AN OUTSIDER INSIDE INFORMATION: USA 1961–1962

Abstract

About two years ago I got an invitation to spend some time with the Center for Communication and Documentation Research, which is a part of the School of Library Science in the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio. I was very pleased about this, not only because I happened to know the people personally but also because it was a place which had been getting on with its job, yet quite prepared to change what it was doing, for a considerable time. So by going there I would find out what really were the real difficulties in this line of work, particularly in what I consider to be the fundamentals of information. This is better than thinking it up in an armchair. We are still at the alchemical stage of this business, and the first thing one can do is to find out what is really happening, rather than build an enormous mathematical edifice on nothing at all—rather like a large elephant balancing on a small ball‐bearing—which is not unknown in computing circles.

Citation

FAIRTHORNE, R.A. (1962), "AN OUTSIDER INSIDE INFORMATION: USA 1961–1962", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 14 No. 11, pp. 380-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049908