 | |
| Formation | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Promote and facilitate the preservation and study of the history of Internet Technology and be a "table of contents" of where information technology history is located |
| Origins | Charles Babbage Foundation |
Region served | World-wide |
| Membership | 700+[1] |
Chairman | Jeffery Stein |
Main organ | Board of Directors |
| Website | www |
TheIT History Society (ITHS) is anorganization that supports thehistory andscholarship ofinformation technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as theCharles Babbage Foundation, it advises historians, promotes collaboration among academic organizations and museums, and assists IT corporations in preparing and archiving their histories for future studies.
The IT History Society[2] provides background information to those with an interest in the history ofInformation Technology, including papers that provide advice on how to perform historical work and how historical activities can benefit private sector organizations. It tracks historical projects seeking funding as well as projects underway and completed. It maintains online, publicly available, lists of events pertaining to IT history, IT history resources, an IT Honor Roll acknowledging more than 700 individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry, and a database of notable technology quotes.
A continuing project is one of aggregating the locations and content of IT history archival information around the world to facilitate and encourage IT history research and scholarship.[3][citation needed] This International Database of Historical and Archival Sites currently consists of 1,663 international information technology historical and archival collections encompassing over 49.8 million documents.[3] An IT Hardware database has been added consisting of 12,187 entries, an IT Honor Roll with 1,031 entries, and a Technical Quotes database with over 1,000 entries. These databases are being added to on a regular basis an IT Software and IT Companies databases will debut soon. ITHS holds an annual meeting and conference.
The International Charles Babbage Society was founded in 1978 and operated out ofPalo Alto, California. The following year theAmerican Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) became a principal sponsor of the society, which was renamed theCharles Babbage Institute.[4][5] In 1980, the institute moved to theUniversity of Minnesota, which contracted with the principals of theCharles Babbage Institute to sponsor and house the institute.[6] A new entity, theCharles Babbage Foundation, was created to help support and govern the institute, in partnership with the university. In 1989, CBI became an organized research unit of the university.
Around 2000, CBF broadened its mission to support the history of information technology through other organizations, collaborating, for example, with theSloan Foundation,Software History Center, and theComputer History Museum in experimenting with Internet-based archival and historical research. In 2002, the Charles Babbage Foundation broadened its mission to support the entire IT history community. In 2007, CBF changed its name to the IT History Society and reworked its programs to better support the IT history community.
TheCharles Babbage Institute is a research center at theUniversity of Minnesota specializing in the history ofinformation technology, particularly the history of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking since 1935. The institute is named forCharles Babbage, the nineteenth-century English inventor of the programmable computer.[7] The institute is located inElmer L. Andersen Library at theUniversity of Minnesota Libraries inMinneapolis,Minnesota.
In addition to holding important historical archives, in paper and electronic form, its staff of historians and archivists conduct and publish historical and archival research that promotes the study of the history of information technology internationally.[8] CBI also encourages research in the area and related topics (such asarchival methods); to do this, it offers graduate fellowships[9] and travel grants,[10] organizes conferences and workshops, and participates in public programming. It also serves as an international clearinghouse of resources for the history of information technology.
Also valuable for researchers are its extensive collection oforal history interviews, more than 400 in total. Oral histories with important early figures in the field have been conducted by CBI staff and collaborating colleagues.[11] Owing to the poorly documented state of many early computer developments, these oral histories are immensely valuable documents. One author called the set of CBI oral histories "a priceless resource for any historian of computing."[12] Most of CBI's oral histories are transcribed and available online.[13]
The archival collection also containsmanuscripts; records ofprofessional associations; corporate records (including theBurroughs corporate records and theControl Data corporate records, among many others);trade publications;periodicals; manuals and product literature for older systems, photographic material (stills and moving), and a variety of other rare reference materials.
It is now a center at theUniversity of Minnesota, and is located on itsTwin Cities, Minneapolis campus, where it is housed in theElmer L. Andersen Library on the West Bank.
The CBI has collections of archival papers and oral histories from many notable figures in computing including:
CBI was founded in 1978 byErwin Tomash and associates as theInternational Charles Babbage Society, and initially operated inPalo Alto, California.
In 1979, theAmerican Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) became a principal sponsor of the Society, which was renamed the Charles Babbage Institute.
In 1980, the institute moved to theUniversity of Minnesota, which contracted with the principals of the Charles Babbage Institute to sponsor and house the institute. In 1989, CBI became an organized research unit of the university.
the Charles Babbage Institute, an organization devoted to the history of information processing.
with the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota, which conducts historical research on computing.