President's Column

Abstract

In Jul 1966, the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA) was officially born at the American Library Association Annual Conference in New York as the Information Science and Automation Division. The 1960s, as LITA was born, was still the era of the big mainframe systems and not-so-common programming languages. The 1970s saw the introduction of minicomputer systems. Digital Equipment Corp introduced the VAX, a 32-bit platform, in 1976. The 1980s saw the introduction of the IBM personal computer and the Apple Macintosh. The 1990s saw a shift away from hardware to communication and access as the Web was unveiled and began to give life to the Internet bubble. All the while, during these four decades, the association and its members continually adapted to the new environment, faced new challenges, and adopted new technologies.