FORTVILLE — The Fortville-Vernon Township Public Library has lost an executive director, a board member, a longtime employee and decades of historical newspapers.
The newspapers have a new home after an official with the Hancock County Historical Society went Dumpster-diving after them. As replacements are sought for the other three, the library board also wants to develop a policy for preserving historical documents, which, had one existed, could have prevented the fallout that resulted when the old papers were discarded.
Karyn Millikan resigned from her position as executive director of the library effective immediately on Thursday, Oct. 15. She told the Daily Reporter her husband has been ill and she felt she needed to be home to help on their farm.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryLongtime library employee Rebecca Crowe resigned on Sept. 11 and said Millikan told her to either resign or be terminated. Crowe said Millikan accused her of making the library look bad after Crowe alerted a fellow historical society leader that volumes of historical newspapers held by the library had been discarded.
Before her resignation, Crowe said, she noticed the library’s trash bin appeared to be very full and was surprised to find it packed with bound volumes of old newspapers. She called Tom Alexander, who represents Vernon Township in the historical society. He and his son came to the library and removed the volumes from the bin.
Crowe is secretary of the historical society’s board and a past president.
“I couldn’t believe she had done that to local history,” said Crowe, who thinks Millikan or someone under her direction discarded the newspapers.
Millikan declined to comment on Crowe or the discarded newspapers.
Crowe said the newspapers were accessible to library visitors physically and in other forms, like microfilm and discs that can be accessed with computers. Many found it easier to flip through the books to find what they were looking for, she continued. She added the physical papers provided higher-quality scans, while print-outs of microfilm and digital versions could turn out murky.
Crowe had worked at the library for 22 years, although not full time for the entire duration. She’s written many historical columns published in the Fortville-McCordsville Reporter, a sister paper of the Daily Reporter.
An attempt to reach Alexander was unsuccessful.
Michael Kester, president of the historical society, said Alexander and his son retrieved 59 volumes and that they’re being kept at the society’s headquarters. The volumes each consist of about a half-year to a year’s worth of editions, Kester said, and span from 1951 to 1985.
“So not a little thing there,” he said.
Most of them are editions of the Fortville Tribune, Kester said, but there are also some for the Lapel Review, Morristown Messenger and Harrison Post. Kester said the historical society plans to get the Lapel Review editions to Madison County.
“That was a moment — breathing a sigh of relief — that we rescued something,” Kester said. “…They were in pretty decent condition for just getting tossed in the Dumpster.”
Crowe said Millikan also wanted to have even older newspapers — from the 1920s and teens — discarded, but that she quietly took them for herself. Those papers hadn’t been preserved in another format, Crowe said, adding people didn’t like handling them because they’re deteriorating.
“I just took them for myself,” Crowe said. “…I was going to give them to the historical society unless the library wants them back. She (Millikan) wanted them out of the library.”
Ashley Stout resigned from her post as president of the library’s board between its September and October meetings. An attempt to reach her was unsuccessful.
The board voted for Ashley Jenkins, who was vice president, to take over as president at the October meeting. Julie Wilson was selected to be vice president. Lola Halterman, Libby Wyatt, Catherine Whitsman and Michael Frischkorn also serve on the board. Jenkins said it’s up to the Mt. Vernon School Board to fill Stout’s vacancy. The Hancock County Council and Commissioners also have appointment powers for the library board.
The Fortville-Vernon Township Library is not affiliated with the Hancock County Public Library.
Jenkins said at the board meeting that the opening for the executive director position has been posted.
Wyatt told the Daily Reporter that Millikan had been interviewing to fill the vacancy left by Crowe and that the board will continue working to fill the position.
At the meeting, the board also discussed the need for a policy for handling historical documents. Jenkins said she received guidance on the topic from the Indiana State Library, and the board created a committee consisting of her and Whitsman to develop the policy.
“That’s allowing a committee to further investigate what happened, and determine next steps of how things that we do have are handled and what exactly we do have,” Jenkins said.
Frischkorn expressed his desire for such a policy to the Daily Reporter.
“I think that’s key to making life easier for everybody, and avoiding these kinds of things in the future,” he said.
He emphasized the policy will also need to take the library’s limitations into account.
“We’re not really set up to be a repository for historical documents,” Frischkorn said. “We don’t have facilities to adequately keep things climate-controlled and make sure everything’s properly taken care of. That’s more money than we have… There are other entities, other libraries that do have those capacities, and to the extent that we can partner with them for some of this stuff, then definitely we should.”
