By Chris Petersen
Title: Fisheries and Wildlife Department Films and Videotapes, 1934-2001
Predominant Dates: 1996-2001
ID: FV 243
Primary Creator: Oregon State University. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Extent: 2.6 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The Fisheries and Wildlife Department Films and Videotapes are arranged into two series: 1. Motion Picture Films, 1934-1957; and 2. Distance Learning Course Videos, 1996-2001. The contents of Series 1 are arranged chronologically. The contents of Series 2 are organized into nine sub-series, each of which corresponds with a specific course. These sub-series have been arranged by course number. Five sub-series contain full access and master copies of a particular course. In these instances, the access copy is presented first, followed by the master copy. All other sub-series do not contain full access and master copies. In these four cases, the full contents of the series are presented chronologically.
Date Acquired: 00/00/2001
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Fisheries and Wildlife Department Films and Videotapes consist primarily of distance learning course videos offered by the Oregon State University Fisheries and Wildlife department and taught by its faculty. These videos were captured to multiple formats and, where possible, both an access copy and a master copy of each course have been retained. The collection also includes seven motion picture films dating to the 1930s and 1950s, and documenting the Albany Fish Hatchery, the Salmon River, and other locations within the forests and along the coastline of the Pacific Northwest.
Access to the materials originally stored on DVDs in this collection is available upon patron request.
The Fisheries and Wildlife Department Films and Videotapes are chiefly comprised of course videos created by the department for the benefit of distance learning students. These courses and their instructors were as follows: Principles of Wildlife Conservation (FW 251), multiple instructors; Biology of Birds (FW 311), Bob Jarvis; Biology of Fishes (FW 315), Douglas Markle; Biology of Mammals (FW 317), Bruce Coblentz; Management Principles of Pacific Salmon in the Northwest (FW 323), multiple instructors; Multicultural Perspectives in Natural Resources (FW 340), Judy Li; Wildlife in Agricultural Ecosystems (FW 435), multiple instructors; Ecology and History: Landscapes of the Columbia Basin (FW 470/570, cross-listed as HSTS 470/570), multiple instructors; and Coastal and Marine Law (LAW 607) a joint offering with the University of Oregon Law School taught by UO professor Richard Hildreth.
Multiple duplicate copies of specific courses were deposited with the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, and have subsequently been deaccessioned from the collection. Wherever possible, a master copy (DVCPro or MiniDV format) and an access copy (DVD or VHS format) of each course has been retained and described as a component of the nine sub-series used to organize the course contents held in this collection. All content originally captured to DVD has been migrated off of the accessioned storage media and is available upon patron request.
In addition to the distance learning videos, the collection also contains seven motion picture films (one 8-mm black and white reel and six 16-mm color reels; all silent 3-inch reels) that date to the 1930s and 1950s, and that were sent from an Eastman Kodak film developing facility in San Francisco to Fisheries and Wildlife chair Roland Dimick or to Frank Groves, an instructor in the department. The films consist of raw camera footage of the Albany Fish Hatchery and the Salmon River, as well as scenes from unidentified forests, lakes and coastal settings. An additional film consists of footage of a toddler playing in the grass.
The Fish, Game and Fur Animal Management Department was created in 1935 under the jurisdiction of the School of Agriculture. Roland E. Dimick was the first department chair, a position that he held until 1963. The department operated the OSC Experimental Fur Farm from 1937 to 1957 and also established field stations on Protection and Eliza Islands in Puget Sound, and a fisheries lab at Yaquina, Oregon. The department's name was changed to Fish and Game Management in 1936, and in 1964 was renamed Fisheries and Wildlife. In addition to departments located within the College of Liberal Arts, Fisheries and Wildlife was among the first units at OSU to offer formal distance learning coursework.
Distance learning at Oregon State University traces its roots to the late 1880s, when "farmers' institutes" led by Oregon Agricultural College staff were first organized outside of Corvallis. In 1910 OAC began offering correspondence courses and, twelve years later, the college started broadcasting instructional content over KOAC-AM. Educational television broadcasts followed suit in 1957.
A more contemporary model for distance learning began to take shape in 1982, when OSU offered its first distance degree in Liberal Studies. Distance students enrolled in this program completed their coursework through correspondence and by viewing VHS tapes that were mailed to their homes. In 1986 a full course was transmitted to students in Bend by microwave and, in 1990, OSU began offering courses to other locations via closed-circuit television broadcast. The university's first Internet-only class was made available in 1995. Seven years later, OSU's Distance and Continuing Education unit was reorganized as OSU ECampus, an enterprise that quickly grew in breadth and prestige. By 2018, more than 9,000 students attended OSU virtually and over two-thirds of the student body was taking an online class during the academic year.
More Extent Information: 88 DVCPro tapes, 49 VHS cassettes, 32 DVDs, 7 film reels and 2 MiniDV tapes; 4 boxes
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The materials were transferred to the Library in multiple accessions by the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Guin Library.
Related Materials:
The history of the Fisheries and Wildlife department at Oregon State is documented in the Fisheries and Wildlife Department Records (RG 190) and the Fisheries and Wildlife department Photographs (P 179). SCARC also holds the papers of Fisheries and Wildlife faculty members Carl E. Bond and Roland Dimick, and department graduates Homer Campbell and Merlin Eltzroth. The Oregon Wildlife Federation Scrapbooks (MSS ORWildlife) and the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society Records (MSS Wildlife) also contain content of relevant interest, as do the papers of Oregon Wildlife Federation past president F. Ross Brown, Oregon Sea Grant employee Joe Cone, Oregon Agricultural College alum E.E. Wilson, and OSU Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus Bill Robbins.
Other film and video collections containing materials similar to those described here include the Experiment Station Communications Films (FV 132), the Extension and Experiment Station Communications Moving Images (FV 120), the Hatfield Marine Science Center Videotapes (FV 254), and the News and Communication Services Motion Picture Films and Videotapes (FV 057). Ten oral history interviews described in the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Collection (OH 026) include Fisheries and Wildlife as a major topic. This same oral history collection holds five interviews that focus, at least in part, on distance learning at OSU.
Preferred Citation: Fisheries and Wildlife Department Films and Videotapes (FV 243), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information: This finding aid replaces a stub record created in 2012. As a result of full physical processing, the volume of this collection has been reduced by 2.0 cubic feet. Sixty-two VHS and DVCPro cassettes were removed from the collection.
Oregon State University. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Biology--Study and teaching (Higher)--Oregon--Corvallis.
Columbia River Watershed
Fisheries--Research--Oregon.
Fishery management--Oregon.
Fishes--Microbiology.
Fish hatcheries--Oregon.
History of Science
Maritime law
Multicultural education--Oregon.
Multiculturalism.
Natural Resources
Oregon State College. Department of Fish, Game, and Fur Animal Management
Oregon State College. Department of Fish and Game Management
Oregon State University. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Ornithology--Study and teaching.
Salmon River (Idaho)
University History
Wildlife conservation--Oregon.
DVDs.
Silent films.
Video recordings (physical artifacts)