the Special Interest Group (SIG) ture of various disciplines (such as Chemistry or Biology) Projects Fund of the American Society for Information but also included significant discussion of the history of Science (ASIS) granted $4,000 to the University of South information retrieval in those fields. Again, when in Carolina College of Library and Information Science for doubt, the item was included. We recognize, however, the purpose of initiating a study to identify and document that our coverage of the historical work on information the pioneers of Information Science in the United States.
handling in the various disciplines is the central weakness The project had been proposed under the sponsorship of of this compilation. We invite the help of readers in imthe ASIS Special Interest Group (SIG), Foundations of proving this coverage. Information Science (now History and Foundations of
We have also taken a fairly broad view of what consti-Information Science), and Robert V. Williams was desigtutes an ''historical'' work. Because the history of Infornated by the SIG to be the principal investigator.
mation Science is still in an early development phase, we The project had three central objectives: Identify early think this approach is justified. Thus, we have included pioneering individuals and organizations of Information not only the traditional historical monographs, encyclope-Science in the U.S. (later broadened to include Canada), dia contributions, and journal articles, but also such items determine the location (or plans for disposition) of the as longer obituary notices (the ''In Memoriam'' type artipersonal/professional papers and archives of these piocles), personal retrospective descriptions of programs and neers, and compile a bibliography of the published historiinventions, and items whose main purpose was anticipatcal work on Information Science in North America. An ing the future by reviewing the past. While many of these advisory board of 20 individuals familiar with the history only minimally qualify as history, we feel that they do of Information Science was formed to assist and direct have a place in a comprehensive bibliography of the field. the project. The project was completed and a final report A wide variety of sources were used in compiling the was submitted to the ASIS Board of Directors in August bibliography. The historical work on information science 1996. This bibliography is one part of the final report.
by Farkas-Conn, Burke, Lilley and Trice, and other writ-This bibliography attempts comprehensive coverage of the historical writings on the field of Information Science ers constituted our beginning points. All major indexes in North America. While a fairly broad definition of Inforcovering Information Science and related areas (such as mation Science has been adopted, we have not attempted chemical information) were searched comprehensively. to cover two closely related areas, Library Science and
The project advisory board supplied a number of citations Computer Science, both of which have existing comprewhich, in turn, led to other citations. The review articles in hensive bibliographies (see below for titles). However, the several volumes of the Annual Review of Information making distinctions between the history of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) were also fruitful. We Science and the history of these two closely allied fields also examined a number of bibliographies in the field of has not always been easily accomplished. When doubt Library Science and Computer Science. Davis and Tuckarose, we chose to include those items. We encountered er's