From the Archives Summer 2021
U of M's Wall of Discovery.
Research in Focus
There has been a great deal of forward momentum amongst the research community as pandemic restrictions at many institutions begin to lift and it has been a busy spring and early summer for researchers at CBI. We’ve had the opportunity to begin working with our Norberg Fellows (Mate Szabo, Ella Coon, and David Nofre).
A range of our collections have been used – including the Gartner Group records (CBI 228), our very strong Soviet, Russian, and Eastern Bloc collection (CBI 148), Sperry Rand Corporation Univac records (CBI 129), Engineering Research Associates (ERA)-Remington Rand-Sperry Rand records (CBI 176), the Edmund Berkeley papers (CBI 50), the Margaret R. Fox papers (CBI 45), the Mark P. McCahill papers (CBI 195), and various aspects of the Control Data Corporation records (CBI 80) and the Burroughs Corporation records (CBI 90).
Donor News and Outreach
Over the past few months, I’ve continued my work with the ACM’s History Committee group focused on preservation of SIG Heritage, including a webinar offered by SIGGRAPH to its members. I’ve also had the great pleasure to speak with Susan Dray, an important figure in the HCI community who was recently interviewed by CBI Director, Jeff Yost, as part of a series of HCI Pioneer oral history interviews – commissioned by SIGCHI. The HCI community is a rich and diverse group and I look forward to working with additional members over the coming months. CBI is lucky to host collections by Ben Shneiderman already, as well as the early papers of Susan Dray.
Archives and Special Collections Department.
Getting Back to “Normal”
As part of the University Libraries, CBI is beginning to open up to onsite researchers this summer. There are eight appointment slots per day shared across the other units within the Archives and Special Collections Department here at the Libraries and times fill up fast. If you’re interested in returning to Andersen Library as a researcher, please email me at abwick@umn.edu and we can discuss appointment scheduling, new protocols, etc.
Amanda Wick. Interim CBI Archivist and Curator