The Public. UCSB faculty, professional archaeologists and RAEC staff use curated collections to give lectures or tours to local schools and organizations. This academic year several sixth grade classes and girl scout troops have toured the curation facility or come to the RAEC for lectures on archaeology, human evolution and to see and talk about a variety of artifacts.

Students. Undergraduates typically first experience the RAEC through UCSB faculty and graduate student TAs who integrate RAEC teaching and comparative collections into lectures and discussion sections. Undergraduates also may enroll in or volunteer for student internships at the RAEC. Student interns learn about basic aspects of curation and are involved in a variety on hands-on projects that enhance the quality of curated collections. Four students currently intern at the RAEC, and are undertaking individual projects ranging from conservation of perishable artifacts to preparing animal skeletons for the faunal comparative collection.

Graduates and undergraduates at UCSB and students at other universities often incorporate RAEC collections into senior honors theses, faculty-guided research projects, Masters papers, or even dissertation projects. Within the past year seven UCSB graduates and undergraduates, and three graduate students from other universities have used RAEC collections for academic research. Outside contracts awarded to the Repository by federal and state agencies to prepare collections for curation or upgrade existing archaeological collections have generated considerable financial support for Anthropology Department students. Currently 17 students, 9 graduates and 8 undergraduates, are employed through the RAEC to work on outside contracts. The Assistant Curator position itself is a form of graduate student support, and provides an opportunity to develop a range of important professional and academic skills.

Professional Archaeologists. The RAEC curates archaeological collections from the Santa Barbara region generated through Cultural Resource Management projects required by federal, state and local environmental regulations. Professional archaeologists frequently use RAEC comparative collections to facilitate various types of analyses and utilize curated archaeological collections to plan future mitigation projects, generate new data from existing collections, and compile local and regional cultural resource data bases.

Local Native Americans. Drs. Michael Glassow and Philip Walker are actively pursuing the involvement and input of local Chumash descendants in issues relating to the curation and display of the material remains of their heritage. Members of the Santa Ynez Chumash Indian Reservation and Walker and Glassow have negotiated an agreement that archaeological materials repatriated to the Santa Ynez band will be housed at the RAEC. The Santa Ynez Chumash will own these collections, oversee their use and share in their management and curation. This type of co-operative agreement is rare, and serves as a potentially ground-breaking national example of repatriation. Walker and Glassow are also involved in helping other Chumash descendants educate the public about Chumash heritage, through loans of Repository collections for exhibition at Chumash-run facilities.

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