About the Online Project

Description

The Library of Occidental College seeks to make known its unique collection of materials regarding the Japanese American relocation and evacuation during World War II. These historical documents were preserved through the efforts of President Remsen DuBois Bird and College Librarian, Elizabeth McCloy, in the mid-1940’s. An initial grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation’s Archival Grants Program in 2004 partially funds the Library’s digital archive project to preserve, digitize and distribute a selection of the letters, materials and newspapers published in the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

The online digital archive, launched in June 2005, offers a representative selection of these historic materials in digital formats for research. The complete collection of primary materials is preserved in the Special Collections department of the Library and is available for research by appointment.

The online Website offers an overview of the collection, including a comprehensive research guide, links to selected resources, and a representative selection from the collection.

The digital archive is a searchable database of letters, papers, brochure, newspaper articles and other examples of primary source materials. Most prominent are the Letters and Papers of Remsen Bird. The correspondence offers a rich resource for learning more about the issues of higher education, civil liberties and actions of individuals during the forced evacuation of the Japanese Americans during World War II.

Of particular note is the correspondence of Occidental President Remsen Bird, College Librarian Elizabeth McCloy, faculty, and Occidental’s Japanese American students. The students attending in 1942 are Sinpachi Kanow, Mary Kariya, Russell Nakata, John Nishiyama, Ted Tajima, and Iko Tanzawa. Alumni are Shizona Tanaka (’26) and Sophie Tagima Toriumi (‘38) and prospective students are Helen Matsunaga and Akira Shiraishi.

The following is an overview of the types of materials in the online digital archive as of June 10, 2005:

Over 275 digital copies of letters and papers of Remsen Bird
5 issues of camp and assembly center publications
6 examples of pamphlets and reports from the U.S. government and civilian War Relocation Authority
3 representative items of contemporary periodicals and newspaper articles
3 publications representing civil liberties groups and community bulletins

The digital database is powered by Content DM ®, a digital content management system. The Occidental College collection is hosted on the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) server in Ohio.

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Design features

The Online Project strives to offer different ways for researchers of all ages and interests to learn more about the collection and have direct access to the primary source materials.

*The Website is an overview of the collection and website pages are organized according to the topics of content in the collection. It provides context for the digital images in the archive, offers customized links to an individual or group of records in the digital archive, and highlights the corresponding section in the Research guide.

*The digital archive is a database of images and records that enables direct access to surrogate images of the primary source materials. The Series data field in the individual item description corresponds to the topics pages of the Website and the Series descriptions in the Research Guide.

*The Research Guide is a comprehensive document to provide historical background, describe the intellectual organization of the materials, and describe the physical holdings. It is a formal finding aid adhering descriptive standards and practices of the archival community.

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Copyright, privacy & publicity

Occidental College Library is making its resources available for non-commercial educational and research purposes only. Digital images are surrogate representations of real documents held in the Special Collections of the Occidental College Library. Some images may represent copyrighted works and should not be downloaded or otherwise used without permission.

Property rights reside with the Occidental College Library. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the librarian at Special Collections.

Privacy and publicity rights reflect separate and distinct interest from copyright. Occidental College Library has sought permission from the authors of letters and papers included in the digital archive solely for the inclusion of their letters in the digital archive. Patrons desiring to use materials from the website bear the responsibility of making individualized determinations as to whether privacy or publicity rights are implicated by the nature of the materials and how they use such materials.

Occidental College Library wants to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified on this Website so that we may make the necessary corrections.

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Project staff & acknowledgments

The Planning Committee and Staff:

Shirley Hallblade, Library Director
Dale Stieber, Digital Archivist and Project Manager
Kathy Lo, Digital Archive Assistant

Michael Sutherland (deceased April 4, 2005), Head of Special Collections
Emily Bergman, Head of Collections and Technical Services
Mark Braden, Catalog Librarian
John de La Fontaine, Systems Librarian
Jean Paule, College Archivist
Leila Pazargadi, Mellon Library Associate
Adrienne Banner, Reference and Instruction Assistant

Student Contributors:
Mitchell Abe, Mellon Intern, Spring 2005
Shana Khader, Student Library Assistant, 2004-05
Jennifer Masunaga, Mellon Intern, Spring 2004
Sarah Lehmann, Mellon Intern, Spring 2004
Alex Santillanes, Student Library Assistant, 2004-05
Anil Sindhurakar, Mellon Intern, Spring 2005
Alexis Harasemovitch Truax, Mellon Intern, Spring 2005

Additional Support:
John Dobbins, Reference Librarian
David Reed, Information Technologist
Nick Vance, Library Technical Assistant, 2004-05 and Ira Pietojo, ATS

Special Thanks:
Norman S. Cohen, Robert Glass Cleland Professor of American History, Emeritus, Occidental College

Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Brooklyn College; Kiyoko Nishiyama Finucane; Carol Fromm; Calvin Kanow; Joanne Kanow; Arthur Nakata; Marian Shaw; Ted Tajima; Sophie Tajima Toriumi; Richard Takagaki; Iko Tanzawa Suzuki; Frank Tanaka.

Thanks to archivists and librarians with digital collections for sharing their description and technical standards, copyright policies and development procedures.

For more information about the Online Project and the Collection:
Dale Stieber, Digital Archivist
323.259.1481
dstieber@oxy.edu

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