British Computer Society

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 2107 BCS
Held at	: City University   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.city.ac.uk/library/resources/special-collection/university-archives ›
Full title	: British Computer Society
Date(s)	: 1966-1977
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 5 box files
Name of creator(s)	: British Computer Society

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1955, Lord Halsbury, the Managing Director of the National Research Development Corporation , opened a summer school at the then Northampton College of Advanced Technology on the application of electronic digital computers and calculaters to accountancy and management. The success of this initiative led Lord Halsbury to arrange for one of the earliest Ferranti Pegasus computers to be installed on permanent loan to the College in 1957, and it also played an important part in the formation of the London Computer Group and the British Computer Society (BCS) in the same year. L T G Clarke, the Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics Department of the College was also a founder member of the BCS and was instrumental in organising the growth of this computing function in the College. The College's Governing Body was keen to support the BCS by granting it free use of rooms at the College for meetings. Clarke later became Manager of the City University Computer Unit in 1967, and also Chairman of the BCS Library Committee. The BCS library was housed in the Skinners' Library of City University from 1967 until financial circumstances dictated that the Library could no longer undertake to manage the BCS holdings. In 1977, therefore, the BCS moved its library to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of the British Computer Society and its library, comprising correspondence, minutes and reports, 1966-1977.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English.

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

On written application to the University Librarian.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the University Librarian.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Accumulated by the University Librarian and L T G Clarke.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, holds the library of the BCS.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Robert Baxter as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project, based on survey information by Janet Foster. Source: The City University - a history by S John Teague (City University, London, 1990).

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Mar 2001