3, 1902. It documents every book that every library patron borrowed during that period, with the exception of one gap from May 28, 1892 to November 5, 1894. For more details, follow the links below.
This project is the result of a collaborative effort between the Muncie Public Library, the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University, and Ball State University Libraries. It is made possible through the financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation, and the following units at Ball State University: the Office of the Provost, the College of Sciences and Humanities, the Honors College, the English Department, and the History Department.
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