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Juiced.GS at the Media Archaeology Lab

Ten years ago, the Media Archaeology Lab was founded at University of Colorado at Boulder as “a place for cross-disciplinary experimental research and teaching using obsolete tools, hardware, software and platforms”. This mission is very much in line with that of the Apple II community: our hobby of using ancient equipment in modern contexts is dependent on preserving hardware and software and maintaining its functionality.

The MAL didn’t land on Juiced.GS‘s radar until 2017, when Juiced.GS contributing writer Chris Torrence of the Assembly Lines podcast began volunteering there. When he invited Juiced.GS editor-in-chief Ken Gagne for a tour earlier this month, it was a perfect opportunity to make a donation, establishing a formal relationship between the two kindred institutions.

The Media Archaeology Lab is now home to a complete collection of Juiced.GS, consisting of all 92 issues published to date, making it the tenth such organization to house the Juiced.GS archive. This collection will be kept current with future issues as they are published. A copy of Steven Weyhrich’s Sophistication & Simplicity has also been added to the lab’s library.

It’s an honor to partner with such a like-minded organization in our mission to preserve the story of the Apple II and its community. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Media Archaeology Lab for many volumes of Juiced.GS to come! Until then, please enjoy this photo gallery from our recent visit to their space, showcasing the many Apples and other retrocomputing and retrogaming equipment in the lab’s collection.

Continue reading Juiced.GS at the Media Archaeology Lab
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Behind the scenes at the Charles Babbage Institute

Charles Babbage Institute

Juiced.GS was designed to be held and read in hardcopy; as the last remaining print publication dedicated to the Apple II, Juiced.GS remains the only opportunity readers have to get their Apple II news in this format. We want to preserve that experience for generations to come, which is why complete collections of Juiced.GS are stored at libraries, archives, and institutions throughout the world.

En route to KansasFest 2015, Juiced.GS editor-in-chief Ken Gagne stopped by the University of Minnesota, home to one of those archives: the Charles Babbage Institute, a research center dedicated to preserving the history of information technology and promoting and conducting research in the field. Curator and head archivist R. Arvid Nelsen, who graciously and continuously accepts Juiced.GS into the Institute’s collection, generously offered a two-hour behind-the-scenes tour that encompassed both the offices and the catacombs, as seen in these photos.

It’s reassuring to know institutions like the Charles Babbage Institute are preserving our industry’s and our community’s histories, and it was inspiring to see the scope and scale at which they are doing so. Our thanks to Mr. Nelsen, his team, and the University of Minnesota for their time and dedication!

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Furthering the preservation of Juiced.GS

The Information Cube

Two years ago, Juiced.GS was archived by museums, libraries, and institutions around the world. One year ago, we completed those collections when we brought volumes 1–6 back into print.

Today, we continue to expand our preservation efforts by adding two new organizations to the list of archives now charged with the preservation of our Apple II magazine.

Seattle’s Living Computer Museum, founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, opened its doors on October 25, 2012. Juiced.GS staff writer Peter Neubauer was one of its first visitors, providing an extensive write-up of his experience in our December issue. The connection between the LCM and Juiced.GS was further recently cemented at the launch party of The New England Wide Computer Museum, or NEW Computer Museum, formerly known as the Digital Den. There, Prof. Mary Hopper made the introduction of Juiced.GS editor Ken Gagne to the LCM’s senior vintage systems engineer, Ian King. As a rapidly growing organization, the LCM was happy to accept a donation of 71 back issues of Juiced.GS, with more to come as they are published.

The Information Cube

Museums aren’t the only organizations interested in Juiced.GS. Mention “archiving” in the retrocomputing world, and one of the first names you’ll hear is Jason Scott: digital historian, Archive.org employee, guest lecturer, and KansasFest keynote speaker. His Information Cube is a repository of physical artifacts related to the history of computers and their users. Juiced.GS‘s past and future catalog will now be included in this archive as well.
Our thanks to the many historians who are ensuring Juiced.GS‘s place in the story of the personal computer will be known for generations to come!

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Distribution and preservation: The benefits of an ISSN

Modern society assigns everything a number. People are their Social Security Numbers; your money is a bank account number; the last book you read has an International Standard Book Number. It makes everything neat and tidy, easy to organize and track.

As of this past summer, Juiced.GS also has a number: 2162-7746. That is the International Standard Serial Number, or ISSN, that has been assigned to the publication by the Library of Congress. We requested an ISSN because of the many valuable benefits it brings to legitimate periodicals such as Juiced.GS. Over 80 countries coordinate and recognize ISSN assignments and can use ours for a variety of purposes:

  • A unique ISSN distinguishes Juiced.GS title from any other Apple II publication with which it might be confused.
  • Other editions of Juiced.GS, such as the Concentrate line, need their own ISSNs, allowing us to differentiate various formats of the same publication.
  • ISSNs help libraries and others who handle large numbers of serials to check in a title so it can get to users more quickly.
  • Scholars, researchers, archivists, and librarians can accurately cite serials by ISSN.
  • In the future, users may search and link to digital records, articles, and other files.

An ISSN also helps establish Juiced.GS‘s place in history. Although the movement to preserve a record of Apple II publications in a digital format is a valuable and necessary one, there is no substitute for the look and feel of print. Juiced.GS‘s ISSN is valid only for its print edition, which is the magazine’s original format and the way it was intended to be read. To that end, Juiced.GS has been actively reaching out to a variety of relevant non-profit organizations charged with ensuring the archive of and access to computer history. Several such institutions have accepted donations of the complete collection of Juiced.GS, currently starting with volume 7, and have added the magazine to their collection. Due to the cost of producing these back issues, we are not currently seeking further recipients. For now, you can now find Juiced.GS throughout the country and the world at these establishments:

Several of the above institutes have further indexed Juiced.GS with the OCLC WorldCat, a global library catalog. Many of the 72,000 libraries that participate in WorldCat offer interlibrary loan — so if you need to access Juiced.GS, be it individual volumes, issues, or even articles, chances are you can request it be sent from one of the above libraries to your local branch.

The best way to ensure the longevity of data is to put it in as many hands as possible — and no matter the issues involved with digital distribution, from file compatibility to DRM, print will always remain viable and accessible. The above archives will help preserve Juiced.GS as a part of computer history for generations to come.