For Einstein’s Birthday, Hebrew U. Unveils Online Archive of Physicist’s Work

March 18, 2011, 12:09 pm

Jerusalem—To mark Israel’s National Science Day on March 14, which by no coincidence is also Einstein’s birthday, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced that his entire archive of 80,000 documents held as a bequest by the university will be digitized and put online, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Polonsky Foundation of London.

“Our goal is to build a user-friendly, inclusive digital database,” said Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of Hebrew University and a professor of history.

The project will make the full archive accessible for students and researchers everywhere, as well as ensure its preservation for future generations.

Einstein’s papers were originally housed at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he was appointed to a professorship in 1933 after fleeing Nazi Germany and remained until his death in 1955. Einstein was among the founders of Hebrew University and left his entire archive to the university in his will.

The Einstein archives are considered one of the most significant resources in the world for the history of modern physics. They contain many of his original scientific manuscripts and Einstein’s personal correspondence to and from family and friends, as well as writings on political and other matters during his lifetime.

The digitization project is expected to be completed in about one year, when it will be readily accessible on the Albert Einstein Archives Web site.

“This project unites the Hebrew University Library with digitization projects of the Polonsky Foundation recently launched at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library and Cambridge University Library,” said Leonard Polonsky, executive chairman of Hansard Global PLC and head of the foundation that is backing the digitization.

Since 2003, the Einstein Archives Online has allowed viewing and browsing of 3,000 digitized images of 900 documents selected from Einstein’s writings, together with a Finding Aid allowing access to descriptions of the entire repository of Einstein papers at the university.

An archival database has allowed direct access to approximately 43,000 records of Einstein-related documents, but not to their content. Until now, Internet users have been only been able to access images of Einstein’s handwritten manuscripts. Facsimiles of correspondence, typewritten manuscripts, photos, and audio material have not been available online.

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http://twitter.com/orgelknab Kevin Ballard

Thanks for sharing this information! As a K-12 and Higher Education educator, I often encourage my students to use primary source such as those found in the Library of Congress. I recently taught an 8th grade lesson for a Social Studies class studying propaganda as found in WWI posters and a college humanities course which was studying the contribution of photography to documenting the Civil War. Both classes used the Digital Collections portion of the Library of Congress to examine primary sources in the research and learning process. I look forward to examining the works of Einstein!
mbelvadi

Is this going to be a free archive? The article doesn’t say so explicitly. We’ve seen in the CHE language like “readily accessible” and “accessible for students and researchers everywhere” used in the past to describe digitization projects that it turns out require an institutional license (for money) to access. If it’s going to be free to all Internet users, please say “freely accessible”.
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look123

Here here to hands off leadership! I was always so impressed with a boss I had many years ago who was the first in the door, the last to leave and the hardest worker. His diligence and hard work was always my inspiration to to put in after work hours of my own to make a presentation or assignment the very best it could be.
mmullins

There are many leadership models out there, but this advice is sage. Having served under many Chairs and Deans, I have always found that the most effective leaders are those who listen, who are flexible, and who are fair. Those who discriminate, bully, intimidate, treat others unfairly, and manipulate don’t last too long, ultimately lack effectiveness, or die of stress and overwork.
ksbeardedgai

Very good points…Control goes hand-in-hand with micro-managing…both of which tend to neglect the skills and expertise of those hired to do their jobs. I resigned a senior-level position last fall because my supervisor, a Provost, ordered me (in those exact words) to hire someone within one of the units within my area, against the advice of myself and the Director of the unit.
profjw

Yeah but …

if the leadership literature tells us anything, it is that no one leadership style is right for all situations. If you are a new leader coming into a well-functioning organization — by all means listen long and hard, don’t make any sudden changes, and build consensus before you do. On the other hand, if you are creating something new, or specifically hired to clean up a mess, or under tremendous time pressure for various other issues — you may not have the luxury of moving so slowly and you may well have to quickly (if not immediately) issue a couple of edicts and change some personnel around. Even in that situation: humility, listening to others, remaining flexible and acknowledging when you are wrong are characteristics which are also compatible with moving quickly and leading actual change.

Years ago I was an observer in a mock-emergency drill, where the person in command was very effective in his usual job, which called for and rewarded for a consensus building, constituent consulting type of style. But in this particular situation, this person was tasked with the task of deciding whether to evacuate a dorm which was very near a hazardous waste fire or whether to try to arrange a way to protect them in place. After 15 minutes of deliberation, the “commander” said “we need a decision” to which this person replied “I need to gather some more input, can I call in a few more people?” The “commander” sputtered, my administrator looked truly perplexed, and I (as the observer) had a hard time not laughing out loud. In the debriefing, we were told in a true situation the delay would probably have killed students.

Nothing wrong with issuing an edict or two once and a while, or even doing so quickly — in the appropriate circumstances.
robjenkins

Even in an academic setting, profjw? And even when the edicts concern matters that ought to be determined by faculty members serving on policy councils, curriculm committees, and other established shared governance bodies?
lewandowski

Some real good common sense answers here. The reason that the bully comes into power is because the administration above want someone else to be their hatchman. So they are not hiring leaders but sniveling followers who do their bidding and whose average life-span in such positions is about 5-years. These leeches do not have humility or listen, their orders are cut and dry. I am sad to say this, but these are the facts of life whether in higher ed or industry.
goodeyes

I hope my new Dean reads this article. She has destroyed lots of trust.
ebrownst

Just like anything, there needs to be a balance. Listening is essential, but sometimes it can lead to delayed decisions or even make it so decisions are never made. Paralysis is common in higher education. However, decisions without listening means less creative solutions.
cbres

Great advice and observations. My only suggestion would be to add to this line

‘listening to those who have been there longer’

the words, ‘and also to the newcomers.’ Just as a new administrator, especially from outside the institution, brings insight and new approaches, so too can newer faculty and staff.
bhay9341

I assumed that the author was talking about a leadership style. Just because you follow a style does not mean you cannot act in another fashion. A good leader must recognize when a situation truly calls for immediate decisions and actions and then act in that fashion. When the situation is otherwise a more deliberate, listening, consensus building style can be followed.
kmessina

I presume that you are referring to those leaders who are bullies with your sniveling, leech comments, rather than all leaders? Because there are in fact many administrators who do listen, have humility, and carefully consider input, both in higher ed and industry. I am sorry that you have not been fortunate enough to work with them. Maybe you could become that type of leader?
tgroleau

“Even in an academic setting?” Maybe.

Suppose you take over an academic division that offers five different flavors of an introductory tools/techniques course (more or less one from each department). Upon examination you learn that these are courses are 80 to 90% similar in content and objectives but came about over time due to various divisional spats about staffing and/or pet topics. Add to the mix that every department involved claims they are short handed and need more faculty resources.

I tend to be a laissez faire leader but should I really ignore this situation and just get out of way of my people? Should I issue a firm edict to the departments telling them to work together to create a unified staffing plan for a new single course and don’t bother bringing me any new faculty requests until you’ve done it?

Personally I’ve chosen a middle-of-the-road route. I raised this issue with our division’s strategic planning team (playing the collaborator role) and made it a goal in our strategic plan. This way I’ve cued people that there’s an issue and given them about a year’s notice that they’re going to have to deal with it.

However, when we start working on it next year I guarantee that there will be resistance. At some point I may have to put on a hard-nosed controller hat and twist some arms.

I can easily see that in some situations academic leaders need a far more controlling style than most faculty would like. Hopefully the above situation won’t become one of them.
dxg197

I wish my Provost would read this. He treats faculty more like lines on an expense report than professionals and keeps hiring incompetent administrators to make critical decisions. These are the kinds of things that can kill an organization.
robjenkins

So send it to him anonymously via The Chronicle’s e-mail function. Or print it and put it in the campus mail. I wrote this for administrators like the one you describe, although with no great hope that many of them would read it, or that they would recognize themselves if they did.
hvaline

Here here to leadership through servitude and humility, indeed! Coming from a Jesuit tradition, I strongly believe that a leader works for his/her staff and faculty. It’s not about ordering people , but rather persuading them through dialogue and collaboration. It’s with much appreciation that I remember my former boss who always thanked us ( the staff) for allowing him to work for us and with us. It made us feel valued and contributing members of the university community.
hh

Well said.
Sun Tzu: ”A leader leads by example not by force.”
Lao Tzu: ”The more laws and order are made prominent, The more thieves and robbers there will be.”
Mahatma Gandhi: ”I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
djpuser

I
couldn’t agree more. I would only add that the qualities that distinguish great
leaders can equally be used to describe those that distinguish great teachers,
namely a caring empathetic attitude combined with honesty and hard work,
striving to bring out the best in those around them through attainably high
expectations and rewarding them with deserving recognition. Setting goals,
staying focused and instilling motivation could equally describe the work of a
classroom leader as well as an administrative leader. We probably all have daily
opportunities to be a great leader through situations that arise with students,
colleagues, and yes, subordinates.
kingfarouk

I have no problem with allowing people to strip or do “erotic dancing” with all the necessary protection for the dancers in place, and no doubt some see do it as an art form. The opinions of the Christian right are, as usual, ridiculous, but I have trouble seeing what looks to me like vulgar gyrating by women for men whose aesthetic education probably doesn’t equip them to distinguish a waltz from a line-dance as an art form. It’s not obscene– it’s merely vulgar. Why do some men want to gawp at women as if they were objects when they can go home and have a good erotic time with their significant others?
dank48

I love the notion that “spiritual leaders” seek temporal power over other people’s activities. Where in any scriptures that aren’t obvious bologna does it say religion is about telling other people what they may and may not do? Almost as amusing is the assumption of some that college professors have anything relevant to say about how other people spend their time or, for that matter, earn their money.

Where on earth do these irrelevant self-appointed arbiters of morals get the idea that anyone else gives a FRA what they like?

To quote someone I totally disagree with theologically but have to admire ethically, when asked whether he thought Jimmy Swaggert, who was embarrassingly in the news at the time, might in fact be a good Christian, Billy Graham said, “It isn’t my business to worry about whether Jimmy Swaggert is a good Christian. It’s my business to worry about whether Billy Graham is a good Christian.”
11182967

Although female exotic/erotic dancing is no doubt more prevalent than the male version, this is by no means a gender specific activity. There are plenty of guys dancing bare, so to speak, but I can’t recall any “community protest” efforts aimed at them. The difference in the typical venue probably accounts for some of this. Women tend to be featured in “strip clubs,” places specifically intended to feature exotic dancing which are often clustered in a particular area (referred to in our neck of the woods as “the badlands”). Male strippers are more likely to be hired on occasion–birthdays, bachelorette parties, etc.–and appear in a home or office or after hours in a non-public event at a “regular” club. Strip clubs make evil more readily locatable and permit the activity to be attacked in the guise of attacking the location (“Those clubs give our town a bad name” . . .”They’re too near that school/chruch/retirement home,” etc.).

But that still doesn’t fully explain why anti-stripping efforts seem to be aimed almost exclusively at women. Nor does it quite explain why academic research on stripping also seems to focus almost totally on women. Admittedly my comments here are impressionistic–I haven’t googled or otherwise researched this apparent prevalence of female strippers as objects/subects of attack/support, so maybe someone with expertise can correct me. But it seems to me that this very focus on “wicked women” and almost complete ignoring of “nasty men” in the same business is a worthy subject for research. Sexism, like racism, is so endemic in our society that sometimes we seem not to even think of the most obvious questions. As I recall, Adam started out naked, too.
thenomad

I think it’s great that there’s research out there that demonstrates the art form that erotic dancing can be. What worries me is the difference between the good and the bad clubs. Perhaps our system is less regulated, as we have few chains of gentlemen’s clubs, but I wonder how many of the dancers interviewed were victims of human trafficking. I have no issue with women who might choose this profession. I know that not all of them are suffering from the issues that Socratease2 mentioned as some dancers have been found to be college students who felt it to be the best option to fund their educations. But I know in my community, one of our big concerns is the clubs where women have been trafficked and have been forced to dance, benefitting them in no way. If there was some way to prevent that, I’d feel a lot better about the strip clubs in my community being open for business.