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Biographical Directory of Documentation and Information Science
About this project
This Biographical Directory of Documentation and Information Science is an international effort to document the lives and contributions of people and organizations who have made substantial contributions to the field.
This resource is designed to enable historical work in the field by identifying pioneering individuals and organizations significant to the development of Information Science, and providing locations of personal papers and archival records related to these individuals and organizations.
List of all pages.
It also includes a list of all pages, and a list of known oral histories of information scientists.
This directory is a publication of the Special Interest Group on the History and Foundations of Information Science of the Association for Information Science and Technology. The Editor is appointed by and reports to the Chair of the SIG. An Advisory Committee appointed by the Editor makes recommendations to the Editor and to the SIG Chair.
History
"Pioneers of Information Science" was initiated by Dr. Robert V. Williams, Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina in 1996. The objectives of that project were to locate and document the archives and personal papers of individuals and organizations from the U.S. and Canada that were significant to the development of Information Science and Technology in the 20th century.
From today’s featured article
Burton Adkinson (1909-2004) was an American geographer, librarian and information science program officer. He received his Ph.D. in physical geography from Clark University in 1942 and worked as a geographer at the Department of State, 1942-43, and as Assistant Director, U.S. Board of Geographical Names at the Department of the Interior, 1943-44.
During World War II he worked as Assistant Chief Map Intelligence Section, Map Division, for the OSS 1944-45. Then at the Library of Congress as Assistant Chief, Acting Chief, then Chief of the Map Division 1945-49.
Contributions and Editorial Policies
We invite contributions from all members of the information science community. We especially seek international contributions. If you would like to write an entry, please read about the scope of the project and create a short article (a stub) that includes the individual or organization that you wish to nominate and submit it to the editors at biographicaleditor at gmail dot com.
See also our Manual of Style [1] and Article Template page.