Aslib Proceedings is 60 years old

Citation

Nicholas, D. and Rowlands, I. (2008), "Aslib Proceedings is 60 years old", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 60 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ap.2008.27660daa.001

Aslib Proceedings is 60 years old

Article Type: Editorial From: Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, Volume 60, Issue 4

Aslib Proceedings (AP) has been reporting on information research and innovations for 60 years now in a characteristic straightforward, direct and practitioner-facing manner, which is even more in tune with the needs of today’s profession; a profession that is sorely challenged by massive choice and change.

Some things have changed over the years. Most noticeably AP is no longer published by Aslib nor does it publish proceedings! Something which has made us reflect on whether we should change its title. However, we have always rejected this on the basis that Aslib Proceedings is a long trusted brand in a world where brand is difficult to establish and therefore we should hang on to it.

Looking back over the archive (now available in a digital form) the journal has become much more research orientated, interdisciplinary and international in its authorship. Compare, for instance, the contents of this issue with that of the very first issue, which featured the following articles: “International chemical abstracts and the new notation for organic chemistry”; “The library liaison officer system of the royal aircraft establishment”; “The information service of the engineer-in-chief’s library of the post office research station”; “Photostat recording in library work”; “Training and practice in special librarianship”; “The National Central Library”. All very practical and descriptive, and all the authors were British.

AP is one of Emerald’s most highly used titles (as determined by article downloads). Indeed, a paper by Ralph Adam on e-mail (“Is e-mail addictive?”, Vol. 51 No. 1, 1999) appears to be the most downloaded Emerald LIS paper, having obtained nearly 10,000 downloads. In addition to e-mail, knowledge management and anything to do with Google are very popular topics, attracting large numbers of downloads. In recognition of its growing research reputation AP has also seen its ISI Impact factor score rise over the recent past, something which is crucial to obtaining the best pick of papers from home and abroad.

The behaviour of the Google generation and the impact of e-books are probably today’s hot topics and in recognition of this CIBER, who have regularly used AP to disseminate their research findings, provide articles on these two topics.

David Nicholas, Ian Rowlands