At a glance

Special Collections & University Archives

Manuscripts Division

The Manuscripts Division of the Department of Special Collections exists to arrange, describe, preserve, and make available documents and born-digital materials of enduring historic value, both as intellectual items and as historical artifacts, to support the research needs of the undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and other scholars at Stanford University and beyond. Stanford University Library subject curators actively seek out collections to enhance our holdings. Since 2009, Special Collections has been involved in developing a Born-Digital Program in collaboration with the Digital Library Systems and Services Department.

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News

"Portraits of Success: Impressions of Silicon Valley Pioneers" (1986) book page image.

I am pleased to announce that all of the accessions in the Carolyn Caddes Papers (M0658) are now described and available for research.  For several years, only one accession was described online but thanks to Monika Lehman, our Public Services Intern, the rest of the accessions are open now for research.

Monika describes her experience processing this incredibly rich collection:

I had the opportunity to process Carolyn Caddes' papers. Carolyn is a portrait photographer who is most known for her collection of portraits published in a book entitled Portraits of Success: Impressions of Silicon Valley Pioneers (1986). Caddes spent years interviewing, photographing and researching the major players in Silicon Valley who worked in the technology sector, venture capitalism and government.

This project is a spin-off from the ongoing GAMECIP (Game Metadata and Citation Project) funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).  We are planning to spin off and expand our work on controlled platform vocabularies with additional research and photography, then publish a definitive terminology and ontology for computer game platforms in a manner that will be useful for libraries, museums, collectors and scholars. We are beginning with the most used set as an initial set.

The two core components of the project are (1) review and photography of hardware in Stanford’s Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, in order to complete our assessment and provide visual aids in the published terminology guide; and (2) collation, editing and design of platform and media description sheets that will be made available online and, eventually, be available for publication in a print format.  

Shu-Wen Lin

The Stanford Media Preservation Lab and the Department of Special Collections are delighted that Shu-Wen Lin is spending the summer with us in Redwood City interning as a media archivist. Leveraging her interest and background in the arts, Shu-Wen will help to process and preserve several media-based collections, including the archives of visual artist Carolee Schneeman and the archives of Telling Pictures, a prominent Bay Area film production company. Shu-Wen's first day is June 1.