HISTORIANS AT WORK IN THE SLAC ARCHIVES: An Archivist’s Perspective

Active collecting of the archives of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – as well as of other US national laboratories – began in earnest in the late twentieth century as a result of the interest and agitation by both Historians of Science and Archivists. This paper examines the use and dissemination of knowledge of the histories of the US science laboratories as exemplified by the SLAC Archives and History Office (AHO) experience. We find that the development of the SLAC AHO program has been and continues to be propelled by ongoing exchanges between the two disciplines, shaped by their sometimes limited understanding of each other’s goals, methodologies, and constraints, and by the two disciplines ’ relationships to the records-creating scientists

Documenting the Physical Universe:Preserving the Record of SLAC from 1962 to 2005

Since 1905, Albert Einstein's ''miraculous year'', modern physics has advanced explosively. In 2005, the World Year of Physics, a session at the SAA Annual meeting discusses three institutional initiatives--Einstein's collected papers, an international geophysical program, and a research laboratory--to examine how physics and physicists are documented and how that documentation is being collected, preserved, and used. This paper provides a brief introduction to the research laboratory (SLAC), discusses the origins of the SLAC Archives and History Office, its present-day operations, and the present and future challenges it faces in attempting to preserve an accurate historical record of SLAC's activities

Advocacy for the Archives and History Office of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: Stages and Methods

Advocating for the good of the SLAC Archives and History Office (AHO) has not been a one-time affair, nor has it been a one-method procedure. It has required taking time to ascertain the current and perhaps predict the future climate of the Laboratory, and it has required developing and implementing a portfolio of approaches to the goal of building a stronger archive program by strengthening and appropriately expanding its resources. Among the successful tools in the AHO advocacy portfolio, the Archives Program Review Committee has been the most visible. The Committee and the role it serves as well as other formal and informal advocacy efforts are the focus of this case study My remarks today will begin with a brief introduction to advocacy and outreach as I understand them, and with a description of the Archives and History Office's efforts to understand and work within the corporate culture of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. I will then share with you some of the tools we have employed to advocate for the Archives and History Office programs and activities; and finally, I will talk about how well - or badly - those tools have served us over the past decade

SLAC-PUB-9686 FUTURE PROOF FOR PHYSICS: Preserving the Record of SLAC

Invited talk presented at Future proof: delivering scientific archives in the twenty-first century (Co-operation on the Archives of Science), 4/9/2003-4/11/2003, Edinburgh, Scotland Paper provides a brief introduction to SLAC, discusses the origins of the SLAC Archives and History Office, its present-day operations, and the present and future challenges it faces in attempting to preserve an accurate historical record of SLAC’s activities. Work supported by Department of Energy contract DE-AC03-76SF005152 What is SLAC? The idea for a two-mile linear accelerator at Stanford University was conceived in 1956, proposed in 1957, and authorized by the United States (US) Congress in 1961. Initially called "Project M, " the venture was renamed "The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center " (SLAC) in August of 1960. The original contract between Stanford Universit