The Special Collections and Archives Department curates and contributes to a variety of digital projects across several web-based platforms hosted by NIU Libraries.
The SCA’s Johannsen and LeBlanc collections contribute significantly to the Nickels and Dimes project. Titles that have been digitized are available online. In January 2017, Northern Illinois University and Villanova University received a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for $448,893 to digitize the dime novels of Beadle & Adams, the first and most important publisher of the format. In April 2022, the project received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to digitize an addition 4218 titles and story papers published by Frank Tousey, in partnership with Villanova, Stanford, Bowling Green State University, and Oberlin College and Conservatory.
Other digital projects featuring SCA holdings include: