About
Information & Culture: A Journal of History publishes high-quality, peer reviewed articles on the history of information. The journal honors its (45+ year) heritage by continuing to publish in the areas of library, archival, museum, conservation, and information science history. However, the journal's scope has been broadened significantly beyond these areas to include the historical study of any topic that would fall under the purview of any of the modern interdisciplinary schools of information, such as the school in which the journal is edited, the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin. In keeping with the spirit of the information schools, the work is human centered and looks at the interactions of people, organizations, and societies with information and technologies. Social and cultural context of information and information technology, viewed from an historical perspective, is at the heart of the journal's interests. Typical papers might focus, among other topics, on the histories of information institutions, academic domains, professions, work, and societies. The intention is to juxtapose papers on a wide variety of topics related to the history of information so as to stimulate connections that have not been made, for example between the research of library historians, historians of computing, labor historians, gender historians, economic historians, business historians, political and diplomatic historians, cultural studies scholars, critical theorists, and science and technology scholars.
Our history
Established in 1966 as The Journal of Library History, it was edited and published at Florida State University until 1976 when its editorship moved to The University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, its title was changed to Libraries & Culture and to Libraries & the Cultural Record in 2006. In 2012 it assumed its present title, Information & Culture: A Journal of History.
Recommend the journal to a library: Request that your library subscribe to Information & Culture: A Journal of History.
Editor
William Aspray is the Bill and Lewis Suit Professor of Information Technologies in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a BA and MA in mathematics from Wesleyan University and a PhD in history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught previously at Harvard, Indiana, Penn, Virginia Tech, and Williams. He has held management positions in the Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Processing, the IEEE Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, and the Computing Research Association.
Aspray’s research explores the social, historical, and political aspects of information and information technology. The most recent of his more than 70 articles, 150 oral histories, and 20 books are: Digital Media: Technological and Social Challenges of the Interactive World (ed. with Megan Winget, Scarecrow Press, 2011), Privacy in America: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (ed. with Philip Doty, Scarecrow Press, 2011, The Internet and American Business (ed. with Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008), Health Informatics (ed. with Barbara Hayes, MIT Press, 2010), and Everyday Information (ed. with Barbara Hayes, MIT Press, 2011). Forthcoming is the third edition of his mass-market history Computer (written with Martin Campbell-Kelly, Nathan Ensmenger, and Jeffrey Yost, Westview).
Managing Editor
George Royer is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Information. His areas of interest include archives, digital media, and the history of information. His research has been published by MIT Press and featured in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. In addition to practicing law, Mr. Royer has also worked at the Cable News Network (CNN) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Royer holds a B.A. in English from Birmingham-Southern College, a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law, and an M.S.I.S. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.
Editorial Fellow
Melissa Ocepek is a doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is studying human-information interaction. Her particular areas of interest in that field are understanding and improving the transmission of information to traditionally underserved groups. She is currently working on information-seeking behaviors of users of online question-and-answer sites.
Ms. Ocepek holds an Honors BA in Political Science and a BA in Sociology from Pepperdine University. She was a volunteer for the journal this past academic year.
Student Editor, Book Reviews
Melissa Wopschall is a master's student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is studying archives and records management. She is particularly interested in the challenges of preserving and archiving information in the digital environment. She is currently working with the Rapoport Project at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
Ms. Wopschall holds a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Psychology from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA..
Student Volunteers Academic Year 2012
Evelyn Egbeighu
Gayle Fischer
Rae Gibbs
Heather Hughes
Melissa Hutson
Elizabeth Lovero
Jordan Mitchell
Katie O'Connell
Josie Ragolia
Anna Robinson
Roger Simon
Ana Stansecu
Caroline Stratton
Anita Worthington