From its inception in the mid-1960s, it was clear that a sophisticated set of computer programs would be essential to achieve the goals of the newly established RILM project. Automation was the buzzword of the day, with the American Council of Learned Societies collaborating with New York University’s Institute for Computer Research in the Humanities to integrate it across various sectors. However, when RILM’s founder, Barry S. Brook, presented his programming specifications to the Director of the Institute detailing the need for various fonts, accents, indexing, and features like random inputting and automatic numbering of abstracts, the response was far from optimistic. Despite RILM being set to launch in just six months, Brook was told that developing such a program would take approximately three years.
At the time, Brook was also collaborating on a digital musical analysis program at Queen’s College with Richard Golden, a computer science student whom Brook described as “one of those whiz kids who seemed to have been born inside an IBM 360”. After hearing Brook’s specifications for the RILM platform, Golden spent three days pondering the challenge before presenting Brook with a solution in the form of scribbled diagrams and notes. Although Golden could not finish all the software before the publication of the first RILM issue, he successfully completed the programming for the crucial author and subject indexes. Soon after, a fully functional set of programs was up and running, including a custom-built, oversized keyboard that featured four different fonts, all possible accents, compound letters, foreign symbols, and even musical notation. Given that most keyboards at the time only supported capital letters and a single font, the creation of this keyboard was a remarkable feat. It also allowed for editing to be done directly on the computer screen, eliminating the need to sift through complex codes.
