Projects at Palomar:  New and Traditional Roles for the Caltech Library

Abstract

In the last year, two projects illustrate opportunities for our Library to work in new ways to document and preserve the research of Palomar and Caltech. Observing log books from Palomar telescopes are being digitized and presented online. These logs go back to the 1930s and are a unique window into early observing activities at Palomar. Eventually, both observer and plate logs will be available. We envision astronomers, amateur astronomers and those interested in the history of science being interested in this work. Current Palomar research has different needs. Our institutional repository (IR), CaltechAUTHORS is used to track and expose research associated with the Zwicky Transient Factory. This National Science Foundation (NSF) funded instrument is mounted on the 48-inch telescope at Palomar. CaltechAUTHORS is continuously updated with new papers and when NSF reports are due they are added to research.gov to support the award. In both of these projects new collaborations needed to be forged in order to accomplish the work. Internally, the log book project relied on interlibrary loan staff, our archivist and our digital technologies librarian. On the Palomar side we leaned on retired and current staff from the optical observatories. Our work supporting research grants has evolved as we’ve established relationships with PIs, grants managers and the Office of Sponsored Research at Caltech. These are just two projects but both represent work that is evolving as the library and its services adjust to meet the changing research and preservation needs of the Institute.