Introduction
Recently, there has been a flurry of interest within the Electromagnetic Compatibility Society of the IEEE relative to “digitizing” historical documents and records of the Society. The interest is keyed to the “aging” of our members coupled with the constant technological change we are experiencing. This article takes a look at that issue and recommends some possible avenues of cooperation for our members.
Hard-Copy Records
Historically, the EMC Society has stored its records in hard-copy format. Since our Society is only 54 years old, this has been a satisfactory solution. When we want to research a topic, we look to find the information in hard-copy format.
For example, in researching the 50th Anniversary of the Society in 2007, we (the 50th Anniversary Committee) relied heavily on paper copies of the Emc-s Transactions, the IEEE International Symposium on EMC publications, the Emc-s Newsletter, and personal records of Founders of the Society.
As the Chair of the Society’s History Committee, I rely heavily on my personal hard-copy library of the above-mentioned documents. For example, to write the article in this issue on “50-25-10 Years Ago”; I relied on donated Newsletters from Ed Bronaugh and Leonard Thomas, both EMC Society Members. Mr. Bronaugh donated his Newsletters voluntarily for the 50th Anniversary while Mr. Thomas’s donations were gleaned from his numerous file cabinets in the basement of his home in the Washington, DC area some years after his death.
We can always read hard-copy records if they are stored safely and they are not damaged by the ravages of time and environment. It is difficult to store paper records because they take a lot of space and we do not have an EMC Society library in which to store the records.
Micro-Fiche Records
In the early 1990s, Chester ‘Chet’ Smith was the Society’s History Committee Chair and he spearheaded a project to put our records on Micro-Fiche. He succeeded in capturing the Newsletters from 1957 through 1991 plus the Quasies and Peaks Newsletter in the mid-1950s. He also had all the Armour Conference Records from the 1950s and early 1960s plus the IEEE Symposium Records through 1992.
Unfortunately, micro-fiche readers are a rarity these days and, beside the Society’s present History Committee Chair (the author); who else has a copy of the microfiche records?
Electronic Records
The IEEE and the EMC Society of the IEEE have been working on “digitizing” the Society’s records. These records are then accessed through the IEEE Xplore program.
This is a convenient solution to storing the records and documents of the EMC Society.
At the present time, we can access at least the following Society records:
- IEEE Transactions on RFI–1963
- IEEE Transactions on EMC–1964–2011
- IEEE International Symposium on EMC–1988–2010
- IEEE EMC Society Newsletter–Winter/2003–Present (Issues 196–229).
Unfortunately, we have numerous records and documents that are not yet digitized and available on Xplore. This includes the RFI Transactions from 1957 -1962 and the IEEE International Symposium on EMC conference records from 1957 – 1988. Also, the Newsletters from 1957 – 2003 and the Armour Conference Records in the 1950s.
In addition to the Society’s missing records, we have many private papers from engineering individuals in the Society that could be very valuable for future research in the area of EMC engineering. How do we decide what to save in a digital format? Who makes the decision? The Society’s Board of Directors?
How could individual EMC Chapters help on this project? Could they scan documents into a system that is compatible with Xplore? Could volunteers scan documents into Xplore or must it be done by a professional organization?
Your thoughts and ideas are solicited. Send them to the Chair of the History Committee, danhoolihanemc@aol.com. EMC
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