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Congress 2013
On June 5, 2013 the History and Archives group will be presenting a paper at Congress in Victoria, Canada
"Click, Whir, Zing, ZOT! You've Got a Date!: The Early Use of Computers on a University Campus"
Abstract
How were computers discussed by a university public? Computers
made their way onto the campuses of large post-secondary
institutions beginning in the late 1940s1. This paper looks at how
computers and computing were discussed through the student and
university newspapers of the University of Alberta. A combination
of content analysis and close reading methods teased out three
themes that will be discussed in the paper:
1. How computers became research and funding priorities in the
University. How a breadth of faculties including Arts and Education
were experimenting with computing early on.
2. How the administrative use of computers contributed to growing
anxieties on campus specifically about privacy and data
collection.
3. How the computer was used for entertainment purposes like dating
and match-making.
Though the University of Alberta had a Computing Centre beginning
in 1957 the first mention of the world ???computer??? in the
Gateway student newspaper appears in a 1959 article describing
ongoing campus construction projects; one of which includes a
designated space for the University???s new digital computer, also
referred to as the ???electronic brain???2. Originally used for
research purposes in math, science, and engineering, the computer
quickly became a useful tool in other faculties including Arts,
Education, and Agriculture. By 1965 the University of Alberta was
on its third computer, the IBM 7040, and it was being used around
the clock.???Image - Users of Computing Facility for Research
In addition to research, the computer was used for a number of administrative purposes on campus as well. From the assembly of the telephone directory4 to accounting services5 computers assisted with day-to-day activities, though not always with the appreciation of staff and students. In the late 1960s anxieties over the use of computers in society and the potential threat to privacy grew as catchphrases like ???Do not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate??? indicate.6 At Sir George William University in Montreal students protesting discriminatory treatment by a faculty member occupied and then set fire to the University???s Computer Centre causing $2 million dollars in damage7. The protestors??? choice to take over this building is symbolic of the importance of the computer for universities at this time as well as students??? distrust and contempt for these machines. Nevertheless in the student newspaper a number of articles at the same time were dedicated to computer dating and matchmaking. Regardless of the apparent suspicion of computers university students always found time for love. The project team???s ultimate goal is to understand public perceptions of computing (and humanities computing) in Canada but to do so we must first understand the history of the discourse around computing on campus.
BibliographyLubar, Steven. ??????Do Not Fold, Spindle or
Mutilate???: A Cultural History of the Punch Card.??? Journal of
American Culture, Vol 15, issue 4 (Winter 1992), pages 43-55.
DOI:??10.1111/j.1542-734X.1992.1504_43.x
Oke, David. ???Quaret-million deficit for SU.??? Gateway, October 5, 1976, Page 3.
Scott, D.B. ???The Computer Centre.??? Folio, December 15, 1965, Page 1-2.
Unknown. ???$2 million damage at Sir George William as frustrated students burn, smash comp centre.??? Gateway, February 13, 1969, Page 3.
Unknown. ???New Telephone Directory.??? Gateway, October 25, 1963, Page 4.
Unknown. ???Three Modern Buildings with Better Facilities
Nearing Completion.??? Gateway, November 6, 1959, Page 9.
Paper
How were computers discussed by a university public? A 1966article in the University of Alberta student newspaper TheGateway begins with: "Attention, love-starved students.Tired of sitting home on Friday nights reading "Gulliver'sTravels"? Board with lonely carrels in Cameron Library? Throwaway your books, your solitude, and your inhibitions. CupidComputer, the scientific approach to dating is presently beingintroduced at the U of A". After filling out an 80 questionquestionnaire, and once their surveys are ran through a computer todetermine compatibility, Cupid Computer participants are promisedthe chance to find "ideal" dates. Originating out ofLondon, Ontario by the company Computronics the program is broughtto local campuses by university students themselves and hailed as"Canada's foremost IBM Dating Service" (Coryphaeus,1966-67, v7, no09, pg 3-4).
In this paper we are going to look at early references to
computers in three campus publications: the student newspaper
This paper will:
- Describe our methodology;
- Present an historical account of the arrival of computers on the University of Alberta campus;
- Identify the themes that appeared
Methodology
Our methodology was a combination of content analysis and close reading. Peel's Praire Provinces is a resource of the University of Alberta Libraries; an online bibliography of books, newspaper issues, and other materials related to the development of the Prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Using this website we searched The Gateway*, New Trail and the Folio for all references to computer and downloaded for reading and coding all the relevant articles.
archive for all references to ???computer??? and downloaded for reading and coding all the relevant articles. From the first decade of items we collected classifieds, advertisements, opinion pieces and traditional news items. As the frequency of the word ???computer??? increased exponentially we began to limit what we downloaded to news and editorials.
History
Computers made their way onto the campuses of largepost-secondary institutions beginning in the late 1940s . In 1957the University of Alberta became the third university in Canadawith a computing facility, preceded by the University of Toronto in1948 and the University of British Columbia also in 1957. InEdmonton the Royal McBee LGP 30 was primarily used for numericalcalculations and was quickly being used around the clock. Soon theLPG 30 was replaced with an IBM 1620 and an IBM 7040 afterthat.
Themes
Even though there is evidence of computers being used in art departments the UofA publications have a heavy emphasis on introducing computers to the public around the topic of medicine (Folio - electrocardiogram)
End with computer datingSet of anxieties, but playful with students (dating brought by students)