CBI-Hosted Publications
The Charles Babbage Institute is proud to make available to researchers on this website materials produced by CBI staff and other writers who have entrusted their materials to CBI. Additional materials will be added to this site as we receive them.
ConneXions—The Interoperability Report (1987-1996) [pdf files]
Edited by Ole JacobsenWith support from Cisco Systems, CBI digitized the entire run of the journal ConneXions—The Interoperability Report (1987-1996). ConneXions was a central forum for discussing the technical issues and international standards that made the Internet into a seamless, interoperating network. The collection includes many articles by leading members of the Internet community as well as reports on varied managerial, technical, and organizational initiatives. The scanned PDF files are available as individual monthly issues as well as yearly compilations; the site totals 1.5 GB. ConneXions was published by the Interop Company, and this site is with the permission of its successor firm, CMP United Business Media. Ole Jacobsen is presently editor and publisher of The Internet Protocol Journal .
Second Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computing, Computers, and the Information Processing Industry [pdf (OCR), 191MB, 426pgs]
Compiled by James W. CortadaThis updated bibliography was published by Greenwood Press in 1996, and electronically published here with permission. The 7000 annotated entries are grouped into sections on origins, inventions and hardware, information processing industry, and managing data processing. This 190 MB PDF file is an OCR document and can be text-searched. Communication Booknotes Quarterly hailed it as an "invaluable annotated and structured index to the huge literature."A Bibliographic Guide to the History of Computer Applications, 1950-1990 [pdf, 104MB, 293pgs] [
<OCR version> 70 MB, 293 pgs]
By James W. Cortada (compiler)Published by Greenwood Press in 1996, and electronically published here with permission, this was the first bibliography on the applications of computing. The 1600 annotated entries are divided into two dozen sections on (e.g.) accounting, agriculture, airline reservations, architecture, banking, construction, education, insurance, legal, medical, military, and many more. This 100 MB PDF file contains ‘bookmarks’ to assist readers in locating entries. The book formed groundwork for Cortada’s Digital Hand trilogy.The High-Technology Company: A Historical Research and Archival Guide [pdf, 60.2MB, 134pgs]
By Bruce H. Bruemmer and Sheldon HochheiserPublished by the Charles Babbage Institute in 1989, this pioneering guide to archival practices in high-tech companies was for some years distributed by the Society of American Archivists. Stanford’s Henry Lowood identified it as one of the “indispensable guides” in the history of computing that helped shape “the strategies and programs that guided the growth of archival resources in the history of computing.” The guide lists the general types of business records as well as provides a “documentary probe” based on the Control Data Corporation records held at CBI.
IBM Rochester: A Half Century of Innovation [pdf, 2.72MB, 54pgs]
Text prepared by Arthur Norberg and Jeffrey YostPublished in commemoration of the Minnesota facility’s 50th anniversary. Long an important manufacturing and development center, IBM Rochester is today perhaps best known for developing the AS/400 mid-range computer system, rolled out with great success beginning in 1988 with more than 1,000 software packages and an attractive mix of cost and speed. Arthur Norberg and Jeffrey Yost, CBI's former director and present associate director, respectively, conducted seventeen oral histories with Rochester executives and engineers to supplement the available archival record. Norberg and Yost begin the story with the founding of the Rochester division in 1956, when IBM was seeking a Midwestern manufacturing facility for its mechanical punch card machines, and carry the story all the way through present-day concerns with quality manufacturing as well as IBM’s emphatic shift into software and services.
My Adventures with Dwarfs: A Personal History in Mainframe Computers [pdf, 1.86MB, 242pgs]
By Russell C. McGeeA well-written memoir by a mainframe pioneer. Russ McGee relates his entry into computing during the early 1950s at Computer Control Company and at Hanford, and his early experiences with the user group SHARE and the IBM 709. The middle chapters tell the story of General Electric’s computer division in Phoenix AZ, including accounts of his work on GE 600-series, the Weyerhauser database system, and the virtual machine monitor. Also discusses McGee’s development of structured programming techniques. The appendices include technical material on the structure and programming of stored-program computers.These materials are covered under the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).