The Vietnam Center and Archive

The Vietnam Center and Archive is located at Texas Tech University. Its mission is to support and encourage research involving all aspects of the American Vietnam experience, promoting a greater understanding of this experience and of the people and cultures of Southeast Asia. To do this, the Vietnam Center collects manuscript and photograph collections from Veterans and others who were associated with the Vietnam War, and has an active oral history program. The website contains information regarding the Vietnam Center; one can gain access to information regarding the various materials, and in some cases can access those materials. A search page can lead researchers to collections with information regarding specific topics (e.g. Agent Orange, River warfare, etc.). Through these means, researchers can gain access to finding aids for the manuscript collections. Some of the collections have had specific images and manuscripts scanned and placed on the website, though access to these is through the individual collections. There are no exhibits on the site. Researchers can also find transcripts and recordings of oral histories. Not all of the oral histories have transcripts available, but all (at least from what I could tell) did have recordings available. I was unable to gain access to any of the sound recordings, probably because I grew impatient with the long download times. Some of the pages take a particularly long time to open. It took me some time to find, but there are photographs available as well. I was eventually able to find, through the cite map, a page titled “Index of Images Used on Vietnam Project Website”.

Collection Principles

The website provides a comprehensive listing of what is available at the center. The two types of materials that are in the majority are oral histories and finding aids. Certain materials are featured on the website, either because they have been recently added to the Center, or they are in some way notable. One example of this is a set of diaries of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram. PDF files of the diaries (written in Vietnamese) are available on the site. As explained in a note, an English language version of the diaries was removed at the request of the family of Dr. Tram, because they are being published. Several photographs from the diaries have been scanned and placed on the website; there is also a group of photographs of Dr. Tram’s family visiting the Center.

Metadata

Particularly with the oral histories, the metadata is very descriptive, though fairly brief. They consist of an interview number, a title (“Interview with X”), the date, the collection it is a part of, the media type (Mini Disc, Beta SP, etc.), length, a brief description, instruction of how to cite the interview, and links to the actual interview and, if available, a transcript.

The photographs on the “Index of Images” page include consistent metadata, which include the item number, date of the photo (if known), the collection it came from, the media type (photograph or slice, and the type of digital file), instructions of how to cite the photo, and a thumbnail image which, if clicked on, opens a larger version of the image. There was no information on the digital image.

Object Characteristics

I experienced trouble when I accessed the website. I don’t know if this was because of problems at the server, with my own internet connection, if it was something else. Whatever it was, I was unable to open many of the images, and none of the recordings. I was able to open pdf files of transcripts. The images that I was able to open were jpeg’s.

Intended Audience

The site is intended for serious researchers, as well as Vietnam veterans and others who may be interested in the subject. It is obviously very respectful of those who participated in the war. Part of the purpose of the site is to encourage donations to the center. The oral histories are the items that can be used most extensively for research. Only a handful of the photos from the Center’s collections are on the website, and virtually none of the manuscripts, which must be seen at the center. So, for some materials, scholarly research can be conducted via the internet, while for other material, the website acts as a publicity device to bring people to the Center.