This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Stanford University Archives. To celebrate, the Archives has launched a 50 day Twitter campaign featuring iconic images of Stanford. Follow us on Twitter @stanfordarchive or see all of the images posted thus far via #StanfordArchive50. This fall, the Archives will formally celebrate the anniversary with an exhibit in the East Wing of Green Library.
The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) met in Washington, DC on June 9-10, 2015. The full report of the meeting including the powerpoints from the subcommittees and lightning sessions are available on the NGAC Website. The NGAC is a Federal Advisory Committee that reports to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). Our role is to provide advice and recommendations related to the national geospatial program and the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.
Love Dogs? Need a study break? Come meet Lou and Duke, certified therapy dogs, in the Science and Engineering Quad between Y2E2 and Huang today June 4 from 2:30-4:00pm and Monday, June 8 from 2:30-4:00pm. For more information contact Helen Josephine.
You know you've made people mad when they hang you in effigy.
Before John Casper Branner came to Stanford, he spent several years as the State Geologist of Arkansas. In 1887-1888, he and his team completed the second-ever geological survey in Arkansas -- and the first in 30 years. Residents of the state were intent on having Branner verify the various reports of gold in the area; companies were busy making money off prospectors willing to buy up gold stock that promised riches and wealth.
This week's Branner 100 exhibit tells the story of the Second Arkansas Geological Survey.
In response to Friday’s powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal, Stanford volunteer “crisis mappers” are working with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap to assist in disaster relief by mapping Nepal’s road networks, buildings, and residential areas.
Anyone with a laptop and spare time can help responders on the ground. The Stanford Geospatial Center housed in the Branner Earth Sciences Library will be hosting ongoing Introductory Relief Mapping sessions all week to help train people to use OpenStreetMap, an open source and open data sharing tool adding information to relief effort maps. Drop-in volunteers are encouraged to join all day from 9am-9pm, Monday-Friday.
![Mappa [sic] geologico do Brazil, Geological Society of America, 1991 Branner, John Casper, Contributor.](https://library.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/styles/150xh/public/blog/image/wp182kn9098_0001_blog.jpg?itok=neQtcEj4 "Mappa [sic] geologico do Brazil, Geological Society of America, 1991 Branner, John Casper, Contributor. -- Geological Society of America, 1991 and Branner, John Casper, Contributor.")
The Branner Earth Sciences Library is named after John Casper Branner (1850-1922). Branner was, among many things, a geologist, an academic and a founding member of the faculty at Stanford and went on to become Stanford’s second president. He was also president of the Geological Society of America and served as the president of the Seismological Society of America.
Mappa [sic] geologico do Brazil, Geological Society of America, 1919. Branner, John Casper, Contributor.
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
Albert Einstein
Stanford University’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) offers classes that guide students in developing analytical and research-based argument skills. Students take PWR 2 classes in their second year to continue building the aforementioned skills. PWR 2 consists of research projects that allow students to research, write, translate, and deliver an in-depth investigation.
From the very start of Stanford University, geology students were sent into the field to learn mapping. John Casper Branner and John Flesher Newsom taught field mapping to budding geologists first on the campus and then in the Santa Cruz mountains. In 1903, an official course was inaugurated called, "Field Geology," taught by geology and mining professors Dr. Branner and Dr. Newsom. Summer field trips took place every year until 1987. Students mapped areas such as Mt. Hamilton (San Jose), the Sonoma Range, the Summit King Mine, the Santa Lucia Mountains, and the Snake Range in Nevada.
The current exhibit at the library includes a map from 1895 by R.B. Marshall covering all of the Stanford lands and out into the marshy Bay, Thomas Dibblee's field notebook from 1932 when he was still in high school, Mary Balch's report on the geology of the New Almaden quadrangle from 1929, the expense account ledger from 1937 showing the expenditures for the season, and more.