Information Science

Information Science

I have probably mentioned before that I started my career in Information Work for Unilever Research. The objective was to have a small group of scientists who looked for and disseminated information relevant to the scientists they were supporting. While I had been job hunting in a desultory way Unilever advertised positions in Information Science at all their UK research labs. The Port Sunlight portion mentioned adhesives among a whole series of other areas. As I spent my industrial year with an adhesives company this alerted me.

I didn’t enjoy practical work, I had a wide range of general knowledge, I thought I could find my way around a library so with my ( very limited ) experience in adhesives I applied. The Unilever interviewer soon showed I knew much less about adhesives than I thought. However the real interview came during a tour of the whole lab with someone who I later found was the de facto head of Information Science.

During the tour it somehow emerged that I knew enough about surfactant biodegradation to know the difference between hard and soft surfactants ie.. the difference between those that biodegrade and those that don’t. I recall I was also asked to explain the working of an electronic valve. I remember driving home and reflecting that the great enthusiasm of the tour guide  attracted me but I didn’t think I would get an offer. Well I was wrong and although there were other offers I had little hesitation in accepting. What hesitation I had revolved around my lack of understanding of the ranking system. I was very slightly put off to be offered the position as “unestablished” scientist which carried the connotation of temporary in my mind. I later found this was quite wrong and it was a desirable grade.

I duly started on the 27^th of September 1965. The personnel manager casually said the few days pay would be added to the following month. I was stony broke but I lacked the confidence to demur. We had been searching for accommodation and we chose an upper floor flat in a large house looking out over the Dee estuary. I was completely ignorant about the area and the estuary looked formidable as an expanse of mud and grass as far as one could see over to the Welsh side. However walking along the nearby Parkgate front I saw a notice which said “next boat 3pm” Aha I thought, this is just a trick of the tide and the sea would come right up to the seawall. I soon found the notice was a joke and it was a very exceptional  when the sea came in, maybe a couple of times a year. For the remaining time the estuary was exactly as I first saw it.

We did find our way out to a temporary sandy stretch about a mile out one summer but the estuary was otherwise rather treacherous with many deep channels. For a brief time that summer we enjoyed the “seaside” feeling but the sand disappeared by the next year.

I enjoyed the work. There was an air of enthusiasm and interest in the section. We were encouraged to get out and about in the lab to find out exactly what the scientists were doing and what their needs were. I soon found that the lab was 90% soap and detergents  ( in many guises ) and that all other interests were a small part. The interest in adhesives was vanishingly small.

One area I found very interesting was an engineering group who were trouble shooters for the whole company. As part of this they had a great interest in corrosion and much later in life I became involved myself in anti-corrosion coatings.

While the Information Section was very much concerned with servicing the needs of the laboratory there was also a lot of interest in developing Information Science- in fact a team of two were devoted to precisely that task. There was a lot of emphasis on using automated and computer methods which I found fascinating. I soon found that Unilever led the whole new field of Information Science.

I left initially on secondment which evolved into permanent transfer into the mainstream lab where I worked on a variety of projects for over ten years before I left Unilever Research. The experience was invaluable. As a development scientist I was allowed time and space to learn my craft but I always looked back fondly to my time in the Information Section. This had a curious corollary. Frances went into scientific librarianship and I think that my accounts of my early days had some influence on this. She has moved on to a somewhat more managerial role but I still marvel at how things have changed. Her new library is rather luxurious although the principle of making knowledge accessible remains the same.

A man in a ski-mask ran into a bank pointed a banana at the cashier and yelled “this is a cock-up”
“Don’t you mean a stickup “ asked the cashier
“No” said the robber” it’s a cock-up. I forgot to bring the gun”