Historical Resources

 

Seymour Cray

Seymour Cray with his
Cray-1 supercomputer,
sometimes known as the
world's most expensive
loveseat

The Value of History to Companies

Value Proposition for Establishing Archives or Other Historical Programs in Your Organization
Glenn Bugos

Learning From History: Leveraging Experience and Context to Improve Organizational Excellence
James Cortada

From the Journal of Organizational Excellence 21, no. 2 (Spring 2002): 23-29
Posted October 2007

 

The Spread of Information Technology

Patterns and Practices in How  Information Technology Spread around the World
James W. Cortada, IBM

Information technology spread around the world faster than most other technologies in recent centuries. A combination of eight approaches made this happen, each occurring simultaneously invarying degrees between the 1950s and the present.
(Copyright © 2008 IEEE. Reprinted from IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.)

 

How-to's on Doing History

How to Conduct and Preserve an Oral History
Arthur Norberg
On commission to the IT History Society
This article discusses the value of oral history to research historians, exhibit designers, and companies, and it provides basic information about how to go about conducting, editing, and distributing the oral history.

The Process of Donating Your Individual or Organizational Records to an Archival Repository
This article describes the typical process that an individual will confront when wanting to donate records to an archival repository. It discusses such topics as copyright, disposition rights, how the repository will take care of the collection, how access to the collection is administered, and tax deductions.

 

History as an Educational Tool

Using History to Teach Computer Science and Related Disciplines, 2004 (1.8 MB PDF).
Stemming from a series of NSF-funded workshops, this report offers innovative ideas on how to use the rich, empirical material of history to enhance student learning and appreciation for fundamental concepts in computer science and related disciplines. Reports by twenty authors are divided into five parts: 1) two introductory papers; 2) six essays on curricular issues and strategies; 3) twelve course syllabi; 4) five historical case studies; and 5) two essays on key resources in the history of computing. The work was conducted under the auspices of Computing Research Association.

Perspectives on History in Computing and Education
This is material from a panel session at the annual meeting of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) , held in Portland, Oregon on March 13, 2008. The topic was on using history to inspire, motivate, attract, and retain computer science students at the college level.


Hard-to-find Historical Writings

Computing Before Computers
Edited by William Aspray with contributions by: W. Aspray: A. G. Bromley: M. Campbell-Kelly: P.E. Ceruzzi: M. R. Williams.
This book covers the information process technologies in use prior to the computer. Topics include early calculators, difference and analytical engines, logic machines, punched card machinery, analog computing devices, relay calculators, and electronic calculators. This book has long been out of publication. It was published originally in 1990 by Iowa State University Press. When the print run was exhausted, the press returned copyright to the authors. For permission to reproduce this material, contact any of the authors.  Thanks to Ed Thelen for scanning the document and posting it on his own history of computing web site.

 

An Illustrated History of Computers: Part 1

This web site includes text and more than 50 photographs of vintage computing technology. It was organized in 2002 by John Kopplin and is part of a for-profit site for Computer Science Lab, which sells a programming curriculum for high school students and others. The historical curriculum is free, however.
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm

 

Types of Documentation to Preserve

The Society of American Archivists has identified the following types of records as among the most important to be retained by an organization in its archival collection (whether held internally or externally. Listed below are some of the types of documentation which archival repositories preserve for historical and administrative research:

Architectural records
Articles of incorporation, charters
Audio recordings
Budgets
Bylaws and revisions
Clippings
Constitution and revisions
Correspondence of officers
Directories
Financial statements
Handbooks
Legal documents
Memoranda
Minutes of meetings
Membership lists
Motion picture film and videotape
Newsletters and other publications (generated by the organization)
Organizational charts
Pamphlets, brochures, fliers, etc.
Photographs
Planning documents
Press releases
Reports (annual, committee, etc.)
Rosters
Scrapbooks
Speeches
Subject files
Tax returns

For more information, see the complete SAA brochure on Donating Your Organizational Records to a Repository.

 

Reviews of Books About Soviet Computing

Essays on the History of Computer Science in Russia

Aleksey Andreevich Lyapunov

Kolmogorov and Cybernetics

Leonid Vital'evich Kantorovich: a Man and a Scientist. Vol. 1

Leonid Vital’evich Kantorovich: A Man and a Scientist. Vol. 2

History of Computer Science in Russia: the Scientists and Their Schools

From the History of Cybernetics

Axel Ivanovich Berg. (1893–1979)