SHORT TAKE
Information Today Turns 40: A Note From the CEO
by Tom Hogan
Imagine there’s no internet
It’s easy if you try … |
My apologies to John Lennon, but I couldn’t help myself. Forty years ago, when we decided to launch a newsmagazine to cover the burgeoning field of online information services, the internet was still a decade away. It was the time of dial-up online searching and so-called microcomputers. This was soon after IBM produced its first personal computer, so microcomputers were elementary to say the least, and, by the way, most people hyphenated the word “on-line” at the time.
Although there was no internet, what we did have were several dozen content producers (we referred to them as database producers) that wanted to offer access to their information via the new electronic information services known as “online vendors”—companies such as Dialog, BRS, NewsBank, and EBSCO. Some of these companies have survived, but many have not.
A few years before we published the first issue of the magazine, we had launched the Online Information Meeting in New York, where we had some 200 companies and nonprofits that were eager to see their content become available for online searching—for a fee, of course. We thought a newsmagazine would serve to connect these content producers and online vendors with the users of those services by detailing all of the latest developments in the industry. To emphasize the importance of having current information, we named the magazine Information Today (later to become the name of our company).
In actuality, the magazine was really a newspaper if you think in terms of the type of paper it was printed on. We found a printer who printed the local PennySaver newspaper, and he agreed to produce a monthly edition of our new publication. Our premiere issue, which we labeled Volume 0, Issue 0, was printed in November 1983, but our first real, numbered issue, Volume 1, Issue 1, was published in January 1984.
Doing online searching back then wasn’t exactly rocket science, but it wasn’t easy either. The online vendors offered courses around the country to educate people—mostly corporate and university librarians—in their “search languages.” The content producers also offered mini courses to explain the depth of information in their databases. In 1981, we published the first book on the subject, Online Searching: A Primer, written by Carol Fenichel and me, to help novice searchers understand the basics of this new research tool. Since that time, both the information industry and our Information Today magazine have changed drastically. The internet and the web obviously changed everything. The Google search bar and the web have replaced many of the content creators and online vendors of old. There are so many technologies that are commonly referred to as “disruptors,” but I challenge anyone to name a technology that has had a greater impact on knowledge workers and the public at large than the internet.
The format of Information Today has changed over the years as well, from a black-and-white newspaper to a full-fledged magazine. But we continue to provide in-depth coverage of the vital information industry issues for both users and producers of electronic information services. Our readers are librarians in all sorts of settings—corporate, public, school, academic, etc.—as well as the companies and organizations that provide products and services to the library community. Connecting users with producers was our primary goal when we launched the magazine in 1983, and it still is.
We’re proud of the 40 years we’ve been publishing Information Today. We like to think we’ve done a good job of chronicling all of the changes that have taken place in our chosen field of endeavor over these last 4 decades. We look forward to continuing this amazing journey for many years to come.
Tom Hogan, CEO
Information Today, Inc. |
Tom Hogan is CEO of Information Today, Inc. Send your comments about this article to 
