SDR Deposit of the Week: The Stanford I2V dataset
Imagine being able to search for video content not by keyword, but by using other visual information, like a still image, a screenshot or a single frame from another video. As the ubiquity of images and video in our culture increases, it is not surprising how useful this kind of functionality could be.
Theremin at Stanford
The Archive of Recorded Sound (ARS) and Stanford Media Preservation Lab (SMPL) recently worked with the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), specifically Emeritus Professor John Chowning and current CCRMA director and Duca Family Professor Chris Chafe, to locate, research, and digitize a series of videos from the Archive's CCRMA Tape Collection (ARS.0037) documenting a significant event in the history of CCRMA and electronic and computer music at Stanford.
In September 1991, numerous pioneers of electronic and computer music, including Robert Moog and Max Mathews, convened at Stanford during the University's centennial weekend (Sept 27-29, 1991) for a concert and symposium honoring the then 95 year-old inventor of the first practical electronic musical instrument, Leon Theremin. Theremin's instrument, which bears his surname, has become arguably one of the most well known and recognizable electronic musical instruments ever devised, and has since inspired numerous subsequent inventions, such as Max Mathews' radio batons. It has been used in countless musical works, perhaps most famously in the Beach Boys 1966 hit, Good Vibrations. It also gave rise to the career of virtuoso Theremin performer, Clara Rockmore.
ALERT 747 exhibit in Green Library
Alert 747: Suspected Nuclear Test - A journey to uncover facts and create dialog through humanistic creative production. This February, Stanford University Libraries (SUL) highlights a special collection, Vela 6911 by Victor Gama, with an exhibit on display in the Green Library South Lobby from February 3- March 9, 2015. Vela 6911 is a multimedia musical piece created by Victor Gama, an Angolan composer and designer of contemporary musical instruments for new music. This exhibit offers a glimpse into this vast collection of research, images, video content and musical scores that reside in the SUL Archive of Recorded Sound. It also supports and coincides with the March 6th live performance of VELA 6911 by Gama, the Stanford University New Ensemble and special guests from Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Information about the concert is at the Stanford Events Page.
SDR Deposit of the Week: Reliability of Marine Structures
Construction of marine facilities is an expensive endeavor, with platforms built in deep waters costing in the billions of dollars. That makes it important to do it right the first time. Research at the John A. Blume Center for Earthquake Engineering has helped to advance the offshore industry's knowledge of how to build these structures more reliably.
Student theses and research reports from visiting scholars in the Reliability of Marine Structures (RMS) Program are now preserved and available through the Stanford Digital Repository.
Eight new digital collections now available in SearchWorks
Eight new digital collections are now available in SearchWorks. These collections take advantage of SearchWorks' ability to provide users with rich discovery and access capabilities for finding and working with digital collection content.
Medieval fragments study collection, 11th-16th cent
Abstract: Primarily fragments, these specimens were acquired to demonstrate the development of writing in the western world. A variety of scripts are represented, from Carolingian minuscule to the humanistic hands and the "cancelleresca."
Collection contact: Benjamin Albritton
SDR Deposit of the Week: International Comparative Education masters monographs
People come from all over the world to study international comparative education at Stanford's Graduate School of Education and now their masters monographs are being loaded into the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR). These are being added as we receive permission and PDFs.
Digging Deeper - an online course about medieval manuscripts
In January, Stanford launched Digging Deeper: Making Manuscripts, an online learning experience devoted to the technologies involved in creating and interpreting medieval manuscripts. We're off to a roaring start with thousands of enrolled participants across more than 90 countries (and it's not too late to sign up!). The creation of the course has been a truly collaborative experience: Stanford University faculty and library staff have worked closely with counterparts at Cambridge University, Stanford Academic Technology Specialists, graduate students, and a team from Stanford's Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning to produce a suite of learning materials that have become much richer than any of us envisaged at the beginning of the process in 2013!
SDR Deposit of the Week: Get wind of this weather data
Weather is often a hot topic for discussion (no pun intended!), even here in the usually moderate Bay Area where thoughts on the current drought are frequently proffered. But our discussions of the weather would be baseless if it weren't for weather data and our ability to track weather changes over time.
Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove has been tracking the weather in their neck of the woods for years. Detailed data from this weather monitoring project is now available online via the Stanford Digital Repository in the Hopkins Marine Station collection.