Plunging into the KIHC archive: words from archivist Sonia Collazo

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My background is in Information Technology so it really brought out my inner geek to work with the KIHC collection. Seeing papers detailing the ARPANET which was the precursor to the internet was very exciting. Imagine being able to read the log from the first ARPANET communication, see the source code for TCP/IP for Unix, and seeing early papers from Roberts and Kelinrock in the 1960′s discussing how networking computers is a good idea. Great stuff!

To aid researchers who wish to discover these collections, I worked on four finding aids for KIHC collections using Archivist Toolkit which will be added to the Online Archive of California:

- Roberts (Lawrence) Papers KIHC.0001
- Kleinrock (Leonard) Faculty Papers KIHC.0002
- Wingfield (Michael) Papers KIHC.0003
- Thrope (Martin) BBN Papers KIHC.0004

The finding aids preserve the knowledge accrued processing the collections by project archivists, Yee May Chua, Gretta S. Treuscorf, and I; and student volunteer Jason Hong. The finding aids are now in the UCLA Special Collections Archivist Toolkit database, allowing for updates as the KIHC collections are further processed and new accessions are added to the collection.

Jason Hong and I scanned and processed materials for the Kleinrock, Wingfield and Thrope collections. Scanned materials have been ingested to the Digital Library to be added to the KIHC digital repository. Scanned materials include Wingfields logic diagrams that take you from sketches to final design for the Interface Message processor which connected UCLA’s SDS Sigma 7 host computer as the first node on the ARPANET. Notes from the SPADE Admin Group donated by Kleinrock detail the running of and development on the SDS Sigma 7 with true life anecdotes such as needing to “catch up on missed meals, sleep and showers”. Thrope’s papers have information on the involvement of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) in the early days of the ARPANET.

I had a great deal of fun working with these collections and hope my efforts are useful to scholars of the history of the Internet.

Sonia Collazo

A Network of Networks: Volunteering at the Kleinrock Internet History Center

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Greetings Internet enthusiasts! My name is Joanna Black, but you can call me JoJo. I am a volunteer for the Kleinrock Internet History Center (KICH), helping the center process archival collections and digitize papers for the UCLA Library Digital Collections. As a UCLA trained archivist (MLIS ’10) and technology nerd, KIHC really spoke to me. You see, while I was pursuing my master’s degree, I learned that UCLA was the first site to send a message over ARPANET (Internet’s precursor); the message was a very climactic lo, the first two letters of the intended message, login. This message, to me, represents one of the most monumental moments in the history of civilization. It is hard to deny how much the Internet has changed our lives.

Builders of Brains for Business, from the Eisler (George) Collection at the UCLA Library Digital Archives

After making an appointment to chat with the KIHC contributors, I learned all about the activities going on there. To my great surprise, one such project included processing papers involving the history of the Internet. Any archivist will confirm that our little hearts simply burst with joy at any mention of historical documents, but when those papers also deal with the history of something as huge as the Internet, well, you can count on an archivist for help.

I began processing the papers of George Eisner on my very first day and flowed right on into curating materials for digitization. This included reviewing the contents of collections, finding documents that looked especially significant or interesting within the scope of Internet history, verifying whether or not those documents had already been digitized and made available online, and preparing archival documents for scanning. Working with the UCLA Library Digital Collections was a new experience for me, and because of my growing interest in digital archives and collections, I was delighted to contribute. I learned the ins and outs of digitization: proper scanning techniques, resolution and dpi standards, color correction, creating a PDF with optimal character recognition, uploading files, and completing all the necessary metadata for each document record. I happily worked with Digital Collections for three months but have since moved to northern California. I continue to volunteer with KIHC remotely on a special project basis and look forward to seeing KIHC develop over the years.

Thank you, Internet, and all your glory!

Happy Birthday, Internet!

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Everyone is invited to drop by 3420 Boelter Hall from noon to 3pm, to enjoy some free food and coffee, and to celebrate the 43 years since the ARPANET went online on October 29, 1969.  Check out old hardware and documents, and hang out at the site of the first ARPANET node!

Buy This Book: A Culture of Innovation: Insider Accounts of Computing and Life at BBN

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Dave Walden has worked on the Internet since its earliest days, he chairs the IEEE Computer Society History Committee, and he is on the editorial board, and is department editor, of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. Raymond Nickerson was a BBN VP, and is an accomplished experimental psychologist.

They’ve edited a new book entitled A Culture of Innovation: Insider Accounts of Computing and Life at BBN, containing, among other things, over 19 accounts of life in this revolutionary firm:

A Culture of Innovation is a collection of chapters relevant to many of the areas of BBN computing work over the decades of its history with most chapters written by one or more participants in the described activity (or a close observer). We believe the book will provide an interesting picture of the company to people who have had involvement with BBN or are interested in computing history. It also will be a useful reference work for historians of computing.

If you haven’t heard of BBN, that’s another reason to welcome this book.  Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) built the first ARPANET routers, and was home to a major group of first generation Internet pioneers — and yet their story is not as well known as it should be.

Given BBN’s central place in networked computing history, the book’s format is important — a wealth of first-person accounts that will serve as an important tool for historians down the road.

We’ve ordered our copy, and so should you!  Be sure to visit the book’s website for a wealth of supplementary materials.