Belver C. Griffith

Belver C. Griffith

Belver C. Griffith (1931-1999) was an American information scientist.

Life

Belver Callis Griffith was born on March 28, 1931, in Hampton, Virginia. He earned a BA in psychology at the University of Virginia, 1948-1951, then at the University of Connecticut he received an MA (1953) and PhD (1957) in psychology.

In the early 1960s, Griffith examined scientific information exchange in the field of psychology as part of a research project with the American Psychological Association. Since then he mainly worked on the quantitative analysis of scientific communication, bibliometrics, scientometrics and scientific communication. In 1969, Griffith became a professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In the 1970s he collaborated with Henry G. Small at the Institute for Scientific Information on co-citations as a means of analyzing formal structures and as a complement to the informal social structure in science. Together they published a number of important papers on co-citation analysis. He also co-authored with Howard D. White and others. He died on October 23, 1999 in Philadelphia.

Contributions

• Griffith taught at Drexel University, Philadelphia, 1969-1991.
• Directed the American Psychological Association project on scientific information exchange.
• Published more than 200 scientific papers and edited 2 books.
• Collaborated with Henry Small in the early 1970s on the creation of a database that maps scientific research.
• Received grants for his research from the National Science Foundation, Public Health Service, National Library of Medicine, and the Department of Education.

Publications

Laura Joy Moyer. "Bibliography of publications of Belver C. Griffith." Scientometrics 51, no 3 (2001), pp 469–479.

• A descriptive study of information needs and practices of clinical psychologists, [by] Suzanne Prescott & Belver C. Griffith. Washington: American Psychological Association, 1970.
• Key papers in information science, ed. by Belver C. Griffith. White Plains, N.Y. : Published for the American Society for Information Science by Knowledge Industry Publications, 1980. Open access [1]
• The structure of the social and behavioral sciences literature, by Belver C. Griffith & Henry G. Small. Stockholm : Royal Institute of Technology Library, 1983.

Further reading

• White, H. D., & McCain, K. W. (2000). In memory of Belver C. Griffith. Journal of ASIS, 51(10), 959-962.
• Belver C. Griffith. Wikipedia (in German). https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belver_C._Griffith.
• Belver Griffiths Memorial issue. Scientometrics 51, no. 3 (2001).
• Who’s who in library and information services. Joel M. Lee, ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982, p 186.

Awards

• Scientometrics Derek de Solla Price Award for Scientometrics, 1997.
• Drexel University Research Achievement Award, 1980.
• American Society for Information Science. Outstanding Information Teacher Award, 1982.

Personal Papers

Drexel University Libraries (Philadelphia, PA). Belver Griffith papers, 1962-1989, 0.67 cubic feet. Mostly correspondence with collaborators and other scholars studying scientific communication and information science. Includes manuscripts and a memoir (1972). Finding aid at [2].