[Sighfis-l] Douglas Foskett

[Richard Hill]

 We were surprised to learn that Douglas Foskett passed away last Friday
 (5/7).
 
 As one member commented:
 > He was a very important figure in early IS in the UK - a
 > member of the CRG, developed a faceted classification for education,
 > was the Librarian at the London School of Education (part of the Univ
 > of London system) and was eventually the U of London's Goldsmith's
 > librarian. Wrote several book, edited several others and was just a
 > lovely man.
 
 In his own words, edited from History and Heritage of Science Information
 Systems_ (1999), where each Pioneer was asked to prepare brief remarks on
 a "memorable moment in his or her career"
 
 Librarianship to Information Science
 After six years of war duty, I rejoined the Ieford Public Library Service
 in 1946 and set about completing my F.L.A.. and when I joined the Metal
 Box Company in 1948 I soon realized how the skills required for a
 scientific and industrial research information officer depended on the
 basic techniques of librarianship, notably classification and cataloging.
 Presenting scientific and technical information and building on
 librarianship skills cave me the magic opportunity to be among the
 pioneers of the emerging paradigm that came to be known as "information
 science," and I meant to proclaim this in the title of my book,
 "information Service in Libraries (1958."
     Meeting with S. R. Ranganathan in 1948 gave me a new view of
 classification as facet analysis plus traditional generic analysis, and I
 applied this in schemes for packaging, occupational safety and health, and
 education.  This experience has suggested to me that facet analysis
 applied to any subject can reveal hitherto uncoordinated concepts  --  for
 example materials and processes - and thus offer an indication of possible
 areas of future research.  This could be a unique information science to
 the World Wide Web.
 
 ------------
 Richard Hill
 Executive Director
 American Society for Information Science and Technology
 1320 Fenwick Lane, Silver Spring, MD  20910
 FAX: (301) 495-0810
 Voice: (301) 495-0900
 www.asis.org