Collections

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.

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.

Federal program to promote the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by providing matching grants to community based organizations to help them use or provide telecommunications for new opportunities, especially for unserved or under-served groups. Records include project proposals, reports, sound and video recordings relating to individual projects, websites and other digital records.

(NOTE: More information about the TOP collection, which is part of the TOP Data Archive, can be found at the following link: http://www.si.umich.edu/toparchive. Included at this website are electronic documents, web pages, and datasets created by the Technology Opportunities Program as well as related documents created by researchers and students at the University of Michigan School of Information.)

The TOP Data Archive was initiated in 2004 by the University of Michigan School of Information. In addition to TOP itself, partners include the Community Informatics Initiative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the Educational Development Corporation, the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the U of M Special Collections Library.

The TOP Data Archive is distributed, with physical materials in the U-M Special Collections Library and electronic materials online at one or more locations. As of 2006, the electronic materials are still being processed.

This idea behind assembling this data archive was to preserve important records concerning how local communities are entering the digital age, and create a foundational dataset for the emerging field of Community Informatics. This field examines communities and information and communications technology. It emerged in the 1990s from experiments with technology in communities which have been carried out worldwide, at the grassroots level and/or by means of national and international funding initiatives.

The TOP Data Archive includes 1) information assembled in the course of a federal agency managing its projects, 2) that same information re-purposed for research use, and 3) new information brought in for research purposes. The federal agency is the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. TOP funded projects from 1994-2005, and is expected to continue managing already-funded projects into 2007.

The records in the TOP collection--that part of the TOP Data Archive which is in the holdings of the Special Collections Library--represent grant proposals submitted to TOP and project materials created by TOP and its grantee organizations, known as TOP projects, during the period of 1994-2005. The collection is not inclusive of all 606 TOP projects. TOP was able to locate and provide for the collection project documents and Audio/Visual materials for about 88 TOP projects. These were materials that the projects submitted to TOP over the years. The TOP project materials are represented by many different formats, including paper, multimedia compact discs, floppy disks, cassette tapes, and video recordings.

The records of the TOP collection are arranged into eight series: Proposals, Project Documents, Project Reporting System, Project CDs, Project Floppy Disks, Project Cassette Tapes, TOP and NTIA, and Video Recordings. Later additions may be found in Proposals, Project Documents, and Video Recordings in Box 17.