I am choosing some Information Scientists to highlight on Ada Lovelace Day :

Martha E. Williams

Martha E. Williams was a pioneer in developing computer-based databases and she was a successful entrepreneur. Her obituary is online at the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

A paper:

Abstract: The Information Sciences section at Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI) is now operating a Computer Search Center (CSC) for handling numerous machine-readable data bases. The computer programs are generalized in the sense that they will handle any incoming data base. This is accomplished by means of a preprocessor system which checks for errors and omissions on the supplier tape, converts a data base from the supplier’s format to the standard IITRI format. In this way, all tapes submitted are in the IITRI format and the search program can operate on them equally regardless of variation in content that exists from supplier to supplier. IITRI is meeting user needs by providing current awareness and retrospective search services from both document-type and data-type machine-readable files.

Paper presented at The American Institute of Chemical Engineers 63rd Annual Meeting, Chicago Sheraton Hotel, Nov 29 – Dec 3, 1970

Dr. Carol Tenopir

When I studying at UT, you could get the MS with a “concentration.” So when I got my degree in 1998 I had an “MS in Information Sciences with a concentration in electronic publishing.” Dr. Tenopir was my advisor. She is an expert on electronic publishing and online databases, has tons of highly-cited journal articles, is the author of 5 books, and was awarded the University of Tennessee’s highest permanent faculty honor.

A paper:

Abstract: There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of studies of journal reading by professionals in such fields as science, engineering, medicine, law, social science and the humanities. These studies have been done for many reasons, including research to better understand professional communication patterns and the role this plays in their work. Some studies also focus on providing specific information to journal system participants such as publishers, librarians, other intermediaries and their funders. In this article we present a description of a little used but powerful method of observing reading by scientists (1). This method is designed to measure the amount of reading of specific journal articles and entire journals to complement exclusive observations of electronic journal hits and downloads, transaction logs, limited counts of citations to journals or articles and rough estimates of total amount of reading by professionals compared with total number of articles published.

D-Lib Magazine, October 2006, Volume 12 Number 10

Henriette Avram

Henriette Avram is pretty much why the card catalog disappeared from libraries. She created a machine-readable DB at the Library of Congress in 1969 & a set of standards for the catalog records that went into the database. This totally blew everyone’s minds in a humongous way. Her obituary in the NY Times:

“Her work changed forever the relationship of a library to its users, making it possible, with the push of a button, to search the holdings of a library thousands of miles away. It also made it possible to “visit” the library at midnight attired in nothing more than a bathrobe, a practice brick-and-mortar libraries traditionally discouraged.”

This is her obit at the Library of Congress.

I’m considering her an Information Scientist though I think the Library Science folks claim her. I’m not even going there haha.

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Today is Ada Lovelace Day, who is widely recognized as the first computer programmer. (And she was the daughter of Lord Byron.)

Links:

– Ada Lovelace Day: Let’s hear it for women in technology.

– Ada Lovelace has been called many things – the first computer programmer and a prophet of the computer age – but most poetically perhaps by Babbage himself as an ‘enchantress of numbers’. BBC Program(me) about Lovelace, Babbage, etc. (Real Media.)

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements.