Photos by PRIYA SHARMA/Daily Bruin Michael
Soldatenko, a researcher from Santa Monica College, makes
use of the University Archives in UCLA’s College Library to look
into the history of the formation of the Chicano studies program at
UCLA.
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There’s only one place on campus where 80-year-old
administrative memos and old mascot uniforms share the same
office.
That place is the University Archives, buried deep in the bowels
of the College Library.
The University Archives is the official repository of all of
UCLA’s historical documents ranging from memos exchanged
between the campus’ founders in the 1920s to photos of former
Chancellor Charles E. Young’s final commencement speech.
Officially founded by Provost Clarence Dykstra in 1949, the
mission of the archives is to “identify, collect, preserve,
arrange and describe records documenting the history of
UCLA,” according to the faculty bulletin from February
1949.
According to Assistant Librarian Dennis Bitterlich, who oversees
the day-to-day operations of the archive, most of the information
there comes from administrative sources.
“The broad breakdown is that about 50 percent of the use
is by administrators for administrative reasons,” he
said.
For example, the archives’ collection of documents from
former Chancellor Franklin Murphy fill about 140 boxes. The files
of former Chancellor Young, who served from 1968 to 1997, take up
more than 370 boxes so far, and all of his files are yet to be
catalogued.
But the archives aren’t just a big room full of
bureaucratic records. Ever wanted to see a film of the Jan. 7, 1972
men’s basketball game between the Bruins and Oregon State?
It’s there. (We won, 78-72.) Or read some Daily Bruins from
1935 ““ they’re there, too.
In addition, the archives store numerous publications about and
from UCLA, including newsletters, yearbooks, phone and alumni
directories; blueprints, plans and environmental impact reports;
and photographs, videos and audio recordings.
And … disembodied Joe Bruin mascot heads.
 The University Archives in the College Library has housed
documents, films and other UCLA artifacts since 1949. “Though
they aren’t documents, they are cultural artifacts of
UCLA,” Bitterlich said of the bear heads, last worn in the
1980s. Other cultural artifacts stored in the archives include
posters and photos from protests during the 1970s and 1980s.
Though these bits of UCLA history don’t make up a
significant portion of the archival collection, Bitterlich is glad
to have them nonetheless.
“It’s nice to at least have these examples,”
he said. “If we could have more of these, that would
help.”
In fact, The UCLA Monthly magazine ran an article in 1987
suggesting alumni could donate “items of potential
interest” to the archives to help build the collection.
“I’m sure many alumni have interesting collections
of publications, maybe photos of various campus events,
correspondence files, or other records that I would be interested
in seeing as an archivist,” said Philip Bantin, who was the
head of the archives during that time.
That sort of collecting still goes on at the archives,
Bitterlich said. Whenever class reunions are held, the archives
takes the opportunity to ask older alumni if they have any
artifacts from their days at UCLA that they might want to
donate.
As an example, Bitterlich said the 50-year reunion from the
class of 1948 saw one former student donate his freshman beanie, a
yellow cap that freshman were issued and wore to sporting events at
that time in the campus’ history.
Even though such memorabilia is an important part of the
collection, the majority of the archives’ holdings are made
up of documents ““ boxed, shelved, stored and in no short
supply.
“The collections currently measure more than 7,000 linear
feet of documents,” Bitterlich said. Two vertical filing
boxes equals one linear foot of documents, meaning there are well
over 14,000 boxes of documents contained in the archives.
Not all of the archives’ collection is stored in the tiny
office at 330 Powell, which is shared with the Thesis and
Dissertation Advising office. The majority of the collection is
stored in the basement of Powell with archival materials from the
Film and Television Archive as well.
Of course, librarians don’t collect all these materials
just for the sake of having them. The collection’s value to
researchers is immense.
Just ask Michael Soldatenko, a researcher from Santa Monica
College who was using the archives last week, looking into the
history of the formation of the Chicano studies programs at UCLA
and UC Berkeley.
“I’m mainly interested in the academic senate right
now, to see how they dealt with it,” he said.
Because the minutes of the Academic Senate’s meetings from
the 1960s, when the program was first founded, are stored there,
Soldatenko turned to the archives to conduct his research.
Though the sheer enormity of the rows and rows of shelves with
their hundreds of boxes and thousands of papers seems to be a
massive enough collection, there is still more information held by
the archives that we couldn’t take pictures of.
Recently the archives have begun collecting electronic records
from various departments, a trend that Bitterlich said reflects a
movement away from keeping records on paper.
Many of the archives’ records from The Anderson School at
UCLA, for example, are inventoried online in a searchable database
connected to the Online Archive of California, which is part of the
California Digital Library, an Internet-based database linking all
of the state’s college and university libraries.
“Further on, we’ll have more primary materials
online, which will make doing research much easier,”
Bitterlich said. “Instead of having to file a request, come
into the archives and search through the inventories by hand,
people will be able to perform their research online.”
And judging by the volume of documents filling those shelves in
Powell, that just might be a good thing.