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

[tmisa at umn.edu]

Hi all,

Just a "follow-up" to Tom Haigh's suggestion -- he is exactly right: "There 
are really an enormous number of topics that could be fitted into this 
call." See the detailed listing of possible ACM Research materials, linked 
to: <http://history.acm.org/content.php?do=fellowship>

1. GOOD proposals are what ACM's History Committee is looking for -- and 
needs to see. Please don't send in incomplete, poorly done attempts. That 
will do no one credit.

2. The ACM headquarters papers are still being processed at CBI as we 
speak. For questions about possible access, prior to the archiving 
project's completion, please contact Loralee Bloom <bloom191 at umn.edu>.

3. The HC wants to draw attention to the entire range of historical 
materials that the ACM has devoted resources to. In addition to traditional 
paper-based archives, there are also on-line "raw materials" for a possible 
project: oral histories, ACM Turing prize websites, and a treasure-trove of 
historical material in ACM's immense "Digital Library."

For the latter, you'll need to get access through your 
university/institution (or by joining ACM including Digital Library 
access). You can find there full text of most ACM journals and proceedings 
since 1950 . . . publications of affiliated organization (24 journals, 
including ALGOL Bulletin [1959-84], Computational Linguistics [1980--], 
Very Large Data Bases [1975--], etc.) . . . AFIPS Joint Computer 
Conferences 1951-84 . . . .

Many thanks, Tom Misa


On Mar 25 2009, Thomas Haigh wrote:

>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.
>
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-- 
Thomas J. Misa

Director,
Charles Babbage Institute
211 Andersen Library
222 - 21st Avenue South
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624.5050 tel
612 625.8054 fax
http://www.cbi.umn.edu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Program for History of Science, Technology & Medicine
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