Pepperdine University Libraries with the help of broadcast students is creating a Malibu historical collection to chronicle the growth of Malibu from the 1800s to present day.
With the Malibu historical collection Pepperdine seeks to establish a repository for documents related to the history of Malibu and its residents. The project which will be available in late spring or early summer will feature oral history interviews with Malibu residents and video footage of Malibu’s historic sites.
This semester Pepperdine Associate Professor of Telecommunications Susan Salsas created an undergraduate research project class which meets each Wednesday to film. Each of the six female students has a different position in the project. Salas said their main goal is to collect as many oral histories as possible. Currently they have more than 20 interviews scheduled.
Salas said she has wanted to create a documentary about Malibu for more than 15 years.
“I think there is a special spirit and energy that has been here since the Chumash Indians she said.
Last week, Salas and her crew conducted their first interview with 90-year-old Malibu resident Helen Young, who graduated from Pepperdine in 1939 and is known as the First Lady of George Pepperdine College.”
Student interviewer Marchelle McConnell said it was fascinating to learn from Young about living in Malibu in the 1930s and the relocation of Pepperdine to Malibu.
“Without her the story of Malibu would not be complete McConnell said. I was honored to get to talk to her learn from her and share her story.”
Deborah Miller a Malibu resident who serves on the board of the project said she is grateful for the gift Pepperdine is giving the community. Miller is a member of the Adamson family which donated the 138-acre Malibu campus to Pepperdine in 1969.
“As a Ridge/Adamson family member I am very happy that we are renewing our connection with Pepperdine University said Miller who also serves as president of the Friends of the Adamson House society.
Director of Photography Lauren Parsekian said that working on the project has changed her view of Malibu – she has a new appreciation for the traffic-ridden beach town.
After learning more about the city and why it is the way it is I definitely have a newfound respect for Malibu she said.
Second-unit director Katherine Waters said she is eager to delve deeper into Malibu’s history.
When most people think of Malibu they think of celebrities paparazzi and the beach wrote Waters in an e-mail to the Graphic. So far we have learned the real Malibu is much more than this and I know that we will learn more interesting specifics from other longtime residents.”
According to Dean of Libraries Mark Roosa the idea for the initiative came out of the success of the Reel Sessions Surf Films Festival in March 2007.
“We had a pretty successful event that helped build bridges between the university and the community that hadn’t been built in the past Roosa said.
Roosa saw the success of the event as an opportunity to extend the reach of the Pepperdine community to the city of Malibu by helping to preserve and archive local history.
The initiative began with an advisory council of approximately 10 Pepperdine library officials, Salsas and citizens from the Malibu community.
Roosa said he and the other library officials invited Salas to join the advisory board when they learned of her interest in collecting oral histories and exploring the history of Malibu.
Director of Library Advancement and Public Relations Amy Hunter praised the effort to connect current Pepperdine students with longtime Malibu residents.
That is one of the underlying goals of the collection at large to open new ways for the generations to exchange information stories and connect Hunter said.
Hunter and Roosa’s goal is to build an enduring historical collection.
The digital archive project is funded by the university libraries and is currently accepting papers, photos, diaries, maps, oral histories and other primary resource materials to the collection for archiving and preservation.
This week, Pepperdine received a long-term investor for the project, according to Hunter. She said she could not reveal the donor’s name or the amount of the gift.
Once the digital repository gains momentum, Roosa expects an increase in donations of historical material and monetary funding from outside individuals. Once they have a sense of how much historical material they have collected and the cost of the labor, Roosa said they will reach out to the community for financial support.
Weekly updates on the project and the progress of Salas and her class are available to view on iTunes-U, available by visiting www.itunesu.pepperdine.edu.