The history of information and documentation

The history of information and documentation

It is ironic that a discipline and profession which professes itself to be primarily concerned with “the human record”, “organisational memory”, “cultural heritage” and the like, should seem to have little concern about its own history. Yet that is the situation in which, until recently, the sciences of information and documentation found them selves. Certainly, studies of specific topics, such the history of the book, and the histories of particular libraries, have received attention. By contrast, the history of information science and documentation has been little studied, and largely focused on the development of particular information technologies or information resources. Only a decade ago, two distinguished commentators could write “the amount of published material on the history of [information science] remains small” (Buckland and Liu, 1995).

Thankfully, this situation is changing. There is a renewed interest in the area, expressed in publications, conferences, and the formation of special interest groups, and leading to the idea that a new sub-discipline of information history is now viable (Black, 2006). In this issue of Journal of Documentation, we review a set of conference proceedings dealing with the history of scientific information systems, and note that a historiography of the information sciences may be emerging, a vital underpinning for the idea of information history.

As Black and Rayward (1998) – in an earlier article – point out, the controversies over the nature of information itself pose a problem for studies of its history. If the central concept itself is understood very differently, it will be hard to arrive at a consensus as to how its history may be studied. However, some clarity is emerging as to what would constitute such a field. Black suggests that it would have four components: history of print and written culture, including the history of the book, and of libraries; history of information science, information management, and documentation; history of related areas, such as the history of information policy and the information society; and the history of “information as social history”. Such a definition of the field is hospitable enough to include a wide variety of perspectives and methods, while still imposing a framework for clarity and comprehensibility.

A historical dimension is important for any academic discipline and any profession, in promoting a reflection on current practices in the light of past situations. The advancement of information history seems to me to be an essential part of the building up of the theoretical and conceptual bases of the information sciences.

The Journal of Documentation has published historical articles from a wide variety of perspectives, and over a long period; as recent examples, see Roberts (1984); Line (1998); Vickery (1999); Black and Brunt (1999); Muddiman (2005); and Weller and Bawden (2005). We shall continue to emphasise this aspect of the discipline, and encourage authors to submit articles on this topic.

David BawdenCity University London, UK