The Conference on the History and Heritage of Science Information Systems offered a unique occasion to discuss the nature, development and influence of all types of science information systems worldwide. It was co-sponsored by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, ASIS and ASIS SIG, History and Foundations of Information Science and held on October 23-25, at the ASIS Annual Meeting, 1998, in Pittsburgh.

Presentations were made by leading historians, information specialists and other renowned professionals. This material will be published by the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

Michael Buckland, Professor, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley, opened the conference. In his overview, Buckland asserted that the history of science information systems overlaps the history of science and the history of information systems. He went on to say that "science and technology information systems have had a privileged existence because of industrial and military needs and government policies. Much of the pioneering work concerned chemistry and/or was done by chemists."

Several sessions certainly did concentrate on the evolution of chemical information systems. However other meeting sessions examined more focused aspects of the development of science and scientific information systems. For instance, Geoffrey Bower addressed the nomenclature instability in the history of botanical informatics and Wouters traced the creation of the Science Citation Index^Ò . One very interesting session traced the use of microfilm, which served as a precursor to later computerized information systems in business, education, and science.

-Jacqueline Trolley
Chair, ASIS/DVC