Collections

Documents the microfilm operations of the Filmsort Company and before and after its acquisition by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) Company, including sales information, price lists, equipment photographs, correspondence, brochures, parts lists, manuals, and newsletters.

This collection consists of two series--one concerning Filmsort both before and after its acquisition by 3M and the other relating to other aspects of 3M's involvement in microfilm work.

The Filmsort Series contains sales information, price lists, equipment photographs, correspondence, memoranda, patents, product brochures, parts lists, equipment operating and service manuals, and newsletters. The bulk of this material pre-dates the sale of Filmsort to 3M. The folder of John Favorite and Charles Hann correspondence and memoranda is a file maintained by 3M about Filmsort, but many of the other materials were originally part of the records of the Filmsort Company and were acquired by 3M along with the other assets of Filmsort in 1959.

The 3M series contains newsletters, parts and service manuals, technical notes for customer service representatives, "know how" bulletins, and a camera marketing manual. These materials concern 3M microfilm work and products not specifically identified with the Filmsort division. The bulk of this series dates from 1958 to 1968 although two folders date from 1976.

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.

Originally founded as the National Microfilm Association in 1943, the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) is a nonprofit focused on establishing standards for electronic and physical information management. This collection consists of reports, newsletters, and consumer information from roughly (DATES). The collection is minimally processed, and many reports remain in their original bindings, primarily 3-ring binders. In 2018, the organization renamed itself the Association for Intelligent Information Management.

The collection offers a picture of information management systems in a period of increasing computerization and shows how business and parts of the US government studied and used information management technologies. It consists primarily of binders, marketing and informational material, and typed reports, but it also contains some A/V material.

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 George H. Harmon Papers, 1959-1985 consist of subject files, correspondence, product literature, press releases and newsletters, magazine clippings, and periodicals and books concerning the research and development of microfilm and corresponding companies and organizations. Subject files include material on the National Microfilm Association, particularly for the years 1969 to 1971, the International Micrographic Congress (1965-1982), the development of the FR80 computer output microfilm recorder, and work for the Western Electric Company and Information International, Inc. Principal correspondents include D.M. Avedon, O.G. Banks, L.J. Kiersky, M. Mandel, V.B. Phillips, J.R. Robertson, V.D. Tate, J.R. White, F.L. Williford, D.R. Wolf, and C.P. Yerkes.

The Harmon papers concern both his work for various employers and his N.M.A. activities. His Information International papers (1967-1973) deal primarily with the FR80 computer output microfilm recorders, while his Western Electric Company papers (1959-1967) relate to the joint Western Electric Company-Bell Telephone Laboratories Reproduction Committee.

While Harmon's N.M.A. files cover the years 1964-1984, the bulk of material dates from 1969-1971 when Harmon was an N.M.A. officer. The files concern N.M.A. board meetings, chapters, committees, conventions, and finances.

The Harmon papers also contain files of company and organization literature, periodical articles, and publications.

Papers of John Gantt, microfilming pioneer and head of Photoduplication at the University of Michigan Graduate Library, including reference file on products and equipment used in the microfilming and other reproduction processes.

The John Gantt papers consist of product literature, equipment brochures and manuals, reports, articles, and scattered correspondence. A small amount of material concerns the work of the Photoduplication Service, but the bulk of the collection is a reference file on products and equipment relating to microfilming and other copying processes. Included is information on developing machines, printers, enlargers, film processors, exposure controls, cameras, readers, cabinets, boxes, filters, films, microfiche, and document retrieval systems.

Some of this material is arranged by company and some by subject.

Lester O. Kruger was a long-time 3M employee and a leader in the micrographics industry. As an active member of the National Micrographics Association and Association for Information and Image Management, Kruger helped develop national and international micrographic standards. This collection documents Kruger's career and involvement with Filmsort/3M, NMA, and AIIM.

The Lester O. Kruger Papers are divided into 8 series: National Micrographics Association (NMA), Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), 3M, Personal, Photographs, Microforms, Printed Material, and Realia. Largely consisting of professional papers, the collection documents Kruger's work in micrographics, imaging, and standards. Included are correspondence and memoranda between colleagues, organizational correspondence and information, meeting reports and resolutions, drafts of proposed standards, presentation drafts, photographs, and microfiche. The collection contains a smaller amount of more personal material, pertaining to Kruger's career and achievements. These include: awards, plaques, a scrapbook, photographs, ephemera, and a small quantity of personal correspondence with professional colleagues. Realia related to micrography, including microfilm viewers and a medallion from an NMA conference, make up the final series in the Kruger Papers.

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.

The records of the National Microfilm Association concern the work of the organization between 1944 and 1973, with scattered materials documenting some activities as late as 1990. The materials consist of correspondence, constitutions, by-laws, handbooks, meeting minutes, membership lists, biographical information, financial records, company publications, and articles and scholarly presentations.

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 earliest records concern a meeting held in 1944 to discuss the creation of a microfilm trade association and the subsequent NMA founding convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, in March 1945. Included in the collection is the correspondence of Franklin Morgan, one of the organizers of these two meetings and the first president of NMA, covering June 1944 to October 1945.

Morgan resigned as president in October 1945 and vice president Eugene Power succeeded him. At about the same time the board of directors hired Wilfred Knighton as secretary. He served in this position until September 1946, when the board replaced him with Vernon Tate.

The records covering the first years of NMA's existence are fairly substantial. For these years the files contain extensive correspondence of the presidents and secretaries of the organization, along with minutes of annual meetings and board meetings and scattered materials on committees and finances.

After the first few years, NMA declined in strength and activity and the quantity and quality of the records reflects this. There apparently were no annual meetings after 1946 and no board meetings after 1947. The president and secretary continued an active correspondence through 1948, although many of the letters from 1947 and 1948 concern attempts to revitalize the organization.

Between 1949 and 1951, NMA was completely dormant. The only records consist of occasional letters inquiring about the organization or specific questions on microfilming techniques. Vernon Tate continued to answer letters addressed to NMA, even though the organization was inactive.

With the revitalization of NMA after a meeting at the Library of Congress in 1952, extensive files on all aspects of the organization's work appear once again. One major difference in the records, however, is that the correspondence file no longer contains a complete record of the president's correspondence. It consists of letters received and sent by executive secretary Vernon Tate, with occasional copies of presidential letters sent to Tate for his information.

The records grew in quantity and complexity as the years passed, especially during the 1960s when NMA underwent tremendous growth in membership and activities. It was at this time that the organization established much of its committee structure, founded state and regional chapters, and began a Fellows organization for individuals who had been awarded that honor.

In 1969, NMA hired a professional executive vice-president who took over some of Vernon Tate's duties. The following year the organization moved its headquarters from a building owned by Tate in Annapolis, MD, to Silver Spring, MD, closer to Washington. The files for succeeding years reflect Vernon Tate's increasingly limited role and no longer include the files generated by the headquarters staff.

Tate left his positions with NMA at the end of 1973 and the scattered materials in the collection dating from later years relate mainly to his continuing role with the Fellows organization. Included are correspondence and minutes of Fellows meetings.

Researchers should be aware that some NMA-related materials also appear in Tate's Personal and Professional Papers. Included in that collection is Tate's correspondence concerning the organization for the years 1944 to 1946, before he became an officer, and scattered correspondence from the years after Tate left his positions with NMA in 1973.

Additional materials on NMA appear in the Microfilm Pioneers Collection. Several officers of the organization donated their papers to that collection.