The study on which this report is based was sponsored by the Council on Library Resources, Inc., and conducted by Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., between November 1961 and November 1963. I acknowledge with deep appreciation the contributions of inspiration, thought, fact, and effort made by members of the two organizations.
The Council on Library Resources defined the general scope of the work and maintained, through its officers and staff and a special Advisory Committee, a spirited interaction with the contractor's group. I offer special thanks to Verner W. Clapp, President of the Council, Melville J. Ruggles, Vice-President, and Laurence B. Heilprin, Staff Scientist, for frequent infusions of wisdom and knowledge. The Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Joseph C. Morris, was a vigorous activator and a source of much encouragement. To him and to the members of the Committee -- Gilbert W. Chapman, Caryl P. Haskins, Barnaby C. Keeney, Gilbert W. King, Philip M. Morse, and John W. Pierce -- and to Lyman H. Butterfield, who was closely associated with the Committee, I express appreciation for a rare blend of administrative guidance and constructive technical criticism.
The colleagues within Bolt Beranek and Newman who participated most actively in the library study were Fisher S. Black, Richard H. Bolt, Lewis C. Clapp, Jerome L Elkind, Mario Grignetti, Thomas M. Marill, John W. Senders, and John A. Swets (who directed the research during the second year of the study).
John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Bert Bloom, Daniel G. Bobrow, Richard Y. Kain, David Park, and Bert Raphael of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were also part of the research group. The opportunity to work with those BBN and M.LT. people was exciting and rewarding. I am appreciative of their comradeship and their contributions. I hope that I have done fair justice to their ideas and conclusions in Part II, which summarizes the individual researches that comprise the study.
Perhaps the main external influence that shaped the ideas of this book had its effect indirectly, through the community, for it was not until Carl Overhage noticed its omission from the References that I read Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think" (Atlantic Monthly, 176, 101-108, July 1945). I had often heard about Memex and its "trails of references." I had hoped to demonstrate Symbiont to Dr. Bush as a small step in the direction in which he had pointed in his pioneer article. But I had not read the article. Now that I have read it, I should like to dedicate this book, however unworthy it may be, to Dr. Bush.
J. C. R. LiCKLIDER
Mt. Kisco, New York
November 4, 1964