ASIST History

1937 Meeting

1937: Beginnings in Documentation

ASIS&T was founded on March 13, 1937, as the American Documentation Institute (ADI), a service organization made up of individuals nominated by and representing affiliated scientific and professional societies, foundations and government agencies. Its initial interest was in the development of microfilm as an aid to information dissemination.

1950's: Transition to Modern Information Science

As the number of people engaged in developing new principles and techniques in the many areas of documentation and information services increased, the Bylaws were amended in 1952 to admit individual as well as institutional members. Thus, ADI became the national professional society for those concerned with all elements and problems of information science. With the 1950’s came increasing awareness of the potential of automatic devices for literature searching and information storage and retrieval. As these concepts grew in magnitude and potential, so did the variety of professional interests.

1960's: The Information Explosion

During the 1960’s, membership increased sevenfold as the problems created by the “information explosion” became of national concern. Reflecting this change in its total range of activities, as well as the emergence of information science as an identifiable configuration of disciplines, the membership voted to change the name of the American Documentation Institute to the American Society for Information Science. The name change took effect January 1, 1968, and emphasized the fact that the membership of ASIS is uniquely concerned with all aspects of the information transfer process, a national professional organization for those concerned with designing, managing, and using information systems and technology.

1970's: The Move to Online Information

The move from batch processing to online modes, from mainframe to mini and micro computers accelerated in the 1970’s. Traditional boundaries among disciplines began to fade and library schools added “information” in their titles. ASIS stopped administering the ERIC Clearinghouse on Library and Information Services, made the Mid-Year Meeting an annual event focusing on a single topic of current interest, sponsored a bicentennial conference (1976) on the role of information in the country’s development, was an active participant in the planning and implementation of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, and the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science appeared and became a mainstay membership publication of the Society.

1980's: Personal Computers Change the Market

By the 1980’s, large databases, such as Grateful Med at the National Library of Medicine, and user-oriented services such as Dialog and Compuserve, were for the first time accessible by individuals from their personal computers. ASIS added to and revised its Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to respond to the changes, establishing groups on office information systems and personal computers as well as international information issues and rural information services. By the end of the decade, SIGs were available involving non-print media, social sciences, energy and the environment, and community information systems and ASIS had its first non-North American Chapters.

2000's: ASIS&T Today

As information and communication technology applications proliferate and encroach ever more on the daily lives of nearly all in the developed world, ASIS&T members are at the forefront in examining the technical bases, social consequences, and theoretical understanding of online databases, widespread use of databases in government, industry, and education, and the development of the Internet and World Wide Web. In 2000, the Society changed its name to American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), reflecting the range of its members. In 2013, the Society changed its name to the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) to reflect its growing international membership.

Published Histories of ASIST

Schultz, C. K., & Garwig, P. L. (1969). History of the American Documentation Institute—A sketch. American Documentation, 20(2), 152–160. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630200207.

Claire Schultz (president) and Paul Garwig co-authored a history of the first 30 years (1937 - 67) of ADI.  They begin, “The story of the American Documentation Institute (ADI) cannot be told without presenting the ideas and achievements of the central figure in its formation, Watson Davis” (p. 152). Davis’s goal was to use miniaturization, indexing, and cooperation to provide access to every scientific and scholarly publication, which he described in his 1962 address to ADI as “one big library” and “one big journal”: a fully indexed, microfilmed record of the scientific record. ADI was a member of the International Federation for Documentation (FID), and had established a journal: American Documentation. Schultz and Garwig lamented its focus on techniques and tutorials on “indexing, classifying or coding schemes” rather than research; they described copyright restrictions and ADI’s past financial problems. By the mid-1960’s its trajectory was brighter. Changes in the field had prompted ADI to adopt a new name, ASIS, in 1968. It was closely tied to the Special Libraries Association and the American Chemical Society, was financially solvent, and had developed all of the hallmarks of a mature professional association.

Schultz, C. K. (1976). ASIS: Notes on its Founding and Development. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 2(8), 49–51.

Schultz followed up seven years after she and Garwig authored its first history. The March 1976 issue of the Bulletin, entitled “Information Science in America” was published on the eve of the nation’s bicentennial. The theme was revolution, focusing on America’s contributions to information science and librarianship. Schultz discusses ADI’s original goals: “to use a newly developed documentation medium – microfilm – to accomplish four purposes” (p. 49) that Davis envisioned as a means to transform scholarship. Enacting this vision was complicated and fraught. Under Davis’s leadership ADI was composed entirely of hand-picked members. In 1952, Librarian of Congress Luther Evans opened membership. The 1960’s brought a post-war excitement about scientific and technical advancements. ASIS grew, with members representing “librarians, authors, publishers, mathematicians, equipment technologists, communication theorists, linguists, and users of messages” (p. 50) and by establishing chapters and Special Interest Groups, a formal administrative structure, and expanded publications. Schultz predicted that the 1970’s would see improved finances for the Association as the world would recognize the value of information science as a profession that would guide decisions about technology and law.

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, June/July 1988

In honor of the Society’s 50th anniversary, authors contributed a synopsis and a list of seminal readings from each decade, a list of ASIS SIGs and a photo gallery of 24 Pioneers of Information Science. Lois Lunin’s bittersweet introduction to the issue celebrates the Association’s progress while lamenting its shrinking membership. The issue ends with Eugene Garfield’s proclamation that “We live in a new age – some would say a golden age – of science and technology. Societies the world over understand the increasing importance of science and technology to economic and social well-being and improvement” (p. 38). He credits scientists, technologists, and politicians who support technological progress, emphasizing the economic impact of the knowledge industry and the ethical imperative of access to information for developing countries.

1937 – 48, “Beginnings of Information Science,” by Madeline M. Henderson.

Features Watson Davis, Vannevar Bush, the memex, punched cards, microfilm, ADI, the American Chemical Society. The focus during the interwar and postwar periods was on scientific information.

1949 – 58, “Many stars begin to shine,” by Saul Herner.

Herner revisits and updates his 1953 JASIS Perspectives paper “Brief History of Information Science” recounting meeting Eugene Garfield, Jesse Shera, Ralph Shaw, Claire Schulz, and other Association leaders. The decade’s focus was organizing and indexing scientific literature and designing automated retrieval systems, activities accelerated by the Cold War.

1959 – 68: Dreams become realities, by Lea Bohnert.

ASIS’ third decade saw the development of a national information plan, with the aid of federal grants and contracts that improved indexing and thesauri as well as the first information science courses and centers at Western Reserve, SUNY-Albany, and Drexel. Industry became involved with citation indexing and document retrieval. Henriette Avram began developing MARC at the Library of Congress.

1969 – 78: The Move to Information Online, by Edward Sawyer.

The information professions were in transition, library schools were adding information to their titles, and old mainframe systems were being replaced with online computers.ASIS was experiencing financial difficulties but had a new publication (the Bulletin). Members of the Association testified frequently before Congress, and private sector and governmental organizations ushered further advances in the field.

1979 – 88: Personal Computers Change the Market, Bruce and Rene Stein.

The development of the personal computer, Electronic Bulletin Board Systems allowing user groups to communicate and develop software and freeware, and advanced telecommunications enabled wider database use and document retrieval.

Saracevic, T. (1991). The New ASIS: Putting the Results of ASIS 2000 and Other Re-Examinations to Work. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 17(2), 8–10.

ASIS’s membership was in decline, and Saracevic wrote that ASIS must leverage its identity as a human-centered organization. Information science was now a part of society, but ASIS’s relevance was in question. The ASIS 2000 project offered new mission and vision statements that asserted ASIS should leverage its strategic position as a bridge between disciplines and borders: an association where scientists, professionals, educators, business people can find a home for conversations and high-quality, useful learning.

1999 special 50th volume issues of the ASIS Bulletin

“Dedicated to reflecting on the past, debating the current issues in the field, predicting the future – and celebrating it all”. Issue 1 was devoted to the Journal, its Society, and the Future of Print, and Issue 2, to Paradigms, Models, and Methods of Information Science. Selected articles follow:

Garfield, E. (1999). From 1950s Documentalists to 20th Century Information Scientists - and Beyond: ASIS Enters the Year 2000 Facing Remarkable Advances and Challenges in Harnessing the Information Technology Revolution. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 26(2), 26–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/bult.148.

As the newly elected president of ASIS, Garfield met with the Executive Director and reported feeling as if he “was reliving a bad dream. Our 1960s financial crisis was accompanied by an identity crisis reflecting the growing divergence of information and technology then taking place” (p. 26). ASIS’s financial woes, caused in part by the “disastrous effects of the 1976 Bicentennial Conference, as well as a series of monographic publication failures” (p. 28) would make it difficult to meet his Presidential goals. He describes the 1970’s decision to focus on research rather than creating a wider appeal industry and librarians, who might have offered financial stability. By 1999, membership had dropped from a high in the early 1980’s of almost 4000 to about 2400. Garfield’s strategies for increasing membership included offering dual memberships with sister societies, expanding student membership. and nurturing ties with SLA and ALA.

Buckland, M. (1999). The landscape of information science: The American Society for Information Science at 62. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(11), 970–974. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1999)50:11<970::AID-ASI3>3.0.CO;2-D

Buckland, 1998 President of ASIS, wrote about two traditions in the field and in education for the information professions: the “document” tradition of archives, librarianship, etc., and the “computational” tradition, focused on information retrieval. Convergence between the traditions can be discerned even in the early 1900’s in the European roots of Documentation; the concept of hypertext also binds them in “technological modernism: standards, codes and rules, systematic organization, purposive information systems…” (p. 971) that enables digitization and digital libraries. He asserts that the field must embrace a broad array of theories and practices while seizing on current and dynamic hot topics as they arise. Buckland provides a circumspect though no less dismal view of declining membership while noting that ASIS is not unique in its decline.

Williams, Robert. 2012. The Changed and Changing ADI/ASIS/ASIS&T After 75 Years. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 38(5). https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bult.2012.1720380511

Williams’ 2012 retrospective traces ADI’s beginnings as an institute for organizational members, including library associations, information agencies of the federal government and commercial institutions. It opened to individuals in the 1940’s, and in 1952 the organization took a democratic turn, adopting new bylaws and a new constitution. He describes disagreements among leaders and members about the organization’s direction, stemming from vague terms such as documentation and information science. Membership declined sharply between the mid-1970’s and 2000, as ASIS had become merely a venue for academics to report the results of research rather than a valuable source for innovation. Publications had been both a source of income stability and financial strain due to loans and royalty negotiations with Wiley. Recent changes included adding the T to ASIS in 2000, and formally embracing an international scope, increasing global membership and influence.