Online retrieval history: how it all began – an introduction

Online retrieval history: how it all began – an introduction

Article Type: Commentary From: Journal of Documentation, Volume 67, Issue 1

The development of online information systems between roughly 1965 and 1980 is of considerable importance in the history of the information sciences, and is beginning to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. In a foreword to Bourne and Hahn’s 2003 book on this topic, Michael Buckland noted that it was the first of its kind, and it has not been followed by any great number of similar works. Personal recollections and perspectives from those involved in the area are of considerable value. Jim Hall is well qualified to provide such a recollection having been the project manager for the development of what was possibly the first truly operational day-to-day library online information service in Britain, at the UKAEA Culham Laboratory. An “outsiders” appreciation of part of this work is given by Bourne and Hahn (2003, pp. 108-110).

He also contributed substantially to Aslib’s publication programme during 1976-1986, including papers in Journal of Documentation. I can recall making extensive use of his 1977 textbook of online searching, one of the first of its kind, when I was tasked with introducing online searching into a pharmaceutical company (Bawden, 1986).

Hall’s recollections and perspectives are valuable, not simply as an account of what services were developed when, but as an insight into how topics which we now take for granted as part of the substrata of information science and information management were, not so long ago, quite new, and indeed controversial in this context. The learning curve taken by the information professions over that period is exemplary for those who complain of the rapid changes in today’s information world. It is also interesting to note how much, and how rapidly, perceptions of some of these issues have changed, particularly since the advent of the internet and web. I can recall the latter being seen by many library/information people as “just another online database”, so rapidly had the online world become the norm.

He also reminds us of the extent to which the activities of the information disciplines and professions, as exemplified by the development of online services, are made possible by those who we might not normally think of as pioneers of our field. An example here is Andrew Booth, the developer of magnetic drum storage for computers, whose obituary, by coincidence appeared earlier this year (The Times, 2010).

David Bawden

(The) Times (2010), “Andrew Booth: scientist who invented the magnetic storage device”, obituary, The Times, January 10, available at: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6983892.ece