History of The Collection

The scans were copied and given to Hoover along with the bibliographic data, while the original microfilms remained in OSA’s custody. According to the agreement, OSA committed itself to publish part of the collection online.

NB! All pictures are taken from Blinken OSA RFE/FEC collection materials. 

•        Spring - Separating electronic files according to days, weeks, months and year;

•        Deep scanning and analysis of the digitized content;

•        Discussions and brainstorming on the structure, content and value;

•        Project Supervision: Gabriella Ivacs, CEU/OSA

•        Summer - 1st Processing Plan;

•        Fall - Digital file processing started by separating individual messages from electronic files (cutting and grouping of multiple page documents);

•        Decision to start the processing of short crypto messages;

•        The first three reels, containing messages from 1960-1962 are processed as part of the pilot project;

•        Name list of associated people were concurrently created;

Morgan Ellison, George Mason University, USA

Daniil Kabotyanski, CEU, USA/Russia 

Volodymyr Artiukh, CEU, Ukraine

•    Winter - Database designing, and processing started;

•    RFE/RL & its Archival Legacy - Curatorial Workshop at Blinken OSA

•    Fall - 8100 files are made available for researchers covering FEC/RFE activities from 1960 to 1964

Interns working on the processing: 

Vedran Bileta, CEU, Croatia

Dora Ivanisevic, CEU, Croatia

•        Winter - First blog post on the Free Europe Committee Digital Repository posted online;
  
•        Spring-Fall - Processing of reels dated from 1965 to 1974;
  
•        OSA RFE/FEC Project presentation and discussion;
  
•        Fall - 13000 messages were added to the collection; an additional 10000 are prepared;

Interns working on the processing:

Dejan Lukic, CEU, Serbia

Vedran Bileta, CEU, Croatia

Igor Erdmanski, Groningen University, Poland

Zurab Gvelesiani, CEU, Georgia

Anna Nakai, CEU, Japan

Anton Mudrak, CEU, Ukraine

•        Spring - Data visualisation solutions initiated;

•        Second blogpost on FEC/RFE collection published on OSA's website;

•        Progress presentation and discussion of the RFE/FEC Project;

•       Summer - 70% of the messages are processed and published online;

•       Fall - Big data check and consolidation (associated and subject names);

•       Winter - website, visualizations finalization and further processing;

•       35000 messages made available online;

Processing and website design:

Anton Mudrak, CEU/OSA, Ukraine

Joszef Bone, CEU/OSA, Hungary

Consulting and Technical Support: 

Johannes Wachs, CEU/CMDS, USA/Germany

Jessie Labov, CEU/DHI, USA

•        Winter - Finishing the data preparation and visualization;

•        Website polishing and launch;

•        The last batch of ca. 22 000 messages is expected to be processed throughout the year and  simultaneously posted online.
• Presentation at OSA and CEU;
• Promotion of the collection: presentation at the DH conference at ELTE Univeristy in Budapest, May 2018; presentation at the DH panel at the ASEEES conference in Boston, December, 2018;