[SIGCIS-Members] ACM-HC: Short-term Fellowships in ACM History (deadline 30 April)

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello everyone,

Let me just encourage you to follow up on Tom's call to ensure a good supply
high grade proposals. 

As far as I know CBI has not yet issued a finding aid for its new ACM
collection, so taking advantage of existing collections with published
finding aids could be a valuable complement. In working out a proposal you
may find useful my article "Sources for ACM History: What, Where, Why" (with
Elizabeth Kaplan and Carrie Seib), Communications of the ACM 50:5 (May
2007):36-41. http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/ACMHistorySources.pdf
This includes discussion (mostly by the coauthors, who are formed CBI
archivists) of ACM related materials in archival centers across the country.
There are really an enormous number of topics that could be fitted into this
call.  

According to the CBI blog at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/horow021/cbi/ you can
email horow021 at umn.edu if you want to know more about the new collection.

If you're interested in seeing what else the ACM History Committee has been
doing its website at http://history.acm.org/ includes links and minutes.
Back in 2003/4 as an original member of the ACM History Committee I did my
best to convince its non-historian members that the three most effective and
cost effective investments the association could make to ensure that its own
history and the history of its field were told would be (1) get its papers
archived at a major center, (2) set up grants in aid, and (3) sponsor a SHOT
prize. I'm thrilled to see that the ACM (prompted I'm sure by Tom Misa's and
Bill Aspray's skills of charm and persuasion rather than any influence of my
own long ago suggestions) has now acted on the two most important of these. 

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On
Behalf Of tmisa at umn.edu
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 8:42 AM
To: SIGCIS special interest group
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] ACM-HC: Short-term Fellowships in ACM History
(deadline 30 April)

Dear colleagues,

Please think seriously about developing a proposal for this new fellowship 
opportunity. As I mentioned in the "early" version, this is an experiment. 
If there are numerous, high-quality proposals it's more likely that the 
experiment will continue. The 'fine print' is true: there are not extensive 
requirements or restrictions; the intent is to cultivate ACM history -- and 
to draw attention -- and use -- to the ACM research materials.

Best, Tom Misa

=====================================================

website: <history.acm.org/content.php?do=fellowship>

ACM History Committee 
Short-term Fellowships in ACM History

The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and 
largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing 
profession, and today has members in more than 100 countries. To encourage 
historical research, the ACM History Committee announces a new program of 
short-term fellowships in ACM history. This year we plan to make up to two 
$2,500 awards to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM 
related activities, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners, as 
well as ACM as an organization. Successful candidates may be of any rank, 
from graduate students through senior researchers.

To Apply:

Applicants should send 2-page CV as well as a 750-word project description 
that [a] describes the proposed research project; [b] identifies the 
importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional 
archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, 
digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); and [c] 
discusses the project's planned outcome (e.g. conference paper, journal 
article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit, 
etc.).

In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the extensive list of 
ACM historical resources posted at 
<history.acm.org/content.php?do=fellowship>. Other research materials 
relating to ACM's rich history may also be used. Applications should 
include a letter of endorsement from their home department or institution.

Proposals are due by 30 April 2009. Proposals should be submitted as .pdf 
documents to <history-webmaster at acm.org>. Notification of awards will be 
made within six weeks.

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
and you can change your subscription options at
http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members