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Online Research in Special Collections

Resources for virtual Special Collections research at Pepperdine.

Digital Collections at Pepperdine

Pepperdine Digital Collections facilitates the discovery of and access to a wide variety of digital materials related to Pepperdine University's history and unique archival holdings. Most items in the digital collections derive from Special Collections and University Archives and include photographs, films, audio recordings, yearbooks, newspapers, ephemera, and thematic and biographical collections of all types. Topics represented include the history of the university, the history of Malibu, film and television history, the history of the Churches of Christ, and other adjacent topics.

Pepperdine Digital Collections is open to the public to encourage discovery and scholarship at the widest possible breadth. Furthermore, the materials that compose our digital collections are optimized for online information seeking and archived for long-term digital preservation.

How to Search and Browse

Browse

Our digitized materials are grouped into 39 collections, many of which mirror a physical archival collection. Collection topics are mostly related to university history, Malibu history, history of film and television, and history of the Churches of Christ. Users can browse any of the collections. Many of the collections have suggested browse topics with curated content.

For example, if you click on the University Archives Photograph Collection (which contains nearly 15,000 images), you can click on Picturesque Malibu Campus to view 70 photos hand-picked by our staff.

Photo of Pepperdine Malibu Campus construction from 1970s

Search

Users may search within one of the 39 collections, across all collections, or across a selection of collections. For example, someone interested in the history of Malibu may want to search the Malibu Times collection, Eric Wienberg Collection of Malibu Matchbooks, Postcards, and Collectables, and the Malibu Historical Photograph Collection.To get the best results, search multiple synonyms and spellings. Search terms will be highlighted in the item record.

As always, contact us for assistance with your specific research need!

historical postcard from Malibu Beach, CA circa 1960s

 

Viewing Materials

Description

Each image in the digital collections has descriptive metadata to provide context for the item. This can be useful in understanding the size of the item, what its original format is, and what collection it comes from. Clicking on subject terms can also help you find other like items.

Viewing

Most objects in our digital collection can be manipulated for different types of viewing. Look for the arrows in the upper right corner of the item and/or the "M" icon on the upper right side of the page to expand the image, zoom in, rotate it, and use other kinds of image-viewing tools.