Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Hennessey, A. Kathleen and Hennessey, A. Kathleen
- Extent:
- 164 Linear Feet : 328 boxes
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Kathleen Hennessey papers (M2261). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Kathleen Hennessey papers include a wide range of materials, largely centered around computer science and information processing. The bulk of the material originates from Hennessey’s tenure at Texas Tech University, particularly her involvement with the Institute for Studies of Organizational Automation (ISOA).
ISOA materials include research lab notebooks, meeting notes, research literature, grant applications, interdepartmental correspondence, diagrams, instruction sheets, and layout forms. The collection as a whole contains approximately 21 issued patents and 50 grants and contracts.
The Hennessey papers also contained numerous academic materials in the fields of information science and computer science. These include academic journals and publications (some of which contain Hennessey’s own published articles), conference proceedings, and numerous early textbooks dealing with topics such as data processing, systems analysis, and object-oriented programming languages.
Teaching materials from Hennessey’s work at Manchester Polytechnic, the University of Manchester, and Texas Tech University include presentations, assignments, and related textbooks. The main subjects of these materials are systems analysis, information systems, computers in education, and COBOL and BASIC programming.
Finally, the collection contains numerous examples of early computer hardware, such as wired plugboards, punchcards, silicon wafers, circuit boards, blackboards with plugboard layouts, and an acoustic coupler modem. There are also manuals for early computer systems like IBM 1440 and 360, and COBOL DOS and OS.
Materials containing the confidential information of students and employees, as well as sensitive legal documents, are restricted, and will be closed for research until 2050.
Within each series, materials are arranged by the order processed.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Audrey Kathleen Hennessey is a data scientist, researcher, and educator whose work has primarily focused on systems, information processing, and organizational automation. Hennessey was born in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1936. She studied at Stanford University, earning a BA in Public Administration in 1957. Hennessey began her career in Ampex Corporation’s Data Processing Department, before eventually going on to earn an HSA in Education from the University of Toronto in 1968. She was a Lecturer at Manchester Polytechnic (which later became Manchester Metropolitan University) from 1970 to 1980, and at the University of Manchester from 1980 to 1982. She additionally served as an Assessor of Information Systems Analysis and Data Processing for the British Department of Education and Science. She also earned her Ph.D. from the University of Lancaster in 1982, with her doctorate research focusing on early systems methods and their relevance to complex multidimensional settings. Her later research and publications would include topics such as systems analysis, automated visual inspection, object-oriented languages, knowledge-based image analysis, and neural networks.
After earning her Ph.D., Hennessey went on to teach at Texas Tech University from 1982 to 2001. Serving as director of Texas Tech’s Institute for Studies of Organizational Automation (ISOA), a systems research laboratory focusing on incorporating automation into organizations, Hennessey undertook a variety of enterprises, including commercializing intellectual property from TTU. ISOA was eventually spun-off to the private company Innovative Solutions for Automation (ISOA, Inc.). As a private company, ISOA worked as a supplier of embedded software for tool vendors and automated wafer inspection systems for semiconductor manufacturing facilities, among other ventures. Over the years, ISOA worked with clients such as IBM, Boeing, Texas Instruments, Digital Equipment, Xerox, Sony, Leica, British Airways, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Tokyo Electron, Electroglas, and the United States Naval Intelligence. The company was sold to Rudolph Technologies in 2002.
Hennessey served on the American National Standards Institute’s Committee on Information Systems Standards and was a senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. She received the Halliburton Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 1986. In 1992, she received the Distinguished Information Sciences Award (DISA) from the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) for her contributions to the information processing profession; the DISA had previously been awarded to figures such as Grace Hopper, David Packard, and Ross Perot.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Kathleen Hennessey; 2017. Accessions MSS 2017-253, 2017-254, and 2017-375.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Material in Series 1 through 3 is open for research. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Born-digital material is closed until processed.
Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Material in Series 4 is CLOSED until 2050.
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Kathleen Hennessey papers (M2261). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022