The IRENE FARKAS-CONN HISTORICAL AND RESEARCH FILES series (3.5 linear feet) is made up of research materials compiled by Irene Farkas-Conn for her book on the history of ASIS, From Documentation to Information Science: The Beginnings and Early Development of the American Documentation Institute-American Society for Information Science (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990). Farkas-Conn was a past officer of ASIS and an information and management consultant. The series consists of original ASIS documents, various photocopies, and Dr. Farkas-Conn's notes.
In the course of her research, Farkas-Conn acquired a substantial amount of very early, original ADI/ASIS records, spanning the 1930s through the 1960s. She also received small batches of related materials from individuals involved in ASIS (past leaders including Watson Davis, Vernon Tate, Cloyd Dake Gull, and Karl Heumann). Those records considered to be the most vital (such as articles of incorporation, early Council minutes, correspondence of ASIS founders and officers, etc.), and for which no other copy exists, have been put back into something approximating their original context. In some cases, however, original documents have been left within the Farkas-Conn research files, especially when they have been annotated by Dr. Farkas-Conn and grouped by her according to a particular subject.
A small amount of materials was photocopied from the archives of other institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, the Library of Congress, and Harvard University Archives. Permission to quote from or reproduce these documents must be obtained from these repositories.
Some of the material in this series pertains to Science Service and its daughter agency Bibliofilm Service, both of which were early predecessors of ADI. Science Service was an organization founded by the newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps and originally aimed at the betterment of society through the popularization of science. When Watson Davis became director of Science Service in 1933, he shifted its focus toward international scientific cooperation, publication, and bibliography. Davis established Bibliofilm Service in 1934 as an arm of Science Service that would specialize in the use of microfilm to fulfill interlibrary loan requests. Another facet of Science Service was its Auxiliary Publication Service, begun in 1936, which also sought to harness the potential of the emerging microphotography technologies. A small number of other documents pertaining to Science Service, Bibliofilm Service, and Auxiliary Publication Service can be found throughout the collection, particularly in the Related Organizations and Subjects series, but the bulk is in this series.
The Irene Farkas-Conn Research and Historical Files are divided into seven subseries: People, Committees and Administration, Related Groups, Topics, Chronological, Book Sections, and Research Files. The People subseries contains materials (both original and photocopied) by and about ASIS leaders, plus Farkas-Conn's notes. Committees and Administration refers to ADI/ASIS work and achievements. Related Groups comprises materials by and about groups affiliated with ASIS or performing similar missions, such as the International Federation for Documentation (FID). The Topics subseries and the Chronological subseries both focus on the 1930s and 1940s, with special attention paid to ADI's wartime activities. The Book Sections subseries is divided according to Farkas-Conn's planned structure for her book. In each numbered section can be found source materials, notes, and partial drafts. Also included are some of Farkas-Conn's dissertation materials and background resources. The rest of the series is comprised of the Research Files, which contain material that is more generally or loosely organized. It consists mainly of Farkas-Conn's notes, photocopies, and a small number of original documents (correspondence, reports, pamphlets, etc.).
Materials in this series span the 1930s through the 1970s. Most of Farkas-Conn's notes are undated, but appear to date from the 1970s and 1980s. In all of the subseries, an attempt was made whenever possible to retain Farkas-Conn's original folder headings. However, sometimes it was necessary to make slight changes; for example, combining multiple headings, glossing abbreviations, guessing at illegible text, and supplying missing headings.
