June 1995
The INP relocated its office to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library in Urbana, Illinois.

January 1996
The UIUC-based staff began inventorying and cataloging the newspaper collections at UIUC in 1996. Over the next 3 ½ years INP staff inventoried and cataloged 1,963 U.S. newspaper titles and added 2,287 holdings records to the newspaper union list in OCLC. INP staff identified 73 unique Illinois newspapers in the UIUC collections for future preservation microfilming.

July 1999
The INP staff at UIUC began the fieldwork phase, beginning with McLean County. Inventorying and cataloging of all collections at Illinois State University, including the Milner Library and the ISU Archives, was completed in April 2000. A total of 469 titles were cataloged and holdings records for 529 newspaper titles were added to OCLC.

November 1999
INP catalogers processed the collection at the McLean County Historical Society in Bloomington, Illinois. During this time, 230 distinct titles were inventoried and cataloged, 230 holdings records were added to the newspaper union list on OCLC, and 75 unique Illinois newsprint titles were added to the list of candidates for future microfilming.

April 2000
A streamlined inventory strategy was developed by INP staff at UIUC. Fieldwork was completed in INP Cataloging Region 2. After completing work in region 7, the Chicago Historical Society team took responsibility for inventorying and cataloging region 6.

2002-2005
UIUC INP staff performed all inventorying and cataloging in regions 1 and 5.

May 2005-October 2007
The UIUC INP team completed most of the inventorying and cataloging of newspapers in region 4, and added the holdings information for these newspapers to the union list in OCLC. INP staff also began preservation microfilming of unique Illinois newspapers from the UIUC Library collections and other institutions in the state. The CHM team completed fieldwork in region 7.

October 2007 and beyond
The INP anticipates completing the inventorying and cataloging of region 4 and region 3 (the final region). To date, INP staff have inventoried and cataloging 10,115 U.S. newspaper titles and added 10,901 holdings records to the newspaper union list in OCLC. The INP will soon complete preservation microfilming of unique Illinois newspaper titles from the UIUC Library. The team is borrowing newspapers from many other repositories in Illinois for the purpose of preservation microfilming, which will complete our efforts to preserve the state's newspaper heritage.