SHOT started it’s bibliography work in the early 1960s, and that initiative continued until 2009, when a variety of concerns prompted ending the project. SHOT had printed annual bibliographies in T&C from 1965-1999. But starting in 1990 the bibliography was available through the HSTM Hatabase, a joint project that combined citations from the SHOT and History of Science Society annual bibliographies, as well as from the Italian bibliography of the history of science and the Wellcome Library’s bibliography in the history of medicine. For a variety of reason, SHOT’s project was halted in 2009, but revived after discussions in the Executive council in 2012-13 led to a contract with ESBCO, by then the publisher of the HSTM Database. SHOT’s content began to be added to the database in 1916, while also appearing in the HSS ISIS-CB. You can read about SHOT’s bibliographic work, past and present, in more detail here.
SHOT members have access to the HSTM database via EBSCO. The database attempts to case a wide net over the various literatures of interest to historians of technology. From mid May 2026 onwards members can access the database via the Member Login page on the SHOT SHOT website. There you will find information on the login protocol for the EBCSO database. Users can define searches over time and for different genres of literature, titles, authors, subjects and keywords. I urge SHOT members to explore this research tool, which includes the SHOT bibliographies prepared since 1990. HSS content extends even further back in time. And I am planning to bring content from the earlier printed bibliographies into the system as well.
One practical reason for asking SHOT members to log in to the database relates to SHOT’s royalties from EBSCO. SHOT’s main royalty from EBSCO is for generating new content, but an additional royalty is based on the use of that SHOT-generated content. EBSCO counts every click, and total royalties have recently exceeded $14,000. If more SHOT members utilize this resource, the royalties will increase and benefit the society financially. Please explore this possibility!
A key part of the SHOT’s current bibliographic work is my collaboration with Stephen Weldon, editor of the HSS bibliography, ISIS-CB. He assists in every technical aspect of SHOT’s renewed bibliography work. In return, content generated by SHOT since 2016 is included in the ISIS-CB. Unfortunately, that access had to be placed behind a member-only login page after bots and institutional searches crippled the site. But those who are members of both societies still can access the ISIS-CB with all of the recent SHOT content
I am very pleased at how the bibliography work has unfolded over the past decade. I hope more SHOT members can take advantage of this resource. Please take a look at the longer review of SHOT’s bibliography efforts mentioned above. And if anyone has questions or suggestions concerning content that is not in the system, please contact me at [email protected].
Bruce Seely
Emeritus Dean and Professor
Michigan Technological University