Insights - USC Shoah Foundation - University of Southern California

PastForward special feature
USC President C.L.Max Nikias
on what the Visual History Archive means to the university
“The Sky’s the Limit”
Interviewed by Stephen D. Smith
“We are talking about the future
of the digital library. We have one
of the largest and unique repositories
of visual content. …A lot of academic
scholarship will be produced in the
decades, even centuries to come.”
Smith: President Nikias, why did you think it was so critical for the Shoah Foundation’s
Visual History Archive to come to the University of Southern California?
Nikias: The archive came to my attention as soon as I became provost. There had
been negotiations between the Shoah Foundation and USC for at least a year. I’m
told that Steven Spielberg put a call into my predecessor Steve Sample, who said,
“Steven, I have a new provost; I’m going to ask Max to look into this.” The more
I looked into the Shoah Foundation, the more I realized what a great gift the Visual
History Archive would be for USC. I also began realizing its educational value, let alone that
it would be unique for our university.
Smith: How does the presence of the archive impact the culture, the environment of USC?
Nikias: First of all we are talking about the future of the digital library. We have one of the
largest and unique repositories of visual content. Then I realized the educational value; a lot
of academic scholarship will be produced in the decades, even centuries to come. Then I realized
the uniqueness of the technology, the digital archiving and indexing.
It was clear to me that the Visual History Archive was going to have an impact on the education
of our students and through outreach programs to build partnerships with other
universities around the world; and then developing a curriculum for schools on how to teach
tolerance; the sky’s the limit.
I know Steven Spielberg felt very strongly that the Shoah Foundation needed to “graduate”
into a university environment because we’re in the business of educating the youth where
different ethnicities, different religions coexist.
Smith: I have heard you talk about “timeless truths.” Do you think the archive contains
timeless truths?
Nikias: Yes. In terms of timeless values, no matter how far we advance technologically, no
matter how our civilization advances, there are certain values that define us as individuals
20 pastforward Spring 2011