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.
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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 books are: Food in the Internet Age (with George Royer and Melissa Ocepek, Springer, 2013), Computer (with Martin Campbell-Kelly, Nathan Ensmenger, and Jeffrey Yost, Westview, 3rd ed., 2013), 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), Everyday Information (ed. with Barbara Hayes, MIT Press, 2011), Health Informatics (ed. with Barbara Hayes, MIT Press, 2010), and The Internet and American Business (ed. with Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008).
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
Virginia Luehrsen is a doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focuses on the intersections between disaster recovery, indigenous knowledge creation and management, and information practice and behavior. She is also currently working as an assistant instructor at the School of Information, where she teaches a courses on research strategies and representation of information.
Ms. Luehrsen earned her M.A. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology and M.L.S. with a concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections from Indiana University Bloomington, and her undergraduate B.A. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Student Editor, Book Reviews
Katie O'Connell is a masters student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies archives and special collections, particularly the intersection of traditional and digital archives.
Ms. O'Connell earned her undergraduate B.A. in Medieval History and French from the University of California at Berkeley.
Student Volunteers Academic Year 2013-2014
- Evelyn Egbeighu
- Rae (Rachel) Gibbs
- Frances Rickard
- Lea DeForest
- Lauren Gaylord
- Megan Carey
- Sally DeBauche
- Kari Beets
- Jim Rizkalla
- Tim Mapp
- Andres Ramirez
- Joe Costello