In the archives: scanning

A lot of work goes on in the archives, and a big part of that activity involves scanning old photographs, slides, books and other materials. The images are used to answer questions individuals have asked, to document the history of a club or a professor, for all sorts of purposes. In addition to two high end flat bed scanners of the sort most people are familiar with, the archives also has a large "book scanner," seen in the foreground of this photo. This scanner has an articulated platform on which one can safely lay out a large book, in this case a bound volume of the Stylus from the early 1960s. The scanning is done by a camera in the overhead mount.We're not sure why SpongeBob SquarePants is sitting on our scanner however ;-)

The "AV" gang in the 1950s

There is a long tradition of innovation at Brockport in the realm of instructional technologies. Dr. Sherwin Swartout was a leader in this field, joining the faculty at Brockport in 1950. The audio-visual department he headed supported both still photography, slide show and other standard AV offerings, and was also a pioneer in the use of closed circuit TV in the classroom. Much of this work was done in conjunction with the teachers in the Campus School, like Peg Browne. Shown here are a group of students in the '50s, members of the audio-visual club perhaps.

The "Normalia"

This year, 2014, is the centennial year of the Stylus, which was first published in May 1914. Everyone is familiar with the Stylus of course, but it isn't the first student news publication in our history. In 1900 the first ever student news piece was launched, named the Normalia. Presumably the name reflected the fact that our school was "Normal" school then, that is a teacher training institution. The Normalia ran from 1900 - 1908, and then ceased publication. Financial issues appear to have caused its demise. A few years later the Stylus was launched, and in many ways followed the model of the Normalia. Like the Normalia, the early Stylus was a magazine in format, published four times during the school year, and featured not only news about students and the school, but regularly ran short fiction pieces, poems and other literary efforts. Pictured here is the cover of the first issue of the Normalia from 1900.