IIT-M Archive centre documents rich 65-year-old history

Chennai: In a first-of-its kind, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) now boasts of an Archive Centre that will allow public and researchers to access and learn about its rich institutional history, including paper records to the quantum of around 2,000 cubic feet.

The Archive, which contains extensive historical records of the IIT-M since its inception in 1959 as an institute of higher education, will be formally inaugurated on Friday by 2012 Nobel Laureate (Chemistry) Prof Brian K. Kobilka.

While research papers by IIT-M scholars are already available on the internet, the 65-year-old institute conceived this ambitious project for people to understand its evolution in the past six-and-a-half decades. The Archive campus was designed by renowned architect Benny Kuriakose and will be opened to the public in the next three months.

Among the records that will be accessible to public are minutes of the meeting, attendance registers of all department since the institution’s history, photographs of students, drawing and negatives, and details of alumni among other things.

As many as 7,000 cubic feet of documents were checked over the years, of which 2,000 cubic feet of documents were found worthy to be put out in the public domain.

“These documents have already been cleaned and the process of preserving them is on. They will have to be labelled and described. Organising them itself is a mammoth effort and it will take several years to display everything at the Archive,” Dr Mathangi Krishnamurthy, Chairperson, IIT-M Archive, told DH.

The institute is the first IIT in the country to document its institutional history and put them in public domain.

“These records will offer an unparalleled glimpse into the 65 years of successful functioning and achievements of IIT-M and its rise to its current Institute of Eminence (IoE) status,” Dr Mathangi, also Associate Professor, Anthropology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, added.

The Archive will not just document history of the institution across teaching departments, but also non-teaching departments. A majority of these records will also be made available online on a dedicated website for people to access them.

Dr Mathangi said original documents stored at the Archive will be made available to people depending on the necessary standards of confidentiality in providing access. “We are very clear that we don’t want to compromise on the confidentiality of the individual concerned and the institution. We are evolving the parameters,” she added.

The Archive will be open to the general public who can access digital copies of records in the reading room. Original documents stored at the Archive will be made available depending on the necessary standards of confidentiality in providing access.

“The archive collections contain various types of records, both physical and digital. The physical materials, the majority of which are paper records, amount to a quantum of around 2,000 cubic feet received from 40 different units of IIT-M. It has been a diligent and greatly illuminating effort,” Dr. Ponnarasu Subramanian, Project Leader for the Archive, said.

The Archive of IIT Madras has been in formation since 2017 under the vision of Dr. Roland Wittje, Historian of Science and Technology, and former full-time faculty at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences IIT, Madras. Dr Roland Wittje currently serves as an Associate Professor of the History of Science, Museum of University History at the University of Oslo.