The History of Information Science and Other Traditional Information Domains: Models for Future Research

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.