Preserving the Frontier at Fermilab

Adrienne Kolb, Fermilab Archivist Nadezhda Shemyakina, Assistant Archivist

Midwest States Micrographics Conference

Springfield, IL

September 22, 2004

Fermilab’s Mission

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory advances the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines.

The local map, 1966

Farms and Village of Weston on NAL Site

Dr. Ann Early reviews some of the artifacts she found in her 1970 survey of the NAL site.

Archaeology

Native American Artifacts

Augie Mier from Batavia donated the collection of arrowheads he found on the site to the Laboratory in 1978.

Prairie Restoration

The 6,800 acres of the open space of the Laboratory has been protected since 1971.

Fermilab History Projects

Fermilab Site History CommitteeLillian Hoddeson, historian

Karyl Louwenaar, early researcher

The Bartholomew / Konsbruck / White

Farm1865 - 1969

The Bartholomew / Konsbruck / White Farm1969 - 2004

History and Archives House

Inside History and Archives House

Frontier Imaging Technology

scanning Bubble Chamber

photograph, 1975

computer image, 2004

Invention of WWW

High-Energy Physics

…of the millions who type http://www.... each day, how many realize that—like the universe itself—it all began with high-energy physics?...

Tim Berners-Lee, computer scientist at CERN, WWW creator

Birthplace of the Web

Creating History and Archives Web Pages

Creating History and Archives Web Pages

0) Select historic document and determine location on web site

1) Scan text

2) Perform OCR

4) Scan photographs

5) Prepare picture (if necessary, rotate, remove “dust”, adjust color levels and contrast, etc.), save psd document and small jpg

6) Create HTML page using text editor

7) Copy the HTML file to the server

8) Review before publication

9) Create link to this new page from History and Archives web site

3) Transfer text to MS Word, correct misspellings, remove incorrect paragraph breaks, etc.

image of the text

Editing the HTML file

Film to DVD,June 2003

Why Digital?

Local technology allows rapid exchange of huge amounts of data

Easily accessible

Easily searchable

Minimal cost

Easy to update, backup and copy

The History and Archives Project website can be found at

http://www.fnal.gov/projects/history/