Charles Babbage Institute News and Information

The Association for Computer Machinery's History Committee has
announced the two winners of its inaugural short-term fellowship in ACM
history, at least one of whom will be spending some time here at CBI:

Irina Nikiforova, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech's School of History,
Technology and Society, for her dissertation project entitled "ACM, Turing
Prize Scientists, and their Web of Affiliations." Nikiforova will examine
archival materials held at Stanford University, the University of Michigan,
and the Charles Babbage Institute as well as online ACM materials
concerning the Turing Award.

Bernard Geoghegan, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University and Bauhaus
University--Weimar, for a specific project on "Staging the ACM Chess
Championships" which will draw on archival materials presently in private
hands. Geoghegan plans a journal article from this research as well as a
museum exhibit.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring is finally here in Minnesota, and that means finding aid updates! A new finding aid is available for the Arnold A. Cohen Papers, CBI 105. An additional accrual has also been added to CBI 103, the Bryan S. Kocher Papers. Enjoy! Please email me if you would like to use either of these collections for research.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CBI recently learned from the IEEE Computer Society that "Computing Then" was getting substantial Web traffic with the roll out of each new edition of its feature "Annals Through the Years." "Annals Through the Years" features an article and department piece from each year of Annals (starting from Annals' origin in 1979 and moving to the present) rolling out new content every few weeks. With each article/piece, it provides a brief introduction on historical context/significance. In addition to "Annals Through the Years," "Computing Then" features select content from the current issue of Annals, podcasts, and more.
Please check out "Computing Then" at http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/computingthen.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An exciting new book series will be published by Springer, starting in 2011, entitled "History of Computing." Our own Jeff Yost is on the advisory board for this project, and well-regarded computing historian Martin Campbell-Kelly is the series editor. The series, according to Springer's website, "examines content and history from four main quadrants: the history of relevant technologies, the history of the core science, the history of relevant business and economic developments, and the history of computing as it pertains to social history and societal developments." The first volume will be A Science of Operations, by Mark Priestley of the University of Westminster.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am extremely happy to announce that Erwin Tomash's catalog of his library on the history of computing and computation is now available on CBI's website on our Hosted Publications page. Mr. Tomash has kindly given us permission to host a copy of the publication. It's a beautiful and scholarly work, and I highly recommend taking a look at it.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We thought some of you may be interested in the ACM History Committee's new fellowship program supporting research into the history of ACM: http://history.acm.org/public/public_documents/acm_history_fellowship.php

Send me an email if you are interested in learning more about the contents of CBI's ACM Records in conjunction with this fellowship.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Google Gadgets have made it possible for me to display some of our information in entirely new formats. I've just added a new mapping feature to our Burroughs photographs webpage that displays Burroughs facility sites all over the world. The sites are displayed as pinpoints on the map, and if you click on one of the pinpoints, a thumbnail of an image will display along with a linked caption to the larger image.

I'm going to continue to play around with various Google gadgets and other features to see what I can make of it. Leave your comments below!

Also, many thanks to Lisa Johnston, the University's physics, astronomy, and geology librarian, who told me about this functionality.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are in the neighborhood, please come this Friday at noon to our department's First Friday lecture in Andersen Library, room 120. This semester, we have been featuring different units' founders, and I will be speaking this month about Adelle and Erwin Tomash and their work with the Charles Babbage Institute. Light refreshments will be served, and we'll also be giving away some CBI freebies! Please contact me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's an announcement from SIGCIS, for those interested:

The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded by SIGCIS to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years (e.g. books published in 2006-2008 are eligible for the inaugural 2009 award). Books in translation are eligible for three years following the date of their publication in English. The prize of $1000, established through the generosity of an anonymous donor who wishes to honor the Computer History Museum, is administered by SIGCIS, SHOT's special interest group for computers, information and society.

Publishers, authors, and other interested members of the computer-history community are invited to nominate books. Send one copy of the nominated title to each of the committee members listed below. To be considered, book submissions must be postmarked by 1 April 2009. For more information, please contact the prize committee chair or SIGCIS secretary (secretary@sigcis.org).

Thomas J. Misa [chair]
Charles Babbage Institute
211 Andersen Library
222 - 21st Avenue South
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
tmisa@umn.edu

Paul E. Ceruzzi
MRC 311
National Air and Space Museum
PO Box 37012
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20013-7012
CeruzziP@si.edu

Jennifer S. Light
Northwestern University School of Communication
Frances Searle Building
2240 Campus Drive, Room 2-152
Evanston, IL 60208-2952
light@northwestern.edu

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With permission of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, CBI has been able to digitize and make available this survey of the discipline of cognitive science, published on October 1, 1978. According to the preface, the report "attempts to describe the state of research in cognitive science and broadly outlines the theoretical viewpoints and research objectives of scholars in the field." Please see our hosted publications page for additional freely available resources.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am pleased to announce that the most recent addition to the papers of Calvin Mooers has been processed and a description added to the finding aid. It is organized into series by accession (each individual addition to the collection), so the recently added portions are down at the bottom.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations to CBI director Tom Misa, who has joined the ACM History Committee, a committee of the Association for Computing Machinery responsible for preserving the history of ACM and the history of computing. See the press release here!

CBI Project Archivist Loralee Bloom and student assistant Valerie MacDonald are currently processing the historical records of ACM, which will be available to the public for research later this year. Please email me with any questions on its status or on research at CBI in general.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Those of you with an interest in computers and space exploration may be interested in this new site from Image Fortress. Called the International Space Archives, it contains images and videos from space exploration, from a variety of sources. Content will continue to be added.

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We will be closed for research on December 25 and 26 and January 1. We will be open as usual for the remainder of the holiday week, with the exception of Saturdays, though I will be out of town for much of the week. Happy holidays!

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am happy to announce that we have a new collection available for research. It's a series in the records of the Control Data Corporation, on their Computer-Based Education program known as PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations). The finding aid is located here. I hope that you will find it useful!

Posted by Stephanie Crowe at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)