Library Special Collections Blog
'There it is -- take it': UCLA Library launches L.A. Aqueduct platform

"It is my honor to make this extraordinary new resource available to UCLA students and faculty, residents of Southern California and scholars around the world," said UCLA University Librarian Ginny Steel. "Creating a resource to fully explore such a transformative event in Los Angeles history required an equally innovative platform, and we are grateful to our funder and our partners for their invaluable contributions." Scheduled for launch on the aqueduct's Nov. 5 centennial, the platform is accessible at http://digital.library.ucla.edu/aqueduct. Users will find almost 2,000 digitized photographs, documents, maps, pamphlets and other archival resources from UCLA Library Special Collections. The platform also offers social and cultural engagement space in which scholars, students and members of the public can share research and work with primary sources as a community.

"The 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Aqueduct is not just an important opportunity to reflect on our history, it is also proving to be an important turning point in how we think about and manage water for the next century," said Jon Christensen, adjunct assistant professor of history, journalist-in-residence and senior researcher at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "By opening up the archives to students, scholars and the public through new digital technologies, this platform is putting at our fingertips the primary sources we need to understand our past, think creatively about the present and tell new stories about water, the environment and the city in the future."
Original research projects were produced for the platform by graduate students in the UCLA Library's Center for Primary Research and Training. They include a series of narrative essays paired with archival photographs, created by a doctoral candidate in cinema studies, and a community-sourced poetry project involving renowned Californian poets, writers and artists, developed by a student in the English doctoral program.

New digital content will be added in the coming months from institutional partners — the Braun Research Library at the Autry National Center; Special Collections in the Honnold/Mudd Library at the Claremont Colleges and the Claremont Colleges Digital Library; the Oviatt Library at California State University Northridge; the Eastern California Museum; the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University; and the UC Riverside Libraries Water Resources Collections and Archives. The Los Angeles Aqueduct Digital Platform was made possible through a partnership with Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio. The practice of Bon and her team focuses on paradigm shifts, producing devices of wonder to create the potential for transforming social, political and physical brownfields into healthy and productive living systems. Dawn Setzer, dsetzer@library.ucla.edu 310-825-0746
Library Special Collections
UCLA Library Special Collections Blog
Archives
- November 2022 (1)
- October 2022 (2)
- September 2022 (2)
- August 2022 (1)
- May 2022 (2)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (2)
- October 2021 (2)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (1)
- April 2021 (5)
- March 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (2)
- January 2020 (3)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (1)
- December 2018 (4)
- October 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (2)
- October 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (3)
- May 2017 (5)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (2)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (2)
- October 2016 (2)
- September 2016 (1)
- July 2016 (1)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (2)
- July 2015 (1)
- June 2015 (5)
- May 2015 (4)
- April 2015 (5)
- March 2015 (6)
- February 2015 (7)
- January 2015 (2)
- December 2014 (3)
- November 2014 (3)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (6)
- July 2014 (4)
- June 2014 (2)
- May 2014 (3)
- April 2014 (7)
- March 2014 (2)
- February 2014 (5)
- January 2014 (2)
- November 2013 (3)
- October 2013 (6)
- September 2013 (4)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (2)
- June 2013 (5)
- May 2013 (5)
- April 2013 (3)
- March 2013 (3)
- February 2013 (3)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (3)
- November 2012 (2)
- October 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (3)
- August 2012 (3)
- July 2012 (2)
- June 2012 (4)
- May 2012 (2)
- April 2012 (5)
- March 2012 (1)
- February 2012 (5)
- January 2012 (6)
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (4)
- July 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (1)
- March 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (1)