Watson Davis formed the
Documentation Institute in 1935, which became the
American Documentation Institute (ADI) on 13 March 1937 with the collaboration of
Atherton Seidell and others. The organization was first concerned with
microfilm and its role as a vehicle for the dissemination of information. ADI worked toward the development of microfilm readers and cameras. Their first microfilm laboratories were located in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Library in Washington, DC and the Institute distributed materials through the newly created Bibliofilm Service. ADI established the Auxiliary Publication Program, which during its 30-year history released nearly 10,000 documents covering a wide range of subjects. The program enabled authors in the fields of physical, natural, social, historical and information sciences to publish and distribute research papers that were either too long, typographically complex or expensive to be published in journals using existing technology. In 1954, the Photoduplication Service at the
Library of Congress took over the operation and became the source point for distributing ADI materials and in 2009 this material found its home in the Library's Technical Reports and Standards Unit. ADI bylaws were amended in 1952 to allow individuals to become members due to the number of people that were engaged in the development of new principles and techniques. The goal was to make ADI a group that was concerned with all elements and problems of information science not just libraries. During this time there were increased interests and developments of automatic devices for searching, storage and retrieval. == Mission ==