The Hagley Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of the James W. Cortada Collection of Information Technology Publications. Cortada worked for IBM for over 38 years in various sales, consulting, management, and executive positions. Cortada holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University and is a self-described first-generation historian of information technology.
Dr. Cortada built this collection while writing his histories of the industry including such titles as: Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry they created, 1865-1956 (1993); The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing (2004); Information and the Modern Corporation (2011); The Digital Flood: Diffusion of Information Technology across the United States, Europe, and Asia (2012); and All the Facts: A History of Information in the United States since 1870 (2016).
Processing of the collection is ongoing. Areas of interest include manuals and books about information technology; trade business management books; books on the applications of computers; the economics of computing; materials dealing with the global history and use of computing; information society and social issues, internet and media studies; histories of corporations and biographies; and academic and trade histories of computing, telecommunications, and related technologies. The breadth of this collection will provide a foundation for Hagley to build upon while considering other collecting opportunities.
Although cataloging this collection is not yet complete, work is being done to make this collection available to interested researchers. Researchers can search for this collection within Hagley's online catalog, or may contact Hagley at askhagley@hagley.org with any questions.