Over the past nine months the staff of the Vietnam Archive have undertaken a project to convert all of the digitized document PDFs in the Virtual Vietnam Archive into a searchable format. This project is now complete.  Over 275,000 files were re-processed in the course of this project.

When the Virtual Archive was started in 2001 the majority of Internet users were on dial-up connections, so in order to keep file sizes as small as possible, the decision was made to not save digitized documents as searchable PDFs.  OCR (Optical Character Recognition) was performed on the documents, and the text that was generated was added to the database for searching, but the PDF was not saved with that text embedded in it.  Now, with more users having access to high-speed connections, and with the availability of better compression technology for PDFs, we have gone back and embedded the OCR into these documents, allowing users to search for words within the PDF.  To search for a word or phrase in a PDF, open the file and hit ctrl+F on your keyboard.  Please note that the quality of the document affects the quality of the OCR text.  If the digital image of the document is very scratchy or grainy, the OCR may not have been able to pick out as many words as it would with a higher quality document.  The CDEC collection is a good example of this.  The quality of the microfilm that was digitized was not very good, and we were therefore unable to run successful OCR on that collection.  Additionally, hand-written documents will not be searchable.

Some users may be required to update to newer versions of their PDF readers.  Versions of Adobe Reader older than Version 6 will not be able to access the modified PDFs or PDFs newly added to the Virtual Archive.  Adobe Reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website – http://get.adobe.com/reader/?promoid=BUIGO

From Left to Right: Ambassador Sichan Siv, Anna Mallett, Martha Pattillo-Siv

The Vietnam Archive is pleased to announce that on September 14, 2010 Mrs. Martha Pattillo-Siv participated in its Oral History Project and was interviewed by Ann Mallett, Vietnamese American Heritage Archivist.

Martha Lee Pattillo was born and raised in Pampa, TX. Her parents, both educators, helped instill in her a lifelong love of languages, reading, education, libraries, and helping others. These lifelong loves have been a constant and binding thread throughout her life.

During her career she worked at the Atlantic Institute in Paris, France (1972-74), UNESCO in Bangkok, Thailand (1974-76), various agencies of the U.N. (1977-89), and the World Bank (1989-2006). While working for UNESCO in Bangkok she visited Thai refugee camps. Upon seeing the conditions of the camps, she helped provide the refugee women with an income by buying their handmade goods and then selling them outside the camps at no profit for herself. In 1988 she formed the South China Seas Company to help impoverished, displaced women sell their textiles. In 2000 Mrs. Pattillo-Siv became the Vice-President of Friends of Khmer Culture. In 2005 she became a member of the Board of Directors of Teachers Across Borders, Inc.

Martha Pattillo-Siv resides in San Antonio with her husband, Ambassador Sichan Siv, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. They met when Siv was a new immigrant from Cambodia, where his entire family had been killed by the Khmer Rouge, and have been married since 1983.

Listen to the Complete interview here

Adrian Cronauer will be the first speaker in the 2011 VNCA Guest Lecture Series on March 10th at 7:00pm

The Vietnam Center and Archive has a full schedule of events coming up over the next few months:

March 10-12, 8:00am-5:00pm: 7th Triennial Vietnam Symposium at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center [symposium information, agenda, and registration: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/symposium.htm]

March 10, 7:00pm: 2011 Guest Lecture Series presents Adrian Cronauer at the Lanier Auditorium of the TTU Law School [more information: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS].  The lecture will be preceded by a special invitation-only reception with Mr. Cronauer for Friends of the Vietnam Center.

April 6-13: 3rd Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Film Festival (4 films: Green Dragon, Rashomon, The Toll of the Sea, and Kim’s Story).  All films at the Formby Room of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library [more information and film show times: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/2011filmfestival]

April 14, 7:00pm: 2011 Guest Lecture Series presents Kim Phuc at the Allen Theatre of the TTU Student Union Building [more information: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS]

May 12, 7:00pm: 2011 Guest Lecture Series presents LeAnn Thieman at the Allen Theatre of the TTU Student Union Building [more information: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS]

We will post more information about each of these events as the dates get closer.

The agenda for the 2011 7th Triennial Vietnam Symposium is now available online.  The symposium will occur on March 10-12, 2011, at the Overton Hotel and Convention Center in Lubbock.  Presenters will speak on a wide variety of topics. 

Please note that speakers and the schedule are subject to change, and we will update this agenda as changes become available.

A registration form for the symposium is available online as well.

• Symposium Information Page
• Symposium Agenda
• Symposium Registration Form

We hope to see you there!

Today is the start of Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration and 2011 is the year of the cat.  To celebrate this great holiday, we have created an online exhibit that is an exploration of the Tết holiday and its customs, history and traditions supplemented with photos and documents from our collection.  If you would like to learn about this unique holiday please click on the link below to see our exhibit.

 http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/tet/ 

Adrian Cronauer

Thanks to a generous grant from the Helen Jones Foundation, the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University will present a guest lecture series throughout 2011.

The mission of the lecture series is to enrich the cultural life of attendants by bringing distinguished individuals to campus for presentations on specific aspects of the Vietnam War and its impact on American policies, society and culture.

Adrian Cronauer – Cronauer is the radio DJ portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie “Good Morning Vietnam!” (March 10, 7 p.m., Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech School of Law)

Kim Phuc – In 1972, Kim Phuc was photographed running down a road naked and on fire after a napalm strike on her village. Today, Kim Phuc runs a non-profit organization for children and is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace. (April 14, 7 p.m., Allen Theater of the Student Union Building)

LeAnn Thieman – Thieman was a nurse involved in Operation Babylift, a mission to evacuate more than 300 Vietnamese babies from South Vietnam before it fell to communist troops. (May 12, 7 p.m., Allen Theatre of the Student Union Building)

Kara Dixon Vuic – Historian and author of Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War. (October 13, 7 p.m., Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech School of Law)

Dave Carey – Carey spent more than five years as a POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. (Nov. 10, 7 p.m., Allen Theatre of the Student Union Building)

Admission is free and open to the public.

Visit www.vietnam.ttu.edu/GLS for more information.

Dates may be subject to change.

Forty-three years ago today the North Vietnamese launched a massive countrywide attack against almost all of the major cities and province capitals in South Vietnam, breaking the truce called for the Tết holiday and forever changing the course of the war.  This countrywide assault became known as the Tet Offensive.  To commemorate this historic event, the staff of the Vietnam Archive have created exhibits detailing the events of the Tet Offensive and three of the offensive’s major battles: Hue – the Imperial City, the Battle of Khe Sanh, and the Battle for Saigon.  In addition to the exhibits, there is a new subject guide to help people locate materials about the Tet Offensive in our collection.  Links to the exhibits and subject guide are below. 

U.S. soldiers move into the alley behind BOQ #3 in Saigon. 31 Jan. 1968 Photo by: SP5 Edgar Price Pictorial A.V. Plt. 69th Sig. Bn

The Tet Offensive

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/exhibits/Tet68/

Tet Offensive Subject Guide

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/resources/tet

The Vietnam Archive has a collection of over 12,000 Marine Corps records covering after-action reports, command chronologies and other documents for most of the Marine units serving in Vietnam.  These records,shared with the archive by the Marine Corps History Division, are a valuable resource for anyone researching the Marines in the Vietnam War. 

These records have been available in the Virtual Vietnam Archive for many years.  However, many of the records were incorrectly labeled or could only be found in the database using specialized terms.  After extensive database work, the Vietnam Archive archivists have fixed the errors and removed the specialized jargon terms so that the records are much easier to locate. 

In addition to these fixes, the documents themselves are now fully word-searchable.  The Vietnam Archive has undertaken a project to convert all of the over 3 million pages of digitized documents in the Virtual Vietnam Archive into word-searchable PDFs, and the conversion of the Marine Corps documents is now complete. Please note that the quality of the word-search capability is dependent on a number of factors, including the quality of the original.  The worse the condition of the original scan, the lower the accuracy of the word-search function.  To search for words within the PDF’s (in Adobe Reader), simply open the PDF, hold down the Ctrl key and F key and type in your keyword and hit enter.  If the word is in the document, you will be taken to the page where the word is located, and the word will be highlighed with color – a great timesaving device.

As PDFs are converted into the word-searchable format, some users may be required to update to newer versions of their PDF readers.  Versions of Adobe Reader older than Version 6 will not be able to access the modified PDFs, or PDFs newly added to the Virtual Archive.  Adobe Reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website – http://get.adobe.com/reader/?promoid=BUIGO

If you have not seen the Marine Corps records check out the new and improved version in the Virtual Archive. They are worth a look.

Tet, the Vietnamese New Year
Friday, February 4th
3:00-5:00 pm
The International Cultural Center’s Hall of Nations, Texas Tech University Campus 

This is a free event open to the public.

Traditional Vietnamese food will be served. A special presentation will be given by the Vietnamese Student Association at Texas Tech. Please join us and learn more about the rich heritage and culture that makes Vietnam so remarkable.

February 3, 2011 ushers in the Lunar Year of the Cat. In Vietnam, one of 12 animals of the zodiac represents each year. The cat symbolizes sensitivity, gentleness and kindness. It is said that people born in the year of the cat are compassionate, ambitious and sentimental, but they are often very vulnerable to opportunistic and unscrupulous people.

The Vietnamese people regard Tet as their most important holiday. Food preparation for Tet is very time consuming and often requires days of cooking and, prior to the celebrations, people clean, paint, and decorate their homes. People avoid cleaning during Tet so that good luck will not be “swept away.”

We hope you will be able to join us on February 4, 2011 as we celebrate this special event!

For more information, please call (806) 742-3742 or visit www.vietnam.ttu.edu

Link to event flyer: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/tet/tet2011.pdf

The registration form for the Vietnam Center’s upcoming Seventh Triennial Vietnam Symposium is now available online.  Registration form and payment must be received by March 1st, 2011.  Please note that due to hotel catering requirements, late and onsite registration will not include any meals.

The symposium will take place March 10-12, 2011 at the Overton Hotel in Lubbock, TX.  A special room rate of $85 is available until February 7, 2011.  For more information, please visit http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2011_Symposium/ 

The agenda for this symposium will be posted at the link above once it becomes available.

Registration Form Link: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/2011_symposium/registration2011.php