Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

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.

Librarian and information scientist, pioneered library automation at Library of Congress,also worked at General Electric and National Library of Medicine and taught at Indiana University Library School. Papers include collection includes his correspondence, reports, meeting agendas and minutes, system proposals, teaching materials, professional writings, calendars, and collected publications.

The Cloyd Dake Gull Papers are an important resource for examining the development of the field of information science. The collection includes his correspondence, reports, meeting agendas and minutes, system proposals, teaching materials, professional writings, calendars, and collected publications. The materials cover virtually all aspects of his career.

Although the collection contains a few papers from his own career as a student in the 1930s, there is little else that dates before Gull joined the staff of the Library of Congress in 1945. His Library of Congress materials, while not complete, do document a number of specific projects and show his early interest in applying punched cards and other new techniques to library work.

The collection contains a limited amount of material on his work at Documentation, Inc. from 1952 to 1954 helping to develop early information retrieval systems, especially the uniterm system of coordinate indexing. Only a small amount of material concerns his service with the National Research Council, although other papers from this era and up to the mid-1960s concern the workshops on information science which he taught at the University of Michigan and elsewhere.

The papers are more extensive for the years 1958 to 1963, when he was an information systems analyst for General Electric. Much is included on the operation of the GE Information Systems Operation as well as specific automation proposals they made for such customers as the University of Illinois - Chicago, the Library of Congress, and the National Library of Medicine. Included in the latter file is information on the development of MEDLARS.

Gull's papers on the American Documentation Institute concern his year as President, plus subsequent work by the Council and Executive Director. They also show his involvement in most annual meetings, 1959-1967. His materials on the International Federation for Documentation primarily cover 1960 to 1967 and concern the work of the U.S. National Committee, plus specific working committees on mechanized storage and retrieval, operational machine techniques and systems, and the universal decimal classification.

Materials concerning Gull's position as Professor at the Indiana University Library School include information on the courses which he taught, the overall program of the Library School, and his activities on various faculty committees, including the one which established a Ph.D. program. Some documents from this period also concern a number of outside consulting projects.

A significant amount of material concerns the work of the consulting firm Cloyd Dake Gull and Associates between 1969 and 1983, especially the automation studies and proposals which the company produced for various clients in the fields of information science and library science.

The Tate Personal and Professional Papers document Vernon Tate's personal interests and activities along with many aspects of his professional career as a historian, librarian, and archivist between 1929 and 1989. Dr. Tate's papers contain correspondence, speeches, articles, meeting minutes, annual reports, newsletters, conference proceedings, press releases, dissertation research materials, and photographic and microphotographic research notes.

In December 1982, Dr. Vernon Tate donated a large collection of manuscripts and publications documenting the history of microphotography and his own career as a historian, archivist, librarian, and microfilm pioneer to The University of Michigan Libraries. This donation provided the impetus for the creation of the Power Collection for the Study of Scholarly Communication and Information Transfer in the Special Collections Library. The Power Collection is named in honor of Dr. Tate's long-time friend, Eugene B. Power, the founder of the micropublishing firm University Microfilms, Inc.

Dr. Tate's donations to the Power Collection contain over 140 linear feet of manuscripts, including his own personal and professional papers, an extensive collection of records of the National Microfilm Association (NMA), and the Microfilm Pioneers Collection which contains the papers of several of Dr. Tate's colleagues concerning microphotography and the activities of NMA. In addition, Dr. Tate donated an extensive collection of serials and monographs relating primarily to the fields of photography, microphotography, and archives.

The Tate Personal and Professional Papers document Vernon Tate's personal interests and activities along with many aspects of his professional career between 1929 and 1989. This group does not, however, include files from his work as Executive Secretary of the National Microfilm Association. Those materials can be found in the National Microfilm Association Records in this repository.

Dr. Tate's papers contain correspondence, speeches, articles, meeting minutes, annual reports, newsletters, conference proceedings, press releases, dissertation research materials, and photographic and microphotographic research notes. In addition, the collection contains log books (diaries), which contain his thoughts and notes on his personal and professional activities, although the log books will not be available for research until October 1, 2009.

Scattered materials concern Tate's activities between 1929 and 1935 as a student, researcher,and microfilmer for the Library of Congress. Included is correspondence, extensive research materials on the port of San Blas (his dissertation topic), and articles on maritime history and photography.

Large portions of several series concern the years between 1935 and 1946 during which Tate headed the photographic archives and research division of the National Archives and then served in the Navy during World War II. Almost two-thirds of the correspondence series and nearly half of Tate's speeches and writings date from this period. Besides these materials, the files contain inter-office memoranda, literature and notes on microphotography, and notes on his own experiments. Since Tate was the seventh professional staff member hired by the National Archives after its founding in 1935, the files include materials on the early development of the agency and the beginnings of the photographic laboratory and microfilm operation.

By the mid-1930's Tate was already one of the recognized authorities in the rapidly developing field of microphotography. In addition to his work at the National Archives, the files concern such topics as his work as editor of the Journal of Documentary Reproduction, 1938-1942; the early history of the American Documentation Institute and the Federation Internationale de Documentation; and his involvement in the work of the Microcard Committee. A small amount of correspondence concerns the establishment and early history of the National Microfilm Association, 1944-1946, before Tate became an officer.

The amount of material declines significantly for the years after 1946. Materials relating to his work as Director of Libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently as Librarian and Archivist at the U.S. Naval Academy appear, but they are smaller in quantity and less complete than the materials on earlier years. Although the Tate Papers do not concern his work as an officer of the National Microfilm Association, they do document many professional activities not connected with NMA. Included is material on his various library and archival positions and his involvement with such organizations as the American Documentation Institute and the Federation Internationale de Documentation.

In addition to documenting many of Tate's professional activities, his papers concern family matters and personal interests. The correspondence series includes a small sequence of family letters exchanged between Tate and his wife, parents, and other relatives. The personal interests series contains information on his hobbies and interests, especially in naval history and other nautical matters, but also in such areas as antiques, art, books and printing, history, and libraries.