Malcom Rigby

Malcom Rigby (b. 1909) was a US developer of databases in meteorology.

Life

Malcom Rigby was born in 1909. He worked at: the US Weather Bureau 1927-49; was Editor, Meteorological Abstracts and Bibliographies, 1949-59; then Meteorological & Geoastrophysics Abstracts from 1960; became a curator at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 1975-79; Editor; Librarian, US Weather Bureau in 1954. He served on committees for universal decimal classification systems. He was interested in scientific information documentation, multilingual vocabularies, preservation of rare books, library documentation, classification, and automation.

Rigby participated in the Classification Research Study Group. [1] He died in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Contributions

Rigby was interested in working with databases and meteorology. Rigby and R. R. Freeman were the first to apply computers to Universal Decimal Classification processing in a KWOC index to Meteorological & Geoastrophysics Abstracts. (Bourne & Hahn 2003, 70)

Publications

• Fritz, Sigmund, and Malcom Rigby. "Selective annotated bibliography on albedo." Meteorological. Abstracts and Bibliographies 8 (1957): 952-998.
• "Cost analysis of bibliographies or bibliographic services." In: International Conference on scientific Information. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1959, pp 383-392.

"A mechanized, multi[access documentation system using UDC-DDC as an access point." International Federation for Documentation (FID), Congress, Washington, DC, Oct 10-15, 1965. Abstracts. Washington, DC: Secretariat, FID Congress, 1965, p. 84.

• A world-wide, meso-documentation system for collection, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of water literature." In: International Conference on Water for Peace, Washington, DC, 1967, Proceedings. 542-556.
• "Selective dissemination of information using UDC in international networks." In: Proceedings of Seminar on UDC in a Mechanized Retrieval System, 1st. Mölgaard-Hansen, R. & Rigby, M., eds. Copenhagen: Danish Center for Documentation, Copenhagen, Sept. 1969. (FID/CR report no 9).
• "Standardization for classification in computerized documentation systems." In: Proceedings of the Second International Study Conference on Classification Research, Elsinore, Denmark, 1964, ed. by P Atherton. Copenhagen:Munksgaard, 1965, pp 524-539.
• The role of the UDC in automated information and data systems (as of 1985). Rockville, MD: Environmental Science and Soace Administration, 1970.
• Computers and the UDC; a decade of progress 1963 - 1973. The Hague: FID, 1974. (FID 523).

Offices

• National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Societies. Vice-President, 1966-67.
• International Federation for Documentation (FID). Central Classification Commission. Subcommittee on Mechanization. President, 1963-1969; Also US National Committee. Subcommittee on the Universal Decimal Classification Subcommittee, Chair, 1961.

Awards

• American Meteorological Society. Special Award, 1972.
• National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Societies. Honorary Fellow.

Further reading

• Bourne, Charles P. & Trudi B.Hahn. A history of online information services, 1963-1976. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.