Charles Percy Bourne

Charles Percy Bourne (b. 1931-) is an American information services expert.

Charles Percy Bourne

Charles Percy Bourne (1931-) had professional interests in library analysis, automation and evaluation, natural systems and issues.

Life

Charles Percy Bourne was born Sept 2, 1931 in San Francisco and grew up in Los Gatos, CA. He served in the Marine Corps Reserve and worked as an instructor. In 1953 he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1957 with a BS in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in computers. In 1963 he earned an MS in Industrial engineering, specializing in computer technology at Stanford University.

His professional interests include the analysis, automation, and evaluation of library and other information services.

From 1957 to 1966, Bourne was a research engineer at the Computer Systems Lab at the Stanford Research Institute. He was Vice-President, Information General Corporation, 1966-68, then President, Bourne & Associates 1968-71. In 1971 he became a professor at the School of Librarianship (later the School of Information) and Director of the Institute for Library Research.

Bourne was director of product development, DIALOG Information Services Inc., 1977-1985. He also served as consultant to UNESCO and to the National Academy of Sciences.

Contributions

Charles Bourne was for decades a central figure in the analysis of library and other information systems and the introduction of new information technology development

Publications

• "A study of methods for systematically abbreviating English words and names." With Donald F. Ford. Journal of the ACM 8, no. 4 (1961): 538-552.
• Methods of Information Handling. New York: Wiley, 1963.
• "Frequency and impact of spelling errors in bibliographic data bases." Information Processing & Management 13, no. 1 (1977): 1-12.
• Technology in Support of Library Science and Information Service, with particular emphasis on computer-assisted reference service. Bangalore : Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, 1980.
• "On‐line systems: History, technology, and economics." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 31, no. 3 (1980): 155-160.
• A History of Online Information Services, 1963-1976. With T. B. Hahn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
• Oral history transcript, Computer History Museum, 2015. [1]

Awards

• American Documentation Institute, later Association for Information Science and Technology. Award of Merit, 1965; Book of the year award, 1963 & 2003.
• National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services. Award for Achievement in the field of Information Science and Distinguished Service to the Federation," 1999.

Offices

• American Society for Information Science. President, 1970.

Papers

• Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA. Charles Bourne papers, Cat. No. 102776102. 1947-2016 (bulk 1961-1999). 97.58 Linear feet, 66 record cartons, 19 periodical boxes, 2 manuscript boxes. [2]

Oral History

Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAaSar_xscw.