Walk down memory lane with Yale-NUS College Digital Archives

Image by Yale-NUS College Digital Archives.

If you were ever curious about how Singapore’s only liberal arts college has evolved over the years, Yale-NUS College’s recently launched College Digital Archives (CDA) will prove most useful.

What started as a conversation between Yale-NUS President and Professor of Humanities (History) Tan Tai Yong and Dean of Educational Resources & Technology Ronald Milne in 2017, is now a rich digital repository that serves to identify, collect, preserve, and provide access to materials relevant to the history of Yale-NUS College. While the idea was well received from the start, gathering the materials and finding the optimal platform meant that the CDA did not materialise immediately.

“It took quite a bit of time. I realised quite early on that creating a physical archive was not going to be possible, given the pressure on space in the College. Moreover, we would ideally need to employ a professional archivist for a physical archive, at least on a part-time basis. So we decided to go digital. I was aware of other cultural and higher education institutions that had created excellent digital archives to showcase their special collections,” explained Dean Milne.

A virtual meeting with Yale-NUS staff and Student Associates involved in setting up the College Digital Archive. Image provided by Yale-NUS College Library.

Helmed by Yale-NUS College Library, along with the support of a team of Student Associates, the archive currently houses hundreds of unique items created by departments and recognised student organisations within the College. These materials have been separated into four categories—books, ephemera, maps, periodicals and publications—for easy navigation.

As CDA Project Manager and College Librarian Rindra Mokhtar Bin Ramli can attest to, the experience of building the archive and working with the materials was truly remarkable.

“We came across many interesting items while preparing the print items for digitisation. Some of the earliest newsletters, ephemera and publications created by our community during the founding years of the College were particularly noteworthy. The creation of a liberal arts college in Singapore was unprecedented, filled with challenges, but also filled with boundless innovation and possibilities.”

Although the Yale-NUS community and members of public will have different access rights in order to adhere to copyright laws, the experience will not vary greatly. Everyone will be able to re-live various College milestones and witness the embodiment of the College’s community-shaped core values—Transformation, Exploration, Respect, Inclusivity and Care—through the selection of painstakingly curated materials.

“By showcasing archival content through the College Digital Archives, we hope not only to provide resources that may be used in future research on the College’s history, but also to provide a means of visualising campus life, such that the Archives may be used in recruitment, outreach, and fundraising activities, as appropriate,” added Dean Milne, when elaborating on the importance of having an archive. “Yale-NUS is a young institution, and one of the few liberal arts colleges in Asia.  It is important that the College’s mission and the nuances of the nature, culture and development of the College are understood.”

Lee Shao Ming (Class 2024), a Student Associate who carried out data curation for the archive during the semester break, shares a similar sentiment. “Viewing the archive is like travelling back in time and seeing all the things that happened in the College community since its inception. I think one of the biggest benefits is that the archive allows students to really gain further understanding and appreciation of Yale-NUS’ unique culture, and the vision of the pioneering batches and faculty. This in turn serves as an inspiration for students to carry the culture on and build upon it.”

Ephemeral item titled, “Yale-NUS College”. Image by Yale-NUS College Digital Archives.

While there are many interesting materials in the archive, Dylan Loke (2024) found an item titled, “Yale-NUS College” to be particularly striking. “This is a very interesting ‘prototypical’ piece of work by all accounts – not only was the vision and mission we know today (e.g. in Asia for the world) a lot more novel and open to experimentation by NUS and Yale, the ephemeral item also contains early concept art of the campus itself!”

As he trawled through the archival materials to create a catalogue of the data, Dylan could not help but be amazed at how much insight he gleaned from the items, especially from The Octant, a Yale-NUS student-run publication, which he believes to be “the most enduring work in the archives.” Fellow Student Associate, Whang Chia Ning (2024) was equally effusive about The Octant, which she enjoyed archiving the most.

“While archiving them, I was also able to read the different articles which exposed me to issues that Yale-NUS students cared about over the years!”

One of Whang Chia Ning’s (2024) favourite articles from The Octant. Image by Yale-NUS College Digital Archives.

As the College continues to build its legacy, and the CDA continues to grow in volume, Rindra hopes that “our community, the public and prospective students, as well as their parents can learn about the institutional history of Yale-NUS College; how the college was founded; the changes and developments since we started; and the valuable contributions of our faculty, staff and students.”