B. C. Brookes

B. C. Brookes

B.C. Brookes (February 7, 1910 - June 10, 1991 in London) was a British statistician and information scientist. For years he was a leading scholar in exploring quantitative aspects of information phenomena, particularly information retrieval, the aging of scientific literature, and the foundations and philosophy of information science.

He was also noteworthy for his nurturing of students and professionals.

Life

Bertram Claude ("Bertie") Brookes was born February 7, 1910. He studied physics at Oxford University, and served in the Royal Air Force and the Ministry of Supply (Great Britain) during World War II.

Contributions

Brookes published his first fundamental work on the Bradford distribution (Bradford's Law) in 1968 and continued examining bibliometric distributions for many years.

He was appointed lecturer in the presentation of technical information at University College London in 1947 where he worked until 1968, when he became Reader (comparable to professor in the US) in information science.[1] He retired in 1977.

Subsequently, he was a visiting professor at the University of Western Ontario, and, from 1984 until his death in 1991, at City University London. He died in London on June 10, 1991.

Publications

A list of his publications is in Shaw, Alexandra, "B.C. Brookes and the development of information science: a bibliography." Journal of Information Science 16, no 1 (Feb 1990): 3-7. https://doi.org/10.1177/016555159001600102

• Brookes, Bertram C. (1984). Ranking techniques and the empirical log law. Information Processing & Management 20 (1–2): 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(84)90038-4
• Brookes, B. C. (1983). The empirical law of natural categorization. Journal of Information Science 6 (5): 147-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/016555158300600502
• Brookes, B. C. (1980). The foundations of information science. Part I. Philosophical aspects. Journal of Information Science 2 (3-4): 125-133. https://doi.org/10.1177/016555158000200302
• Brookes, B.C. (1979). The Bradford law: A new calculus for the social sciences? JASIS 30 (4): 233-234. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630300412
• Brookes, B.C. (1977). Theory of the Bradford law. Journal of Documentation 33 (3): 180–209. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026641
• Brookes B.C. (1974). Robert Fairthorne and the scope of information science. Journal of Documentation 30(2): 139–152, https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026572
• Brookes, B. C. (1973). Jesse Shera and the theory of bibliography. Journal of Librarianship 5 (4): 233-245. https://doi.org/10.1177/096100067300500401
• Brookes B.C. (1972). The Shannon model of IR systems. Journal of Documentation 28(2): 160–162, https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026537
• Brookes, B.C. (1968). Bradford's law and the bibliography of science. Nature 224, pp. 953–956. https://doi.org/10.1038/224953a0

• Brookes, BC. (1968). The derivation and application of the Bradford-Zipf distribution. Journal of Documentation 24 (4): 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026457

• BC Brookes, WFL Dick: Introduction to Statistical Method, London: Heinemann, 1951 (2nd ed. 1969).

Awards

• Special issue on B. C. Brookes: Journal of Information Science 16, no 1 (Feb 1990). Includes bibliography pp. 3-7. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jisb/16/1
• Derek John de Solla Prize Medal, 1989

Further Reading

• "B. (Bertram) C. Brookes". Wikipedia. 2026.[2]
• Robertson, Stephen. (1991). B.C. Brookes, 1910-1991. Journal of Information Science 17 (4): 253.
• Shaw, A. (1990). Comments on Bertram C. Brookes, recipient of the 1989 Derek de Solla Price award. Scientometrics 19: 153–155. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02095342