[This announcement was originally posted to H-Post by <[log in to unmask]>] THE HISTORY COMPUTERIZATION PROJECT To Build a Regional History Information Network The History Computerization Project of the Regional History Center of the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles City Historical Society is building a Regional History Information Network for the exchange of information between historians, librarians, archivists, museum curators, preservation groups, and historical societies who share a common subject interest. The participating organizations will contribute copies of their records to a Regional Union Catalog for Southern California History, available for searching at the Regional History Center or over telephone lines by a computer attached to a modem. The project has created a database of more than 6,000 entries representing more than 3,000 historical organizations and repositories in California. In many cases the database also identifies the individuals in each organization who have the greatest interest in participating in a computer network. Entries for repositories include the historical subjects represented by the collections and the hours of operation. The database of repositories can be employed to provide a reference service to researchers. For example, one can do a search for all of the repositories with information on the author Jack London, and sort the search by zip code to find the repository closest to the researcher's location. The Los Angeles City Historical Society is using the same system to update a massive bibliography of the city published twenty years ago. The bibliography will be available in both printed and computer form in the Spring of 1994. We believe that the exchange of historical information between organizations and researchers will follow the pattern of computer bulletin boards, organized on a voluntary basis by those who share a strong interest in a particular subject. Local and national interests will overlap. For example, both the Southern California Jewish Historical Society and Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel are about to begin participation in our project. Their immediate desire is to share information with each other and with other local organizations. But ultimately they will also want to communicate with repositories possessing materials on Jewish history on a national or international scale. The same will hold true for the Santa Barbara Mission, which has joined the project, and which will eventually want to exchange information with other missions. The History Computerization Project is intended to serve as a pilot program for other local and regional historical organizations with similar objectives. The project has realistically faced the situation in which most historical organizations find themselves, and has therefore devised solutions with the intention of providing the easiest and the least expensive avenue possible at the present time. The plans made with regard to computer hardware, computer software, the training of staff and volunteers, and the sharing of data from many organizations through a regional history database, have all been propelled by the basic desire to bring the benefits of computer database management and standardized cataloging practice as far down as possible on the cost and experience spectrum. Free Workshops The History Computerization Project is now conducting free, one-day workshops for beginners featuring hands-on training in the use of computer database management for historical cataloging and research. No prior computer experience or skilled typing ability is required. The workshops give historical researchers and organizations a chance to see how easy it can be to build an historical database, at no cost or obligation. At the workshops, each student works with historical materials pertaining to his or her area of subject knowledge, drawn from the USC collections. We have found great advantages in tapping the knowledge possessed by historical society volunteers, when that knowledge is combined with national cataloging standards and the facilities of computer database management. For example, a recent workshop focused on the Los Angeles Harbor, for two historical societies located in that area. Only two of the twelve attending had ever used a computer before. By the end of the day they were all cataloging successfully. Most importantly, because they knew the harbor area thoroughly, they were able to contribute information which we would not have had otherwise. Another workshop had as its focus maritime history. When I look at a photo of sailing ship, I know that it's a ship, but not much more. For those attending however, the ship was a "brigantine," a "schooner," or another specific type. We are currently trying to bring in members of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, to read the Chinese characters in the background of the photographs of the Los Angeles Chinatown. The experience of conducting the workshops has been invaluable in learning how to extend computerization to those who are not already computer literate. After the first workshops we changed the screen messages, to assure the novice cataloger that his or her work had been saved properly. The result was that the workshop cataloging rate tripled, to the creation of 200-300 records per workshop. After each workshop, computer database utilities are used to make corrections to the records, to bring them into conformance with national cataloging standards. The database utilities will correct hundreds of records in one pass, it is not necessary to edit each record individually. As a result we have been able to justify the cost of conducting the workshops by the amount of cataloging produced alone. Computer Classroom At the Regional History Center of the University of Southern California we have set up a computer classroom with ten workstations for the History Computerization Project. In the computer classroom we teach one-day workshops free of charge to representatives of the local historical organizations. In the classroom we employ the History Database program for cataloging. The main computer employed is a medium-grade IBM PC compatible. (It is an Everex 80386, running at a speed of 25 Megahertz, with four megabytes of memory, and a 160 Megabyte hard disk.) That is where the database resides. Vintage IBM PCs, without hard disks, were rescued from a warehouse and pressed into service as terminals connected to the main computer. All ten computers are connected to the database at the same time. The system ensures that users do not collide. For example, two novice catalogers cannot accidentally assign duplicate Record-IDs. The IDs are assigned by the system. Publicity through a Network of Historical Organizations As mentioned above, our project is a joint project of USC and the Los Angeles City Historical Society. It is through the historical society connection that the project generates publicity and draws in participants. The board members of the Los Angeles society include past and present officers of the Associated Historical Societies of Los Angeles County, the Conference of California Historical Societies, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and many organizations. Through these connections we have access to all of the historical society newsletters for publicity. We encourage the individual societies to organize their interested members to come in for a special workshop, specific to that society's subject interest. That is how the Harbor Day workshop, the Maritime Day workshop, and many others came about. This method shifts the burden of organization and publicity from us to the society. The response that we have received confirms our belief that there were many in the historical organizations who wanted to computerize their collections, but who simply did not know where to start. When we had an Open House inaugurating the project, over two hundred people came. For More Information For more information on the History Computerization Project and a free copy of the 80-page workshop tutorial, please contact: David L. Clark History Computerization Project 24851 Piuma Road Malibu, California 90265 (818) HISTORY, (818) 591-9371