The ASIS&T oral history program: An interim report

Abstract

EDITOR'S SUMMARY As part of the 75th anniversary celebration of ASIS&T, an oral history program was started to document the background, significant events and careers of outstanding individuals in information science and technology. The ongoing project takes a cue from oral histories of the Medical Library Association and the Chemical Heritage Foundation and captures individuals' experiences and decisions in their personal and professional lives, reflecting the development of the association itself. With seed funding from the ASIS&T SIG Special Projects Fund and help from graduate classes and Special Interest Group/History and the Foundations of Information Science, the initiative has relied on volunteers to identify and visit with interviewees and to record, transcribe and prepare materials for deposit in the ASIS&T archives at the University of Michigan Library. Interviews illustrate the leaps in telecommunications influencing personal careers and helping the Association in its early years, the expansion of centers for information retrieval science, bureaucratic challenges and the interplay of personalities. The ASIS&T oral history project is an important documentation of the growth of the field, capturing recordings, photos and biographies of key contributors.