Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The records of the American Society of Indexers date from the organizations early years in the late 1960s to as recent as the 2000s, and document the members of the society as well as the society’s activities. The collection is comprised of the following series: Administrative Files, Correspondence, Committees, Meetings, Events, Publications, Chapters, Awards, Other Organizations of Interest, and Multimedia.

Administrative Files (1968-2000, 4 linear feet) documents the organizational activities of ASI including constitution and bylaws, elections, financial documents, general topical files, organizational history, membership, and policies and procedures.

Correspondence (1981-2000, .5 linear feet) consists of the ASI related correspondence of the organization's elected officials, as well as inquiries from members and non members.

The Committees (1974-2006, .5 linear feet) series is comprised of papers relating to and originating from various ASI committees.

Meetings (1981-2000, 1.5 linear feet) documents the meeting materials generated by the board of directors of ASI, and including agendas and minutes. Additionally, this series contains papers relating to business meetings and special meetings held by the organization.

Events (1982-2000, .5 linear feet) consists of papers related to various events held and attended by ASI, including annual meetings and conferences, professional development workshop, and various symposia and workshops.

The Publications (1961-2000, 2.25 linear feet) series is comprised of various documents published by ASI, including newsletters and registers. This series also contains correspondence relating to the newsletter, register, and other publications, as well as reports detailing publication sales.

Chapters (1983-1997, .25 linear feet) consists of papers documenting the various chapters of ASI spread throughout the United States, as well as chapter manuals and general chapter information.

The Awards (1978-2000, .25 linear feet) series documents the various indexing awards given out by ASI, as well as related forms and criteria for selection.

Other Organizations of Interest (1972-1997, .5 linear feet) documents numerous outside organizations with which ASI is affiliated or otherwise interested in. This series includes the newsletters of a number of these organizations.

Multimedia (1970-1995, 1 linear foot) consists of items in a variety of formats created by ASI, including photographs, audio cassettes, and microfilm. The photographs and audio cassettes largely document annual conferences.

ASIS&T (or ASIST) is a professional association which creates, organizes, disseminates, and applies knowledge regarding information and its transfer. ASIS&T was preceded by the American Documentation Institute (ADI), which was founded in 1937 with the goal of acquiring and indexing the knowledge of the world. Name changes followed in 1968 (ASIS) and 2000 (ASIS&T). The records consist of correspondence, business and financial documents, minutes, bylaws, memoranda, manuscript and printed journal articles, printed promotional material, microfiche, photographs, and audio and video tapes covering the society's activities (and those of its predecessor organizations) from 1925 to 2001, with the bulk falling between the 1930s through 2000. Organizational business affairs and activities, including the conceptual evolution of its purpose and mission, are well-documented in several series, most notably in the Council Files. These broad areas are also covered in the Committee Files, but in a more detailed fashion, focusing on specific activities or issues. This series also represents the scope of ASIS's liaison committees, ranging from the American Library Association to the Egyptian Society for Information Technology. Documents generated by ASIS-approved regional and student chapters and the organized professional groups within ASIS devoted to special interests (SIGs) are found in the large Chapter Files and Special Interest Groups series. The Publications series includes significant editorial and administrative documents as well as some manuscript submissions for the "Annual review of information science and technology, and the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science." Special note may be made of the Special Libraries Association Merger Files which chronicle the history of the ultimately unsuccessful merger of ASIS and SLA. The main correspondents found in the collection include: Robert McAfee, Assistant Executive Director; Joshua I. Smith, Executive director (1973-1976); Bonnie Carroll, Councilor and President; Linda Resnik, Executive Director (1985-1988); Samuel Beatty, Executive Director (1976-1984); and John Brokenshire, ASIS Financial Officer.

For the purpose of clarity, the organization shall for the most part be referred to as "ASIS"--the name by which it has been known for most of its history and to which it is mainly referred in the records--throughout this section.

Throughout the record group, the year listed for a folder is often the fiscal year rather than calendar year. This is particularly so for records in the Financial series. The fiscal year for ASIS runs from October through September.

Formed in 1913 by Carl G. Fisher, Frank A. Seiberling, and Henry B. Joy, the Lincoln Highway Association was made up of representatives from the automobile, tire, and cement industries. The Association aimed to plan, fund, construct, and promote the first transcontinental highway in North America. The route ran from New York to San Francisco, and covered approximately 3,400 miles. The Detroit headquarters of the Association closed in 1928. This collection contains: correspondence, particularly between members of the Association and government officials; meeting minutes; reports, bulletins, and newsletters published by the Association; motorist maps of the route; and annotated editions of The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway. Photographs from the Lincoln Highway Association Records have been digitized and are accessible online at the Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/linchigh). The Digital Image Collection contains over 3,000 images including views of construction underway, towns and cities, markers, bridges, cars, camp sites, scenic views, and snapshots of Association directors and field secretaries traveling the route.

The Lincoln Highway Association Records date from 1911 to 1993 with the bulk of materials concentrated before 1930. The records are divided into five series: Official Business (1912-1941), Correspondence (1912-1929), Planning (1914-1940), Publicity (1911-1993), Publications (1915-1935), Jens Jensen Drawings (1922-1924) and Miscellaneous.

The Lincoln Highway Association archive was donated to the University of Michigan's Transportation Library in 1937. The archive was transferred to the Special Collections Library in 1992.

Communication was frequent between members of the Association as well as with officials from towns, counties, states, and the federal government. Correspondence and meeting minutes make up an important part of the collection. The Association published reports, bulletins, and newsletters to keep board members and the public aware of the Highway's progress. Maps of the driving route along with mileages were provided for motorists for navigation as were five editions of The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway .

Photographs from the Lincoln Highway Association Records have been digitized and are accessible online at the Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/linchigh). The Digital Image Collection contains over 3,000 images including views of construction underway, towns and cities, markers, bridges, cars, camp sites, scenic views, and snapshots of Association directors and field secretaries traveling the route.

Materials relating to the work of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and the 1979 and 1991 White House Conferences on Libraries and Information Services. Includes correspondence, committee files, clippings and subject files.

Socialist and pacifist active in labor, civil rights, cooperative, and world government movements. The papers comprise scattered meeting minutes of various organizations, notes (some very detailed) on speeches and other social functions attended by Tekla in the Cleveland area in the 1930s, carbon copies of outgoing correspondence, and a collection of mailing lists. There is a considerable amount of print and nearprint material -- single issues of labor periodicals, newspaper clippings, for m letters, flyers, etc. The papers reflect to varying extents Tekla's activities in North Dakota as an organizer for the Civilian Public Service Union, a national organization of conscientious objectors performing alternative service during World War II; his efforts to recruit Cleveland auto workers for the Socialist Party in the late 1930s; and his membership on the national executive committee of the Socialist Party, the executive committee of the War Resisters League, the policy committee of Democracy Unlimited (ca. 1952-56), the Cleveland Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Committee for a Socialist Program and Action (ca. 1959-64). Tekla was heavily involved in the cooperative movement in Cleveland and to a lesser extent in the Saskatchewan Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the mid-1940s.

The collection consists of material created and collected by Tad Tekla, individually and in various roles in socialist and labor organizations.The collection has been arranged alphabetically by topic.The most voluminous material includes: minutes and other records of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation, ca. 1945-1958, including records relating to the Committee for a Socialist Program (founded by critics of the Socialist Party who wanted to serve as an "educational and organizational center within the Party"); records and other material relating to labor unions and labor issues, including records of the Civilian Public Service Union, 1946, and records relating to a crisis in the United Auto Workers and efforts by the Socialist Party to recuit auto workers, ca. 1939; "public meeting notes" by Tekla, which include typewritten notes and diaries relating to a wide variety of meetings and events, 1933-1955 (bulk, 1933-1936); material relating to the world citizenship movement, ca. 1945-1958; material relating to the cooperative movement, ca. 1936-1954; records of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), ca. 1948-1952; and outgoing correspondence, 1961-1964.

Bi-weekly newspaper based in Highland Park, Michigan reflecting the view of the "International Socialists." Consists primarily of marked up editorial copy and some miscellaneous administrative files.

The collection consists almost exclusively of marked-up editorial copy. The material in box 3 was organized for the most part by issue number, and this organization has been maintained. The material in boxes 1 and 2, however, arrived at the library without any prior separation into issue numbers. It appears that the articles in boxes 1 and 2 are essentially in chronological order, and this material has been separated by issue number where possible, but it must be stressed that this separation may be not be completely accurate.

With a very few exceptions, most of the articles in this collection appear to have been published in Workers' Power. Researchers are advised to start with the published newspaper; the Alternative Press Index may also be helpful.

In addition to the marked-up copy, there are nine folders of miscellaneous material, including items regarding finances, form letters giving general information about the newspaper, marked-up galleys, and lists of articles for various issues.