Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 9/21/09 Section: News

Media Credit: digitalcollections.sjlibrary.org Photos from the collection feature photos such as this one from the 1931 SJSU Homecoming.

SJSU students and the community will now have an easier way to access the history of SJSU and the Santa Clara Valley through the new library digital collections database.

"The Digitized Collections Database was created because we have a lot of interesting collections in our special collections department and California Room that's not easy for people to get to," said John Wenzler, associate dean for digital futures. "We wanted a place where people could go online and see the photographs we have about San Jose history and university history."

Stacy Mueller, California Room's lead librarian, said the database is a joint project by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library and San Jose Public Library.

The library has digitized over 3,000 items so far, including photos, maps, atlases, pamphlets and yearbooks, Mueller said.

"The goal is to digitize a little bit from each of our great collections, so people can have a taste of what we do have," she said. "We want to make things more accessible, but the likelihood that we would be able to digitize everything is out there."

Digitized images and documents are materials that need to be preserved, but can still remain accessible, Mueller said.

On the other side, most popular things that people need are also digitized, she said.

Senior biology major Jennifer Say said the new database is something she would use.

"The database is a great tool for students who need information with research, or they just have a general interest about SJSU's history and culture," she said. "I can see myself accessing it for school."

The database is not only accessible for SJSU students, but also the public, Mueller said.

"The audience that we're hoping to reach is not just SJSU, but the whole community," she said. "That includes K through 12, people in the community who are interested in local history and it will be a tool for people who are writing papers and need an image to go along with it."

The digital database collections are made up of smaller collections from the special collections department and California Room, Mueller said.

The special collections department in King Library features documents that no other libraries have and things that, in most cases, are not published, Wenzler said.

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