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Message
from the University Librarian:
Documenting and
Celebrating Our History
as UCI Turns 40
We at UCI will observe the campus's 40th anniversary in 2005, and the 50th anniversary in 2015 will be here before we know it. Documenting the history of the campus has never been more important, and the Libraries are launching a special initiative to ensure that our history is not lost. We are planning a symposium and exhibit to celebrate the 40th, and it is not too soon to begin thinking about the 50th.
To assist the Libraries in documenting
UCI's history, Executive Vice Chancellor Michael
Gottfredson appointed an ad hoc UCI Historical
Records Advisory Committee two years ago to recommend the steps
necessary to systematically preserve campus
history. The group's report recommended the establishment
of a Historical Records Advisory Board under the Libraries;
increased activity for systematic collection of inactive
official records; documentation of important milestones and
events; updating of an official UCI history; and solicitation of the
scholarly papers of distinguished UCI faculty. Over the last year we have been
working actively to implement that agenda.
Our efforts were greatly enhanced in March by the Chancellor's appointment
of Spencer Olin as Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor. Spence was interested in
working with the Libraries to help us document UCI past history and its continually
unfolding future. Those who know Spence won't be surprised that he hit the ground
running, working with our archivists to define and promote what we are calling the
UCI Historical Records Project. Recently, they have been meeting with all Deans and
Vice Chancellors to promote the importance of documenting UCI, and to offer our help
in ensuring that the history of each unit is preserved.
The University Archives, housed within Special Collections and Archives
in Langson Library, already holds more than 1,200 shelf feet of material, including
the papers of all three previous UCI Chancellors, early academic and physical planning records,
the historical records of the College of Medicine, the Thesaurus Linguae
Graecae project records, design and construction records
for campus buildings, 30,000 photographs dating back to the early 1960s,
and hundreds of campus publications. Faculty papers include those
of Frederick Reines, Donald McKayle, Jacques Derrida, Jack Peltason,
Ralph Waldo Gerard, Murray Krieger, Arthur Marder, Edward Steinhaus,
James McGaugh, Grover Stephens, and Roland Schinzinger. We would welcome
your ideas for making the UCI Historical Records Project a success.
Gerald J. Munoff
University Librarian
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