Press Release 07-20-07
For Immediate Release

The Heinlein Prize Trust, in conjunction with the University of California at Santa Cruz, is pleased to announce the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives, a ground-breaking new online resource, at:

www.heinleinarchives.net

The Heinlein Archives launched to the public July 7, 2007 at the Heinlein Centennial in Kansas City, Missouri. The online Heinlein Archives brings the entire Archives collection of noted American author, Robert A. Heinlein, to the Internet. With over 106,000 pages of documents online for its initial launch, the entire collection-available online to all users-will include over 200,000 pages of documents and information.

The first collection of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives to be completed online is the Opus/Manuscripts collection. These manuscript files include Heinlein's files of all his published works with his notes, research, early drafts and edits of manuscripts, to the final published form. These files provide both a look at Heinlein's creative process and add insights into his intent and the meaning in his stories. Other collections include the Heinleins' business and personal correspondence, scrapbooks, photo albums, and unpublished works. Launch availability in these sections include Heinlein's correspondence with editor John W. Campbell, Jr, a family scrapbook from his childhood, and business correspondence with agent Lurton Blassingame from the 1970s.

The entire contents of the physical Heinlein archives at UCSC have been scanned, giving the collection protection through digital immortality while vastly increasing its availability to academics and fans.

Since its launch one week ago, the Archives had delivered thousands of pages of documents via the DORA-Digital Online Research Archives-system, a new process that creates and delivers the users' document orders in a uniquely watermarked and personalized PDF created on-the-fly at the time of order. Users search the collections and then order the documents to be created for them automatically. A link to their personalized documents arrives to the user via email. DORA brings a new option to archives around the world, allowing them to expand their reach while maintaining the security and copyright integrity of their collections.

Fees for receiving documents average $.01 per page across the collection. Academics interested in writing on Robert A. Heinlein's work for publication may apply for a research grant and, if approved, can receive the documents they require at no charge.

About the Heinlein Prize Trust

The Heinlein Prize Trust (www.heinleinprize.com) also awards the Heinlein Prize, a $500.000 prize rewarding individuals for making practical contributions to the commercialization of space. The first Heinlein Prize was awarded to Peter Diamandis of X Prize fame on July 7, 2006 in Houston, Texas.

Other activities of the Heinlein Prize Trust include the Flight Into the Future series of contests which brings high school and college students from multiple nations together presenting papers which offer practical advances in space technology. The Asian contest awards and ceremony were held in China, with the European, Middle East, and African contest awards being held in Moscow. A Flight Into the Future contest for the Americas is in the works.

In educational efforts in the US, the Heinlein Prize Trust offers free copies of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novel, "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" to schools including the novel in their curriculum. As a special reward to some of these schools a NASA astronaut, wearing a real spacesuit, visited the classrooms. In a random drawing five teachers will receive a Sokol KV-2 (Falcon) pressure suit to display at their school for two weeks and a $250 grant. See www.spaceweek.org/heinlein.html for more information.

Additionally, the Trust has partnered with The Heinlein Society to create a free educational CD that includes the right for educators to reproduce three Heinlein short stories for young readers for each student assigned them as class material. Visit www.heinleinsociety.org/education to learn more about this CD.

The Heinlein Prize Trust is also bringing to the public the collectable edition of all of Heinlein's works in the Virginia Edition, which restores manuscripts to their originally intended form, and adds volumes of correspondence about the works.

About UCSC Special Collections

The University Library's Special Collections offers UCSC's academic community, visiting scholars, and the general public access to the library's most unique holdings. Established in the late 1960s, the department supports the University's academic program and its instructional and research interests. It also preserves and promotes collections that hold particular historical and cultural significance to an international scholarly community, houses and provides access to publications and archives focusing on the geographic region of Santa Cruz, and serves as the repository for UCSC administrative archives.

Holdings range from manuscripts and rare books to local ephemera, works of art and audio and visual material. The collections afford opportunities for interdisciplinary research, particularly in fields such as the history of printing and book arts; modernism in art, literature, and photography; women's and community studies; and local history.

Media Resources and photos available at:

www.heinleinprize.com/Media

For information about the Heinlein Archives, other endeavors of The Heinlein Prize Trust, contact: