It is fitting that a digital archive would record the great journey of one of the founders of the digital age, said USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias, who proposed the digitization. “Andy Viterbi studied digital technology here at USC when the technology was in its infancy, and he helped – in dramatic fashion – to bring it to maturity. Along with the Viterbi Museum, this archive helps USC document the Viterbi career in a way that can inspire new generations of students and faculty.”

The museum in Ronald Tutor Hall, dedicated on Viterbi’s 70th birthday in 2005, contains art (including original murals), photographs and documents from his family collection as well as academic and scholarly material, including voluminous handwritten, formula-laden notes on ruled yellow paper. The archive is designed to expand, supplement and make accessible much more information to scholars and students.

The collection’s electronic incarnation is now online in a well-organized home at http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/collection/viterbi. There, visitors first encounter a brief biography recounting the journey from childhood in Italy to JPL, USC, Linkabit, Qualcomm and, this year, the White House, where Viterbi received the National Medal of Science.

Those who would like more information about any stage of this journey can, in the same place, find original documents available in scanned form, from Viterbi’s influential 1990 talk on “Innovation in the Telecommunications Industry at the Turn of the Century,” to a one-page 1967 memo informing UCLA superiors of his intention to take a sabbatical.

University archivist Claude Zachary, who was responsible for making the project happen, recalls the day when he first heard of it: “Provost Nikias invited me to a meeting in his office and explained his vision for the Viterbi family archives, its high priority and importance to USC, and his desire that Viterbi’s work be made readily available to the world through the USC Libraries Digital Archive. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering generously stepped up with funding.”

It was a huge job, Zachary realized immediately, one that required the full-time attention of a dedicated top-level archivist familiar with the technical background and able to work with the scientist. And fortunately, by a wonderful accident of serendipity, the perfect archivist presented himself.

Michael Hooks, a scholar with a rich Texas twang and library experience dating back to 1976, who had long cared for original documents recording the exploration of the solar system by pioneers such as Solomon Golomb and his junior colleague at JPL, Andrew Viterbi, as well as many others there, was looking for a new challenge.

“It was perfect timing,” says Zachary with a broad smile. Quickly, Hooks was installed in the basement of Doheny Library, and he soon had the first of several meetings with Viterbi in late October 2006, to take the measure of the collection. Hooks went to Viterbi’s San Diego offices, returning with 17 boxes of papers.

With an archivist’s eye, Hooks reviewed the holdings, planning how to index the information. At the same time, he moved the material – some 32,000 pages – out of manila folders into 48 acid-free boxes.

In addition to setting up identification and retrieval categories, the confidentiality of certain documents had to be maintained. The digitizing itself was done over several months, with more fragile items set aside for special treatment. Then came the task of integrating these records into a digital archive, working with computer specialists, led by Zahid Rafique, head of the USC Libraries’ programming group. Also included was digital “Viterbiana” from sources outside the scientist’s own holdings, and duplication of material held in the Viterbi Museum.

In the course of submerging himself in Viterbi’s records for months, Hooks came back with clear impressions of the subject. First was the depth of the commitment of both Andrew and his wife, Erna, to philanthropic effort, in many different directions, virtually across the entire duration of Andrew’s career.

Second was the Viterbis’ commitment to each other. “[Erna] was with him at every point,” says Hooks. “When he went on a trip, she was with him. She was part of all the philanthropic activity,” including, prominently, the couple’s September 2008, $2 million gift to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, where Erna is a board member.

USC Viterbi School Dean Yannis C. Yortsos is delighted with the result. “Andy Viterbi’s prizes and public honors bear witness to his achievements,” he says, “but the archive will offer a close-up look, a window into the life of a great man to let future generations know what is possible and how to reach it.”

USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan is equally happy about her new acquisition. “The USC Libraries are proud to present the Viterbi Archive to the global community of scholars and students,” she says. “Dr. Viterbi’s generosity has allowed for an impressively broad and deep collection.”

And what does the source and subject think?

“The age of the Internet and of the search engine has opened every private citizen to universal scrutiny,” Viterbi says.“The act of revealing to the world one’s past experiences in minute detail, which may have seemed both daring and presumptuous in the pre-Internet era, is now merely a recognition of this obvious truth.”

– Eric Mankin