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Grateful Dead Archives Given to UCSC
It is a thrill to write to tell you that the surviving members of the iconic rock 'n' roll band, the Grateful Dead, have selected the UCSC Library as the permanent home for their substantial archive of materials documenting the band's history.
April 24, 2008
To: Members of the UCSC Community
Fr: Ginny Steel, University Librarian
Re: Grateful Dead Archives Given to UCSC
It is a thrill to write to tell you that the surviving members of the iconic rock 'n' roll band, the Grateful Dead, have selected the UCSC Library as the permanent home for their substantial archive of materials documenting the band's history. The collection will be the largest donation ever made to the library's Special Collections Department, and it includes more than 2,000 square feet of memorabilia, artifacts, and other documents. This incomparable archive will undoubtedly become a major resource for research related to the Grateful Dead, the phenomenon of the Deadheads, American music, and popular culture during the last three decades of the 20th century.
The formal announcement of this gift will be made this morning at a press conference to be held at the Fillmore in San Francisco, a singularly appropriate venue where the band performed many times. Chancellor Blumenthal will be present to accept the archive on behalf of the campus, and he will be joined by Grateful Dead band members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart.
UCSC has a long tradition of academic interest in the Grateful Dead. Fred Lieberman, professor of music, teaches a course on the band, and he has also collaborated with Mickey Hart on two books, Planet Drum and Drumming at the Edge of Magic. It was through Professor Lieberman that we first became aware of the search for a home for the archive.
The Library will be raising funds to support the processing and preservation of the archive, and, as work on it begins, we will provide regular updates on our web site.
The press conference, which will begin at 11 a.m., will be streamed live on the web. You can access it via a link on the UCSC home page; a press release, providing more information about this substantial gift, will also be posted there at that time.
To: Members of the UCSC Community
Fr: Ginny Steel, University Librarian
Re: Grateful Dead Archives Given to UCSC
It is a thrill to write to tell you that the surviving members of the iconic rock 'n' roll band, the Grateful Dead, have selected the UCSC Library as the permanent home for their substantial archive of materials documenting the band's history. The collection will be the largest donation ever made to the library's Special Collections Department, and it includes more than 2,000 square feet of memorabilia, artifacts, and other documents. This incomparable archive will undoubtedly become a major resource for research related to the Grateful Dead, the phenomenon of the Deadheads, American music, and popular culture during the last three decades of the 20th century.
The formal announcement of this gift will be made this morning at a press conference to be held at the Fillmore in San Francisco, a singularly appropriate venue where the band performed many times. Chancellor Blumenthal will be present to accept the archive on behalf of the campus, and he will be joined by Grateful Dead band members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart.
UCSC has a long tradition of academic interest in the Grateful Dead. Fred Lieberman, professor of music, teaches a course on the band, and he has also collaborated with Mickey Hart on two books, Planet Drum and Drumming at the Edge of Magic. It was through Professor Lieberman that we first became aware of the search for a home for the archive.
The Library will be raising funds to support the processing and preservation of the archive, and, as work on it begins, we will provide regular updates on our web site.
The press conference, which will begin at 11 a.m., will be streamed live on the web. You can access it via a link on the UCSC home page; a press release, providing more information about this substantial gift, will also be posted there at that time.
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To: UCSC Community
Fr: Barry Shiller, Associate Vice Chancellor Communications and Public Affairs
Re: Grateful Dead Archive gift to UCSC generates widespread news coverage, interest
Yesterday morning in San Francisco, two former Grateful Dead band members announced a gift of their extensive archival memorabilia to UCSC's McHenry Library Special Collections. Following that press event, which generated extensive national media coverage, Chancellor Blumenthal visited with the San Francisco Chronicle's opinion/editorial board.
The Chronicle published an editorial related to his visit on today's Opinion page; the full text of that editorial follows. Below that is a sampling of regional, national and international coverage of the band's gift to UCSC. Video and radio coverage will follow next week. All coverage will later be archived and accessible via the university website.
Editorial
Truckin' to UC Santa Cruz
Chancellor George Blumenthal likes to point out that UC Santa Cruz has outgrown its image of the 1970s. Those who might think of it as a laid-back haven of organic obsessions, long breaks to the beaches and woods and a soft-focus grading system should know that it's on "an upward trajectory" and has become one of the more selective UC campuses.
Blumenthal cites the five alums who won Pulitzers and the dimensions of its pioneering telescopes in Hawaii among the evidence of its growing reputation for excellence.
Casual observers can be forgiven for wondering how its acquisition of the Grateful Dead archives - to be showcased in the library - fits into the school's stereotype-busting vision. It does, it really does, Blumenthal told our editorial board Thursday. Not to worry, he said, there won't be a conflict between the "Dead Central" exhibit and serious students trying to focus with their noses in their books. After all, UC Santa Cruz is on the cutting edge in another way: Its entire library collection is being scanned to be available online. "The library of the 21st century is not going to be musty books sitting on shelves," he explained.
The chancellor proudly noted that Santa Cruz's competition for the Dead archives included UC Berkeley and Stanford. "That's the advantage of being a little smaller and hungrier," he said with a smile.
It's quite a coup for a campus that welcomes an intensified spotlight. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New York Times:
A Deadhead's Dream for a Campus Archive
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/us/24grateful.html
San Francisco Chronicle:
Grateful Dead archives going to UC Santa Cruz
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/23/DDML109ACN.DTL
Wall Street Journal:
California University Gets 'Grateful Dead' Archive
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120898412777739385.html
BBC:
Grateful Dead donate band archive
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7367152.stm