Columbia University Computing History   

Columbia University Computing Bulletins

Computing bulletins were issued from 1946 to about 1980. The ones from 1946 to 1963 were Watson Laboratory bulletins, the ones from 1963 were Computer Center or Computing Activities bulletins. These were regular Columbia University bulletins, listing for-credit graduate and undergraduate courses, but concentrating on those that used the computers at Watson Lab and later, the central IBM (and later still, DEC) computers at the Computer Center.

The Watson Lab bulletin includes listings of some of the first computer science courses ever, offered starting in 1946. The Computing Activities bulletins contain:

• A complete listing of Computer Center full- and part-time staff.
• A description of Computer Center facilies and services, including computing equipment, operating systems, languages and programming aids, User Services office, Reference Room, documentation, instruction, colloquia and lectures, programming and consultation services, access to facilities.
• Other computing facilities associated with the University. This section lists the computing equipment found in the departments, as well as at Teachers College, the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, the Goddard Institute Space Flight Center, and Brookhaven National Lab.
• Degree programs in computer study.
• Course listings.