Few areas in the world compare with the region known as Silicon Valley as a center of scientific and technological innovation. The rapid growth of high-technology industries has transformed society, culture, the economy and culture. Silicon Valley scientists and engineers have given us the laser, microwave technology, the microprocessor, the integrated circuit, the personal computer, video and sound recording, video game technology, office automation, high-energy physics, recombinant-DNA, data networks, cloud computing, virtual reality, and social media. Not just because of these inventions and innovations, but also because of their impacts on our lives, the history of Silicon Valley has been and will continue to be a major focus of scholarly and journalistic inquiry.
Even in a place where so much attention is focused on the future, it is important to value the past. This is the mission of the Silicon Valley Archives, housed in the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries. To study the origins and development of Silicon Valley in detail, researchers require access to primary source materials such as unpublished professional correspondence, research notes, diaries, journals, project files, technical reports, organization charts and other corporate records, patent applications, blueprints, company brochures, product documentation, photographs, and transcripts or recordings of speeches and interviews. These records, which may be in paper or digital form, are the building blocks of history. Stanford’s Silicon Valley Archives identify and preserve, this documentary record of science and technology -- and related business, political, artistic and cultural activities -- so that they will be available to students, scholars, and the general public.