Bourne, C.P.; Hahn, T.B.: ¬A history of online information services : 1963-1976 (2003)
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- Footnote
- Rez. in: JASIST 55(2004) no.7, S.651-652 (D.G. Smith): "A complex myriad of online information sources and services are currently accessible to knowledge workers worldwide. Those who have a computer equipped with a modern or Internet access can avail themselves of bibliographic, scientific, and full-text databases in a staggering number of disciplines. These online services, fueled by technological advancement, are in a constant state of change. Innovation occurs so quickly that it is difficult for knowledge workers to remember any other technological reality but the present. In such an environment, the origin of online information services often goes unconsidered. A History of Online Information Services, 1963-1976, by Charles P. Bourne and Trudi Bellardo Hahn, sheds light an the pioneering efforts of those who made current online information services possible. Michael Buckland states in the book's foreword that Bourne and Hahn's volume is the first history of the early online years. It covers the appearance of the first online information retrieval system in 1963 and concludes during 1976 when several commercial online information services, including DIALOG and LEXIS, became forerunners in the nascent online industry. Although developments in computing technology and communication networks were important to early online efforts, these topics are not discussed in the book. However, there are cases when offline computing technologies, such as database searching with punched cards, are reviewed if they are important to the development of online retrieval systems. ...
Overall, Bourne and Hahn's book is richly detailed and extensively documented. In the book's introduction, the authors provide a good overview of other online system histories, but they also write about a lack of archival and secondary sources in this area. This explains why it took the authors 15 years to gather information for this volume, most of it derived from technical reports, newsletters, and personal interviews. From a research standpoint, the authors have done an excellent job. However, while no one can take issue with the book's level of scholarship, the presentation of the research could have been more effective. The majority of the book is written in a straightforward, factual manner that is difficult to read as an historical narrative. Except for Chapter 10, there is very little writing in the book that engages the reader and captures the human side of the online information retrieval story. A quote from W. Boyd Rayward an the back of the book's dust cover calls the work "encyclopedic," and in many ways the book as it exists would have worked better as an encyclopedia. Even the book's layout, with double instead of single columns, hints at its reference-like qualities. To be fair, though, it is entirely possible that Bourse and Hahn may have wanted to create a book with a human interest angle, but the lack of documentation may have prevented them from creating such a work. In short, A History of Online Information Services, 1963-1976, does a commendable job of encapsulating the significant people, organizations, and events that helped shape early online information services. Given the problems Bourne and Hahn had in gathering historical evidence for their book, it makes one wonder about the implications for future historical work in the online field. One can only hope that organizations are archiving enough historical material to be able to write the post-1976 online story."
