You won't find his name by Googling "rubella." But in the early 1960s, a young enlisted serviceman and Kamehameha Schools graduate named Francis "Frank" Mundon worked on Dr. Paul Parkman's team at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where they first isolated the virus that causes German measles.

According to Mundon's unpublished memoirs, he made that initial discovery, inspiring Parkman to break tradition and name his assistant — who then lacked a college degree — as co-author of his 1964 academic report. Mundon's findings were a necessary step toward a vaccine that would save thousands of children from contracting rubella, and potentially severe defects, in the womb.

It's the kind of history that thrives at Kamehameha Schools' Midkiff Learning Center, which cultivates primary historical sources, preserving vital stories that might otherwise slip away.

Mundon's autobiography was literally thrust into the hands of Janet Zisk, Midkiff's archivist, by an old friend of the alum, who flew to Hawai'i just to turn it over. Mundon's dying wish, his chum explained, was to return to his high school alma mater.

"He wanted to come home," says Zisk, visibly moved by the tale. Thanks to his friend, he's there now, part of the school's many-storied history.

Zisk organizes everything that comes her way, from campus or community donations, into files and preservational boxes — and later helps researchers sift through those archived items. This month's entries include a tattered girls' team volleyball and a mildew-eaten cloth box containing antique lantern slides of musical numbers — and among those, to her surprise, several previously unknown anthems sung at school sporting events long ago.

Zisk's philosophy is to hang on to items, even if their original uses are unclear at first: "Their history comes along."

Such gradual accretion, over time, makes for interesting detective work and yields fascinating snapshots of Hawai'i past.

Take a 1928 school newspaper clipping that Zisk found, proclaiming a Kamehameha farm bird "the highest paid hen in the territory." The hen made $12.75 that year for laying 247 eggs, and landed the Sixth Hawaiian Egg-Laying Contest title.

Digging further, Zisk unearthed a photograph of then-Kamehameha student — and hen caretaker — Sam Vida with the hen and a trophy. So when, much later, a silver egg-laying contest trophy materialized on her desk, its history was no mystery.

Yet history, however well-conserved, is nothing without people to remember it. "We're not just here to preserve history, but to share it," concurs head librarian Gail Fujimoto.

That spirit is visible in the school's impeccable library, which nevertheless feels alive and well-worn. Students work intently in a chock-full computer lab without walls; others chat enthusiastically with a teacher at a round seminar table in the Hawai'i/Pacific Collection room; a massive, functional koa canoe hangs from the center's grand ceiling.

And it's that spirit that's behind making the archives available to the public, as well as the library's commitment to service local Hawai'i-focus charter schools. Kamehameha's librarians have provided instruction and online resources to 12 such schools that otherwise could not afford access to its subscription-based online databases, which offer entire texts to subscribers.

More than 10,000 Hawai'i-centered items are housed in Midkiff's Hawai'i/Pacific Collection, an impressive library-within-a-library that contains books (some out-of-print and quite rare), maps, charts, regalia and audio-visual materials. Though Midkiff's resources are accessible only to Kamehameha Schools' students, staff and alumni, Hawai'i/Pacific Collection librarian Kawika Makanani speaks regularly with students and doctoral fellows, who call from far-flung places to consult.

Lucky scholars: Makanani is not your average librarian. He's got more than 20 years of experience as a Hawaiian history kumu under his belt, and a generous credo: "If you know something, and somebody needs something, why not help them?" His benevolent convictions stem from a desire to promote — to all peoples — an understanding of native culture that's "pono, correct."

Makanani's credo, he explains with a chuckle, goes back to a saying that his uncle used to tell his cousins: "Make yourself useful."

Zisk would no doubt agree. After all, an archivist's work is never done; everything is a clue from today's world to tomorrow's. She gestures to a stack of filing, pulling out a current newspaper that reports on the Hokule'a's most recent journey.

"History," she contends, "is what happened right now."

IT'S @ THE LIBRARY

Libraries show just how entertaining and enlightening they are with National Library Week festivities, Sunday through April 21. This year's theme is "Come Together @ Your Library." Many libraries are full media centers with CD collections, computer labs and reading couches, welcoming your exploration. For a list of free events in Hawai'i, visit www.librarieshawaii.org or call your local library.