Highlights Brochure,, 2008-2009

This collection of records pertains to the development of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. TIt is expected that there will be additional and regular acquisitions of materials from the School of Computer Science.

The records are predominantly administrative materials related to the functioning of the Department. There is also a selection of video-taped lectures from the early 1970s. These records compliment the public documents such as the Faculty Research Review and catalog in providing an impression of the development of a successful research department (facility, institution) The records take their rightful place in the larger history of the development of Computer Science as a scholarly discipline.

Primarily, the records in this collection stem from the tenure of Joseph Traub as head of the department, and seem to consist of records which came directly from his former office. There are few records from the period prior to 1970 or after 1979. The records that do exist from these eras contain less administrative materials in comparison to the records from the 1970s. The 1970s are the exception. There are few departmental planning documents from any other period. It is not known whether these documents still exist, and if they do, where they are located.

Notably, there are few materials which document the main transitions of the department. There are no records relating to the formation of the Computation Center in 1955 nor are there representations of the evolution of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon which led to the formation of the Computer Science Department. The supporting documents relating to the formation of the School of Computer Science are also absent.

Every attempt was made to incorporate the original notes on the folders into the file folder descriptions, but most folders were re-labeled according to standards of archival practice. It was not always known who created the folder labels, as the materials were re-housed at some point after accessioning.