{"title":"The History of Information Science and Other Traditional Information Domains: Models for Future Research","authors":"William Aspray","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0011","url":null,"abstract":"It has been said that the historian is the avenger, and that standing as a judge between the parties and rivalries and causes of bygone generations he can lift up the fallen and beat down the proud, and by his exposures and his verdicts, his satire and his moral indignation, can punish unrighteousness, avenge the injured or reward the innocent. —Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) Historians of the traditional information domains—libraries, archives, and museums as well as conservation and information science—could be more effective in punishing unrighteousness, avenging the injured, and rewarding the innocent if they had better tools. This article aims to help them develop these tools not by honing their satirical abilities or teaching them how to become more at one with their moral outrage but instead by drawing their attention to several scholarly literatures that offer insights into information history: the history of information technology, social informatics, and business and economic history of technology. I identify nine themes from these literatures that seem ripe for exploration in the history of information science but first examine the boundaries between information science and various other information domains. This article benefits from two recently published literature reviews that provide good overviews of the existing literature on the histories of information science and technology. 1 However, these reviews were retrospective works meant to review existing literature; the goal here is prospective, to suggest avenues for future research.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"230 - 248"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66807113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Converging Histories and Futures of Libraries, Archives, and Museums as Seen through the Case of the Curious Collector Myron Eells","authors":"M. Paulus","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0008","url":null,"abstract":"The etymologies of the words archive, library, and museum reveal the antiquity of these words as well as their semantic evolutions over time. An archive, initially an ancient office building, is now associated with historical records and the places that preserve them. A library, a term once connected with ancient writing material or products, now con notes printed books and the places that provide access to them. And museums, originally places for worshiping the Muses, have become col lections of historical, scientific, artistic, or other cultural objects and the places that exhibit them. These evolving meanings suggest a rich history that began soon after communications began to be preserved in writing, some five millennia ago, and continues into the present as libraries, ar chives, and museums (LAMs) continue to collect, preserve, and provide access to records, books, and other artifacts so that members of each new generation may understand the past and present and prepare for the future.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"185 - 205"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66807033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Past May Be the Prologue: History's Place in the Future of the Information Professions","authors":"B. Craig","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Cool Technologies for a New Generation T echnologies hardly dreamt of forty years ago continue a surprising diversification and growth that show no sign of slowing. Smart phones and personal digital assistants that bring effortless mobile emailing and Internet access are but the newest tools for the wired “cool” generation. While the pursuit of novelty still may be the aim of some, for most of North American society the use of information technologies of all kinds has become a natural habit and increasingly a necessity in personal and professional life. The vast potential of computers and sophisticated software applications linked to wireless communications is reshaping customary lines of civil and corporate life. Formerly clear divides between public and private domains are no longer obvious. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and the expanding blogosphere have rendered the concept of privacy moot. At the same time, networked social habits expose us to risks. Computers may empower us, but they also impose an as-yet dimly perceived set of new responsibilities on people and citizens to participate more actively in politics and policing. 1","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"206 - 219"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66807042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Boundaries of Preservation and Conservation Research","authors":"Michèle Cloonan","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0010","url":null,"abstract":"A 2007 article in College & Research Libraries called \"Analysis of a Decade in Library Literature: 1994-2004\" led me to examine the publi cation patterns of preservation and conservation research. The authors randomly selected ten journals to study from a list of twenty-eight. The list was culled from the fifty-five that were included in Thomson's Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Social Science Edition under the category \"li brary and information science.\" JCR was consulted because the authors wanted to identify the \"journals of high repute within library and infor mation science.\"1","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"220 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66807094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The British Library of Information in New York: A Tool of British Foreign Policy, 1919-1942","authors":"David A. Lincove","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0007","url":null,"abstract":"The British Library of Information supported British interests in the United States by providing reference information and government documents explaining official British positions on domestic, imperial, and foreign affairs. The library also gathered information on American public opinion and politics and communicated with influential Americans throughout the country, thus contributing to the Foreign Office's analysis of American affairs. These efforts were part of a broader program of national publicity to ensure British political and economic competitiveness in the expanding environment of propaganda after World War I. The library model revealed conflicts in British information policy early in World War II.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"156 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Children's Voices in Librarians' Words, 1890-1930","authors":"Kate McDowell","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0005","url":null,"abstract":"American librarians between 1890 and 1930 often used children's own words to document young readers' reading choices and library activities. These accounts, based on both surveys of and conversations with children, reveal the relationships children's librarians sought to establish with their young readers and often give some sense of the attitudes of children and their families toward the public library. In their professional reports, children's librarians typically recounted anecdotes, many of which reflected their attitudes toward children's reading habits, immigrant cultural practices, and the perceived need for children to meet middle-class expectations. The writings show that children's librarians struggled to make the library a welcoming place while enforcing rules, and that children were actively engaged with the institution of the public library.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"101 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The French Revolution and the Materiality of the Modern Archive","authors":"R. Kingston","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Historians of vandalism and conservation during the French Revolution have treated the archive as an idea, an expression of modern political culture, and have largely ignored its material history. When revolutionaries \"attacked\" Old Regime depots, however, they were spurred on by necessity: locating valuable property titles, or paper for use as gunpowder funnels. Moreover, it was only when limited space in ministry buildings forced New Regime administrators to discard documents from their own holdings that archivists embraced historical conservation. Through ministerial deposits in the Archives nationales, the archive as a lieu de mémoire—legitimized by a respect des fonds—took shape in nineteenth-century France.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"1 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Education of Alice M. Jordan and the Origins of the Boston Public Library Training School","authors":"Gale Eaton","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0003","url":null,"abstract":"The pioneering supervisor of work with children at the Boston Public Library, Alice M. Jordan (1870-1960), is primarily remembered as a book woman. She was also a patient and astute institutional politician whose determination to build a qualified cadre of children's librarians led her to teach at Simmons College in Boston and organize a round table of children's librarians. After 1917, under the administrations of Charles Belden and Milton Lord at the BPL, her efforts gained institutional support, and she helped found the BPL Training School, becoming a recognized player in the professionalization of the BPL staff.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"26 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Comparison of the Progressive Era and the Depression Years: Societal Influences on Predictions of the Future of the Library, 1895-1940","authors":"Hal Grossman","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines societal influences on predictions of the future of the library from both the Progressive Era (1895-1920) and the Great Depression (1932-40). Predictions from the Progressive Era tend to place the reader at the crest of a long wave of progress, to foresee voluntary cooperation among libraries, and to stress a moral dimension of librarianship. Predictions from the Depression years tend to place the reader at a moment of historical disjunction and to foresee either a centrally planned library system or a future shaped by wonderful advances in science. The ways in which the predictions examined here partook of the dominant sociopolitical ideas of their day underscore the social embeddedness of libraries.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"102 - 128"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural Record Keepers: Legacy of a One-Man Book Maker","authors":"Randy Silverman, C. Baker","doi":"10.1353/LAC.2011.0000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/LAC.2011.0000","url":null,"abstract":"Late in 1983, Gregory Thompson, newly appointed head of Special Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library, received a call from a local gentleman interested in selling some books. While the books in question were nice (copies of Limited Edition Club publications that paired prints by contemporary fine artists like Matisse and Picasso with important authors such as Joyce and Aristophanes), they were not very useful for building the Special Collections. However, after wandering into a back room and searching through the books, Margaret Landesman, head of collection development, came out holding three fine press books by Dard Hunter, causing quite a stir among the browsers. Thompson had not yet encountered Hunter’s work, but it was plain from the quality of the handmade materials that these were works of distinction.","PeriodicalId":89436,"journal":{"name":"Libraries & the cultural record","volume":"46 1","pages":"129 - 132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/LAC.2011.0000","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66806924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}