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'''Pauline Atherton Cochrane''' (born 1929) is an American librarian and one of the most highly cited authors in the field of [[library and information sciences]].<ref name="Barre10">{{cite journal | last=Barre | first=Kathryn La | title=Pauline Atherton Cochrane: Weaving Value from the Past | journal=Libraries & the Cultural Record | volume=45 | issue=2 | date=2010-05-01 | issn=2166-3033 | doi=10.1353/lac.0.0120 | pages=210–237 | s2cid=201769200 }}</ref> She is considered a leading researcher in the campaign to redesign catalogues and indexes to provide improved online subject access in library and information services as well as "a leading teacher and theorist in cataloging, indexing, and information access."<ref name="Trove">{{cite web | title=Redesign of catalogs and indexes for improved online subject access : selected papers of / Pauline A Cochrane. - Version details | website=Trove | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/35523242 | access-date=2018-11-27}}</ref><ref name="Berman pp. 383–384">{{cite journal | last=Berman | first=Sanford | title=Saving the Time of the Library User through Subject Access Innovation: Papers in Honor of Pauline Atherton Cochrane. Ed. William J. Wheeler. Champaign, Ill.: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Univ. of Illinois, 2000. 217p. $30 ({{Text|ISBN}} 0878451080). | journal=College & Research Libraries | publisher=American Library Association | volume=62 | issue=4 | date=2001-07-01 | issn=2150-6701 | doi=10.5860/crl.62.4.383 | pages=383–384| doi-access=free }}</ref>
'''Pauline Atherton Cochrane''' (1929-2024) was an American librarian and author.
[[File:Pauline Cochrane.jpg|alt=Portrait of Pauline Cochrane|thumb|Pauline Cochrane]]


Before she became professor at Syracuse, she was Associate Director of the Documentation Research Project at the American Institute of Physics. While ASIS President, the organization began a continuing education program and prepared an international information science directory. Consultant to many organizations. As an UNESCO (UNISIST program) consultant, she prepared guidelines for organizing training courses, workshops, and seminars in technical information and documentation.
== Life ==
'''Pauline Anna Blazina Atherton Cochrane''' was born in 1929 in Argo, Illinois. She studied at Lyons Township Junior College, 1947-1949, then at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, 1949-1951, where she earned a BA in social science. She received an MA in library science from Rosary College (now Dominican University), River Forest, Illinois, in 1954, followed in 1955 by doctoral study at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School.


She edited the ''Handbook on Information Systems and Services for Developing Countries''. She was appointed to the Committee on International Scientific and Technical Information Programs (CISTIP) of the National Academy of Sciences--National Research Council. Cochran's interests include computer-based reference services, indexing and abstracting, and education for library and information science. For a more complete biography see Kathryn LaBarre, "Pauline Atherton Cochrane: Weaving Value from the Past" in ''Libraries and the Cultural Record'', Vol. 45, No. 2, 2010.[[File:Pauline Cochrane.jpg|alt=Portrait of Pauline Cochrane|thumb|Pauline Cochrane]]
Her first professional job was as an indexer at the Corn Products Refining Company, 1951-1953. She worked as school teacher, 1953-1954, as a reference librarian at the Chicago Public Library, 1954-1955, and as an assistant professor of library science at Chicago Teacher's College (later Chicago State University), 1956-1958, and an editor for ''World Book Encyclopedia''. She was also active as a consultant.


==Education==
In 1960 she was made Associate Director of the Documentation Research Project at the American Institute of Physics where she worked on ''A Project for the Development of a Reference Retrieval System for Physicists'' for the next four years. She differentiated how information retrieval would be performed by physicists as researchers versus physicists as authors using four facets which were in use at the American Institute of Physics until 2009. These facets were:
 
Cochrane has a B.A. in social science in 1951 from [[Illinois College]]. Her first professional job was as an indexer at the Corn Products Refining Company. She went on to receive an M.A. in library science from Rosary College (now [[Dominican University (Illinois)|Dominican University]]). She worked as a reference librarian at the [[Chicago Public Library]] and [[Chicago State University|Chicago Teacher's College]] before going on to pursue a Ph.D. from the [[University of Chicago]]. Focusing on classification research she saw her mission "to make [[S R Ranganathan|Ranganathan's]] writings more accessible to North American LIS researchers, educators, and students."<ref name="Barre10" /> She was a co-founder of the Classification Research Study Group in the late 1950s, a group devoted to "the intellectual/theoretical development of knowledge organization" based on Ranganathan's Library Research Circle in India and the [[Classification Research Group]] in England.<ref name="wws">{{cite web |last1=La Barre |first1=Kathryn |title=Weaving Webs of Significance: The Classification Research Study Group in the United States and Canada |url=http://docs.exdat.com/docs/index-363863.html |accessdate=27 November 2018}}</ref>
 
==Professional life==
 
In 1960 she was made Associate Director of the Documentation Research Project at the [[American Institute of Physics]] where she worked on ''A Project for the Development of a Reference Retrieval System for Physicists'' for the next four years.<ref name="kent99">{{cite web | title=COCHRNE | website=personal.kent.edu | date=1999-04-14 | url=http://www.personal.kent.edu/~tfroehli/sighfis/cochrn.htm | access-date=2018-11-20}}</ref> She differentiated how information retrieval would be performed by physicists as researchers versus physicists as authors using four facets which were in use at the [[American Institute of Physics]] until 2009. These facets were:
* property (being studied)
* property (being studied)
* object (of study)
* object (of study)
* method (of inquiry)
* method (of inquiry)
* type of research (experimental, theoretical, or both).
* type of research (experimental, theoretical, or both).
Using bibliometrics, Cochrane was able to improve coverage of physics journals in ''Physics Abstracts'' using automated techniques.<ref name="Barre10" />
Using bibliometrics, Cochrane was able to improve coverage of physics journals in ''Physics Abstracts'' using automated techniques.
 
She became a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies for many years, retired in 2008, and died on July 29, 2024 in Arthur, Illinois.
 
== Contributions ==
Cochrane was a leading researcher in the campaign to redesign catalogues and indexes to provide improved online subject access and a respected teacher and theorist of cataloging, indexing, and information access."
 
For the UNESCO UNISIST program she prepared guidelines for organizing training courses, workshops, and seminars in technical information and documentation.


In 1971 Cochrane became president of [[ASIS&T]]. During her tenure ASIS&T began a continuing education program and prepared an international information science directory.<ref name="ASIST">{{cite web | title=Pauline Atherton Cochrane - ASIST | website=ASIST &#124; The Information Association for the Information Age | url=https://www.asist.org/pioneers/pauline-atherton-cochrane/ | access-date=2018-11-27}}</ref> She continued in her work to help librarians learn how to use "newer" technology to help patrons find information and created a six part continuing education series for the [[American Library Association]]'s magazine ''[[American Libraries]]''.<ref name="Cochrane 2016">{{cite web | last=Coyle | first=Karen | title=Catalogs and Content: an Interlude | website=Coyle's InFormation | date=2016-07-04 | url=http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2016/07/catalogs-and-content-interlude.html | access-date=2018-11-27}}</ref> Entitled ''Modern Subject Access in the Online Age'' Cochrane's lessons, co-written with various LIS colleagues, tackled topics such as creating a professional theory of information seeking behavior in users as well as an early awareness of information overload.<ref name="AL">{{cite journal |last1=Cochrane |first1=Pauline Atherton |title=Modern Subject Access in the Online Age: Lesson 1 |journal=American Libraries |date=Feb 1984 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=80–83 |jstor=25626614 }}</ref><ref name="AL2">{{cite journal |last1=Cochrane |first1=Pauline Atherton |last2=Mandel |first2=Carol |last3=Mischo |first3=William  |last4=Harper |first4=Shirley  |last5=Buckland |first5=Michael |last6=Pietris|first6=Mary K. D. |last7=Rather |first7=Lucia J. |last8=Croxton  |first8=Fred E. C. |title=Modern Subject Access in the Online Age: Lesson 1 |journal=American Libraries |date=May 1984 |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=336–339 |jstor=25626747 }}</ref>
Cochrane was a co-founder of the Classification Research Study Group in the late 1950s, a group devoted to "the intellectual/theoretical development of knowledge organization" based on [[S. R. Ranganathan|Ranganathan's]] Library Research Circle in India and the Classification Research Group in England.


==Publications==
She edited the ''Handbook on Information Systems and Services for Developing Countries''.
* '''A test of the factor-analytically derived automated classification method applied to descriptions of work and search requests of nuclear physicists : report''' (1965) by Pauline Atherton and Harold Borko
She continued in her work to help librarians learn how to use "newer" technology to help patrons find information and created a six part continuing education series for the American Library Association's magazine ''American Libraries''. Entitled ''Modern Subject Access in the Online Age'' [https://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2016/07/catalogs-and-content-interlude.html]
* '''Humanization of knowledge in the social sciences''' (1973) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* '''Putting knowledge to work an American view of Ranganathan's Five laws of library science''' (1973) by Pauline A Cochrane and S R Ranganathan
*  '''Interfaces in computer-based bibliographic searching''' (1976) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* '''Handbook for information systems and services''' (1977) by Pauline Atherton
* '''Books are for use : final report of the subject access project to the Council on Library Resources''' (1978) by Pauline Atherton
* '''Librarians and online services''' (1978) by Pauline Atherton and Roger W. Christian
*  '''Improving LCC and DDC for use in online catalogs and shelflists''' (1989) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* '''Visualizing Subject Access for 21st Century Information Resources: Papers Presented at the Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing''' (1998) by Pauline A. Cochrane, Eric H. Johnson, and Sandra K. Roe, eds.


==References==
== Publications ==
{{Reflist}}{{Authority control}}
Google scholar lists numerous items, some under Atherton, others under Cochrane.


== Papers ==
* ''A test of the factor-analytically derived automated classification method applied to descriptions of work and search requests of nuclear physicists : report'' by Pauline Atherton and Harold Borko. 1965.
'''PAPER LOCATION #1:''' Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Department (Syracuse, NY)
* ''Humanization of knowledge in the social sciences'' (1973) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* ''Putting knowledge to work an American view of Ranganathan's Five laws of library science''. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1973. [https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/105783]
* ''Interfaces in computer-based bibliographic searching.'' (1976) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* ''Handbook for information systems and services'' (1977) by Pauline Atherton
* ''Books are for use : final report of the subject access project to the Council on Library Resources.'' (1978) by Pauline Atherton
*"Modern subject access in the online age." ''American Libraries'' 15 (1984). [https://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2016/07/catalogs-and-content-interlude.html]
* ''Librarians and online services'' (1978) by Pauline Atherton and Roger W. Christian,
*"An analysis of controlled vocabulary and free text search statements in online searches." With K. Markey & C. Newton. ''Online review'' 4, no. 3 (1980): 225-236.
* ''Improving LCC and DDC for use in online catalogs and shelflists.'' (1989) by Pauline A. Cochrane
* ''Visualizing Subject Access for 21st Century Information Resources: Papers Presented at the Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing.'' (1998) by Pauline A. Cochrane, Eric H. Johnson, and Sandra K. Roe, eds.


'''DATES:''' 1966-1986
== Offices ==
*[[ASIST|American Society fr Information Science]]. Treasure, 1964-1965; President, 1971.
*National Academy of Sciences--National Research Council. Committee on International Scientific and Technical Information Programs (CISTIP).


'''INCLUDES:''' Pauline Atherton Cochrane Papers: personal/professional papers; oral history interview of Cochrane
== Honors ==
*[[ASIST|American Society for Information Science]]. Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, 1981; Award of Merit, 1990.


'''FINDING AID:''' https://web.archive.org/web/20100610230244/http://archives.syr.edu/collections/faculty/cochrane_box.html
== Further reading ==
*''Pauline Cochrane passes away''. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences. (Obituary).[https://ischool.illinois.edu/news-events/news/2024/08/pauline-cochrane-passes-away]
*''Saving the Time of the Library User Through Subject Access Innovation: Papers in Honor of Pauline Atherton Cochrane''. Ed, by William Wheeler. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Publications Office, 2000. Includes 8 papers about her work and a curriculum vitae.
*"Pauline Atherton Cochrane," ''Wikipedia'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Atherton_Cochrane]]
*La Barre, Kathryn. "Pauline Atherton Cochrane: Weaving Value from the Past." ''Libraries & the Cultural Record'' 45, issue 2 (May 2010): 210–237. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/379965]
*La Barre, Kathryn. ''Weaving Webs of Significance: The Classification Research Study Group in the United States and Canada''. In  In W. Boyd Rayward & Mary Ellen Bowden (Eds). ''Proceedings of the 2002 conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific Information Systems'', pp. 246-257. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
*Westin, Monica. "Ingenious librarians." ''Aeon'' 2023. [https://aeon.co/essays/the-1970s-librarians-who-revolutionised-the-challenge-of-search] Includes photo.
*''Who’s who in library service''. 4th ed. Ed. by L. Ash. New York: Shoe String Pr., 1966, p. 22.


'''SOURCE:''' Phone conversation with Pauline A. Cochrane, 9/95; e-mail communication, 2011, with Kathryn LaBarre.
== Papers ==
Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Department (Syracuse, NY). Pauline Atherton Cochrane Papers: personal/professional papers, 1966-1986; oral history interview of Cochrane. Finding aid [https://web.archive.org/web/20100610230244/http://archives.syr.edu/collections/faculty/cochrane_box.html]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochrane, Pauline Atherton}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochrane, Pauline Atherton}}

Latest revision as of 18:11, 14 May 2025

Pauline Atherton Cochrane (1929-2024) was an American librarian and author.

Portrait of Pauline Cochrane
Pauline Cochrane

Life

Pauline Anna Blazina Atherton Cochrane was born in 1929 in Argo, Illinois. She studied at Lyons Township Junior College, 1947-1949, then at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, 1949-1951, where she earned a BA in social science. She received an MA in library science from Rosary College (now Dominican University), River Forest, Illinois, in 1954, followed in 1955 by doctoral study at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School.

Her first professional job was as an indexer at the Corn Products Refining Company, 1951-1953. She worked as school teacher, 1953-1954, as a reference librarian at the Chicago Public Library, 1954-1955, and as an assistant professor of library science at Chicago Teacher's College (later Chicago State University), 1956-1958, and an editor for World Book Encyclopedia. She was also active as a consultant.

In 1960 she was made Associate Director of the Documentation Research Project at the American Institute of Physics where she worked on A Project for the Development of a Reference Retrieval System for Physicists for the next four years. She differentiated how information retrieval would be performed by physicists as researchers versus physicists as authors using four facets which were in use at the American Institute of Physics until 2009. These facets were:

  • property (being studied)
  • object (of study)
  • method (of inquiry)
  • type of research (experimental, theoretical, or both).

Using bibliometrics, Cochrane was able to improve coverage of physics journals in Physics Abstracts using automated techniques.

She became a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies for many years, retired in 2008, and died on July 29, 2024 in Arthur, Illinois.

Contributions

Cochrane was a leading researcher in the campaign to redesign catalogues and indexes to provide improved online subject access and a respected teacher and theorist of cataloging, indexing, and information access."

For the UNESCO UNISIST program she prepared guidelines for organizing training courses, workshops, and seminars in technical information and documentation.

Cochrane was a co-founder of the Classification Research Study Group in the late 1950s, a group devoted to "the intellectual/theoretical development of knowledge organization" based on Ranganathan's Library Research Circle in India and the Classification Research Group in England.

She edited the Handbook on Information Systems and Services for Developing Countries. She continued in her work to help librarians learn how to use "newer" technology to help patrons find information and created a six part continuing education series for the American Library Association's magazine American Libraries. Entitled Modern Subject Access in the Online Age [1]

Publications

Google scholar lists numerous items, some under Atherton, others under Cochrane.

  • A test of the factor-analytically derived automated classification method applied to descriptions of work and search requests of nuclear physicists : report by Pauline Atherton and Harold Borko. 1965.
  • Humanization of knowledge in the social sciences (1973) by Pauline A. Cochrane
  • Putting knowledge to work an American view of Ranganathan's Five laws of library science. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1973. [2]
  • Interfaces in computer-based bibliographic searching. (1976) by Pauline A. Cochrane
  • Handbook for information systems and services (1977) by Pauline Atherton
  • Books are for use : final report of the subject access project to the Council on Library Resources. (1978) by Pauline Atherton
  • "Modern subject access in the online age." American Libraries 15 (1984). [3]
  • Librarians and online services (1978) by Pauline Atherton and Roger W. Christian,
  • "An analysis of controlled vocabulary and free text search statements in online searches." With K. Markey & C. Newton. Online review 4, no. 3 (1980): 225-236.
  • Improving LCC and DDC for use in online catalogs and shelflists. (1989) by Pauline A. Cochrane
  • Visualizing Subject Access for 21st Century Information Resources: Papers Presented at the Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing. (1998) by Pauline A. Cochrane, Eric H. Johnson, and Sandra K. Roe, eds.

Offices

  • American Society fr Information Science. Treasure, 1964-1965; President, 1971.
  • National Academy of Sciences--National Research Council. Committee on International Scientific and Technical Information Programs (CISTIP).

Honors

Further reading

  • Pauline Cochrane passes away. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences. (Obituary).[4]
  • Saving the Time of the Library User Through Subject Access Innovation: Papers in Honor of Pauline Atherton Cochrane. Ed, by William Wheeler. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Publications Office, 2000. Includes 8 papers about her work and a curriculum vitae.
  • "Pauline Atherton Cochrane," Wikipedia [5]]
  • La Barre, Kathryn. "Pauline Atherton Cochrane: Weaving Value from the Past." Libraries & the Cultural Record 45, issue 2 (May 2010): 210–237. [6]
  • La Barre, Kathryn. Weaving Webs of Significance: The Classification Research Study Group in the United States and Canada. In In W. Boyd Rayward & Mary Ellen Bowden (Eds). Proceedings of the 2002 conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific Information Systems, pp. 246-257. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
  • Westin, Monica. "Ingenious librarians." Aeon 2023. [7] Includes photo.
  • Who’s who in library service. 4th ed. Ed. by L. Ash. New York: Shoe String Pr., 1966, p. 22.

Papers

Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Department (Syracuse, NY). Pauline Atherton Cochrane Papers: personal/professional papers, 1966-1986; oral history interview of Cochrane. Finding aid [8]

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