Managing the machine in the stacks: operations research, bibliographic control and library computerization, 1950–2000

Abstract

Traces efforts to employ operations research (OR) in managing technological innovation in the library. Briefly discusses the World War II origins of OR and focuses on its post-war application to libraries and their efforts to improve systems of bibliographic control in the wake of the deluge of documents generated by scientific and technological advance and by the onset of the Cold War. Examines three pioneering attempts to apply OR to research libraries — by Philip Morse at MIT, Michael Buckland at the University of Lancaster, England, and by Ferdinand Leimkuhler at Purdue University. Culminates by exploring OR's legacy in the computerized research library and possible reasons for its sudden disappearance.