Kenneth M. King, left, then Cornell’s vice provost in charge of computing, and then-Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee are pictured on Dec. 9, 1991, in Gore’s office after the passage of the High Performance Computing Act (known as the “Gore Bill’), which funded the start of the internet.

Digital repository breaks out general-audience collection

The Internet-First University Press (IFUP), a digital repository that has helped make historically valuable archival material free online, has just compiled a general-audience subset of its vast collection, including materials related to Cornell.

The new “Selected General Audience Content of The Internet-First University Press” is material already included in the 255-page directory – much of which is highly specialized content – but broken out for ease of access to the general public.

Founding members of the Internet Society, including Ken King (first row, second from left), are pictured at the inaugural society trustees meeting in 1992.

“Viewing these videos and reading these books will remind you how privileged we are to be associated with the Cornell community and its many special people,” said J. Robert Cooke, professor emeritus in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and co-leader of the IFUP project.

Cooke describes this general-audience collection as potentially appealing to members of the Cornell community who are sheltering at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

General-audience materials include links to public lectures sponsored by the Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti; documentary videos, including several featuring legendary theoretical physicist Hans Bethe; the film “The Origin and History of the Internet,” featuring Kenneth King, former vice provost for computing, who along with Nobel Prize winner Kenneth Wilson led the project to establish a National Supercomputing Center at Cornell; plus newspaper and magazine articles, books and other archival material, including a diverse collection of Oral History interviews of faculty.

The Selected General Audience subset of the IFUP collection can be accessed here.

– Tom Fleischman

Media Contact

Rebecca Valli