News

One of the Stanford's latest (and greatest) digital humanities efforts is ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World, a collaboration between the Stanford University Libraries and Professor Walter Scheidel of the Stanford Classics Department. ORBIS was released in early May, 2012, to great acclaim and accompanied by masses of web traffic and multiple write-ups in the popular Internet press. But now it's receiving more attention of a different and more substantial nature: professional reviews and attention in the scholarly press.

Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts, known by many simply as Ed Ricketts, was an American marine biologist, ecologist, and philosopher. He is best known for the publication Between Pacific Tides (1939), a pioneering study of intertidal ecology, and for his friendship with writer John Steinbeck, which resulted in their collaboration on the Sea of Cortez, later republished as The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951). Steinbeck based the character “Doc” in his novel “Cannery Row” on Ed Ricketts.

Maps of Africa: Workshop
Tuesday, October 9, 2012. Noon - 1 pm

This workshop will focus on both the physical and digital collections of Maps of Africa at Stanford. We will explore ways to find Maps of Africa online; we will also have on display several of Stanford's Maps of Africa from its rare map collections.

Cynthia Haven's story in the September 12 issue of The Dish reports that Stanford University Libraries has acquired the archives of BRUCE BAILLIE, a major figure in the development of counter-cultural filmmaking in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two years ago, Special Collections acquired the archives for Canyon Cinema, one of the leading distributors of avant-garde independent films, founded by Baillie, so the pair of acquisitions effectively completes the set. The story quotes Henry Lowood in his role as curator for film & media collections.