GETTY HELPING BRING L.A. HISTORY TOGETHER.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Culminating a four-year project involving the Getty Research Institute and 200 Los Angeles cultural organizations, the first directory of little-known archives and historical collections about the history of Los Angeles was published Monday.

The project was coordinated by L.A. as Subject, a research project of the Getty Research Institute, in partnership with local community museums, libraries, government offices, universities, neighborhood organizations, places of worship, and individual scholars and artists.

The 350-page ``Cultural Inheritance/L.A.: A Resource Directory of Less Visible Archives and Collections in the Los Angeles Region'' identifies and defines 178 private and public archives and collections, including documents, photographs and other primary source materials.

Most of these resources are unpublished and previously have not been easily accessible to scholars, researchers and artists. Among those collections included are the Antelope Valley Indian Museum; Department of History, California State University, Northridge; Glendale Central Library, Special Collections; Records Center, City of Burbank; the Automobile Club of Southern California's History Archive; Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel; the Public Utilities Center; the International Gay and Lesbian Archive; the Italian Oral History Project; and the archives and collections of the Western States Black Resource and Educational Center.

``We wanted to shed light on interesting resources about the history and culture of the Los Angeles region that until now have either been on the margins of credible source materials, or simply not known,'' said Karen Stokes, project manager for L.A. as Subject. ``We hope the directory will be indispensable as a resource tool in promoting new research, scholarship, and artistic production about the Los Angeles region.''

The directory, accompanied by an online version, was released Monday at a two-day Getty symposium. (The online address is: www.getty.edu/gri/public/lasubject.htm.) Titled ``Mapping L.A.: A Global Prototype,'' the event is bringing together scholars, researchers and community heritage preservations, using ``mapping'' as a metaphor for how Los Angeles is studied, examined and translated. Participants are examining methods and practices of mapping - social, cognitive, political, electronic and cartographic - and the implications of drawing them together.

In conjunction with the launch of the directory, exhibitions at two venues are showcasing local archives and collections. ``Illuminating Visual Culture, Artifacts, and Documents: The Harbor and Coastal Cities Corridor'' at the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice features cultural materials that reflect the transformative histories of communities in the coastal cities between Ventura and Orange counties. This exhibition will run through July 22. ``Expressions in the Gallery: Less Visible Culture in the Central City Corridor'' at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee represents the social, cultural and economic histories of communities in the area bounded by L.A. Civic Center to the north, East Los Angeles to the east, West Los Angeles to the west and Watts to the south. It will run through June 30.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) ``Cultural Inheritance/L.A.: A Resource Directory of Less Visible Archives and Collections in the Los Angeles Region'' can point researchers to such things as this photograph from the California African-American museum of two youths visiting an ostrich farm.

(2) ``Town Meeting - Bus Me Not!'' is a 1977 photograph at the Urban Archives center.

(3) This 1949 photo is from the Beverly Hills Historical Society.