This week I decided to look at the 1984 Olympic Games Collection. The collection contained correspondence, pamphlets, maps and newspapers about the 1984 Olympic Games. The games were held in Los Angeles, CA. This particular collection caught my eye mainly because it had to do with the Olympics. Ever since I was a kid I would watch the games on TV, every 4 years, patiently waiting for the time of year to watch and support my country. As a spectator, I always wondered what went into the games, more specifically how it was planned, who competed, what events there were and so on and so forth. I really wanted to know what went on behind the scenes for the Olympic games to happen. Thankfully, the collection was able to provide some insight.
Some historical narratives that I noticed from the collection were the programs, booklets, news articles, and designs for the 1984 Olympics. You could truly see how important and monumental the event like the Olympic games was to the nation through their preparation. Although the collection does a fantastic job of recording everything involving the Olympics, a few notes that could potentially be missing from the narrative include: those who specifically competed/ which countries did not compete, the exact times/scores of certain events, and what time of day the event took place. Furthermore, the collection fails to go in depth to the extents of background information on the coaches/athletes and the places that were being considered for as the home for the Olympics that year. In order to answer these questions and gaps regarding the 1984 Olympics I would have to start out by searching through the UCLA archives/libraries to find books, articles or possible documentaries about the games. Perhaps, I could look to see if there any interviews on the internet, or just how the general political climate was for competing and noncompeting countries. One way I feel the collection could improve, is if they implemented videos of certain events. This would work as a way to appeal to this generation, as well as provide more visual representation in the collection for the games. One item that struck my attention was the Torch that they used for the games. The torch is an iconic symbol for the Olympics and the fact that they had it in their archives is a goldmine. I noticed that the torch came along with operating and safety instructions, which I found very entertaining. Regardless, the collection does an amazing job on providing coverage in a positivistic manner for the most well known international sports competition.
Hello,
I really enjoyed reading your blogpost, especially on how to improve the collection such that it tells a full story. I do agree that perhaps a video will be better able to engage our generation. Some areas of improvement for the blogpost itself would be to be more organized. Although interesting, I had trouble understanding how your comment on the torch was relevant to the rest of the blogpost.
Hello,
I also really enjoyed reading this blog post! I agree with how the full story isn’t told without knowing who competed, their backgrounds, etc. But overall, this collection was extremely interesting to look at.
Hi,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post and I admire how you would cater to the current generation by providing more visual presentations. Although the content was there, I found myself getting lost due to the organization of your post. Nonetheless, it was a great post!
I really enjoyed reading your post, specifically on your critique in improving this collection. I agree that perhaps a video will be better able to engage our generation since this generation appreciates visual stimuli more than flat text. The only issue I had was that it was sometimes hard to follow along your blog posts organization.