Herbert S. White

Herbert S. White (1927-2024) was an American librarian.

Image of Herbert S. White

Life

Herbert Spencer White was born July 5, 1927 in Vienna, Austria. He studied at the City College of New York where he earned BS in Chemistry (1949) and at Syracuse University where he received an MS in Library Science (1950). He served in the US Army Air Corps, 1946-1947.

In 1949 he became a trainee in the Queensborough Public Library, Jamaica, NY, then in 1950 a special recruit at the Library of Congress where was a cataloger in the Sci-Tech Division, 1950-1953.Subsequently he was Technical librarian, Union Carbide, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1953-1954; Chief librarian, Chance Vought Aircraft, 1954-1959; Project manager, IBM Engineering library, Kingston, NY, 1959-1962, and at the Technical Information Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1962-1964; and then Executive Director, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Facility, College Park, 1964-1968. In 1968 he became Vice president for Information Management, Leasco Systems and Research Corporation, then Senior Vice President for Operations at the Institute for Scientific Information, 1970-1974.

In 1975 he became a professor in the Indiana University, Bloomington, campus Graduate Library School (later Department of Information & Library Science and Information Science, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering) where he served initially as director of the school's Research Center and later as Dean. From 1991 he became Distinguished Professor Emeritus until he died on September 9, 2024.

Contributions

Herbert White was broadly concerned with library services, information management, information retrieval, and library mechanization. He actively promoted the efficiency of special libraries and their and effectiveness in supporting the objectives of its parent organization. While President of the American Society for Information Science, he started new programs, including the North European Chapter and publication of the Bulletin. (See Bulletin 1, no 1 (1974): 3). [1]

Publications

Herbert White authored several books and some 200 articles, primarily on library administration, supervision, and automation. Many are listed in Google Scholar [2]. He wrote "Research & Reality," a column in American Libraries and "White Papers," a column in the Library Journal.

• "Publishers, libraries, and costs of journal subscriptions in times of funding retrenchment." The Library Quarterly 46, no. 4 (1976): 359-377.
• "Impact of the increase in library doctorates." With K. Momenee. College & Research Libraries 39, no. 3 (1978): 207-214."
• Managing the Special Library: Strategies for Success Within the Larger Organization. White Plains NY: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1984.
• Librarians and the Awakening from Innocence: A Collection of Papers. Boston Mass: G.K. Hall, 1989.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries: A Collection of Case Studies. New York Toronto New York: G.K. Hall, 1992.
• At the Crossroads: Librarians on the Information Superhighway. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1995.
• Librarianship--Quo Vadis?: Opportunities and Dangers As We Face the New Millennium. Englewood CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.

Offices

Herbert White was active in several organizations, including:

• Special Libraries Association. President, 1969-70.
• American Federation of Information Processing Societies. Director, 1972-78.
• American Society for Information Science and Technology. President. 1973-74.
• International Federation for Documentation (FID). Board of Directors, 1976-78; Treasurer, 1978-82.
• Association for Library and Information Science Education. Chairman, Governmental Relations Committee, 1980-88.
• American Library Association. Councillor, 1988 - ?

Awards

• American Society for Information Science and Technology. Watson Davis Award; Award of Merit, 1981.
• Special Libraries Association. J.C. Dana Award, 1985.
• American Library Association. Library Research Roundtable Excellence in Library Rseaerch, 1977; Melvil Dewey Award (ALA) 1987.
• Indiana Librarian Lifetime Achievement Award (CLR). 1990.

Further reading

• Festschrift in Honour of Herbert S. White
• "Herbert S. White." Wikipedia [3]
• Who's Who in Library Service. 4th ed. [New York]: Shoe String Press, 1966, p 742.
• Who’s who in library and information services. Joel M. Lee, ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982. p 534.
• Garfield, Eugene. "Introducing Herbert S. White." Current Contents 3 (January 26, 1972). Reprinted in Essays of an Information Scientist Vol 1, pp 260--261. [4]
• White, Herb. Videotaped oral history, No. 92-045. Indiana University, Bloomington. staff and is located in the Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory, April 1992. [5].