Burton Adkinson

Burton Adkinson (1909-2004) worked as a geographer at the Department of State, the Department of the Interior, and the OSS during World War II. While he was Director of the Reference Department, he established the Division of Science and Technology within the Department, reorganized the Division for the Blind, initiated a research program dealing with "talking books," established punched-card control of loans to federal employees, and developed bibliographies and information projects for other government agencies. While he worked at NSF, he became concerned with the publication, retrieval, storage, and exchange of information within the nation as well as internationally.

Life

An obituary from the Seattle Times is at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=burton-adkinson&pid=2653651

Contributions

AWARDS:

International Federation for Documentation (FID) Centennial Medallion (awarded 1995); Fellow, American Society of Geographers, 1944-;

OFFICES:

FID Pres., 1963-65; SLA Treasurer 1954-56, President, 1959-60; Association Society of Geographers, Secretary 1954-57, Director, 1970-73.

Papers

LOCATION #1: University of Wyoming, Library, Special Collections Division.

• INCLUDES: Most of these papers are related to his doctoral research on Wyoming/Western geology and not to his work in information science.

LOCATION #2: See information on National Science Foundation records.