Friday, February 27, 1998
Community Briefs
Berkeley digitizes past documents of the West
The history of the American West will soon be available on a
computer screen.
Documents at UC Berkeley’s Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of
Anthropology, which are frail and crumbling, will be digitized to
save them for the future. A $23,000 grant from the National Center
for Preservation Technology and Training will fund the project.
Now, instead of handling the fragile documents, researchers will
see them on a computer screen or on printouts that may be easier to
use than the original.
"Many of these are newspaper clippings, typed manuscripts and
other documents collected in the early 20th century. There are
pencil sketches that can smudge, and the photos sometimes have no
negatives," said Rosemary Joyce, the museum director.
Researchers visit the museum to view the documents which range
from Native American studies and history to ethnobotany.
"In some cases, these are the only remaining records of the
communities that flourished prior to contact with other peoples,"
said Joyce.
Included in the records are field reports from a Depression-era
anthropological survey of Orange County funded by the Federal Works
Progress Administration.
The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training is
a division of the National Park Service which focuses on technical
issues in the preservation of cultural resources.
Faculty library opens doors to undergrads
The UCLA Law School just opened up its faculty library to
third-year students. Because of the delays in the construction of
the new law library, administrators decided to open up the smaller
facility to students who would not have access to the new
library.
The faculty library is not staffed. Third-year law students were
given keys to the room, which has about 30 seats, computer
terminals and copies of court case legal collections.
They may use the room during building hours, from 7 a.m. to 12
midnight every day.
American Airlines sells cheap fare to students
American Airlines has been offering college students discounts
up to 65 percent on flights for spring break. Students must
purchase tickets now in order to qualify for the low travel
fares.
Students may book their flights on-line, through American
Airlines or a travel agent. Flight prices range from $109 to $259
round trip, depending on the flight distance. Special fares only
apply to flights within the United States, excluding Alaska and
Hawaii. All flights require a 14-day advance purchase in order to
travel between Feb. 23 and April 16.
Other specials offered to college students by American Airlines
are announced via e-mail. Students who log on to the site and sign
up to receive promotional announcements can win six round-trip
coach tickets for themselves and five friends. The site address is
www.aa.com/college.
Fowler benefits from Getty Grant Program
The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has received a
$130,000 grant from the Getty Grant Program. The grant money will
help fund publications about non-Western textile studies.
"Among the world’s art forms, clothing traditions are one of
those most intimately tied to fundamental issues of identity,"
Doran H. Ross, the Fowler Museum’s director, said.
The Fowler Museum already publishes highly regarded scholarship
on non-Western textile studies. Its collective includes more than
10,000 items from two millennia and five continents.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff reports.