The Ian P. Sharp Lecture an Information Science was established in 1990 with an endowment from Reuters Information Services (Canada) Limited in honour of its founding president and former chief executive officer The lectureship is intended to provide a forum for distinguished figures in information science and related fields. I.P. Sharp Associates, one of the world's leading numeric database companies, was founded by Ian P. Sharp and seven colleagues. The Canadian company soon expanded establishing a timesharing service and pioneering the use of electronic mail in 1976, the company installed its own private, packet-switched network, and today it supplies the world's major financial and economic centres with historical information and financial products. In June 1987, I.P. Sharp Associates was acquired by Reuter Holdings PLC of London, the world's largest electronic publisher. Dr. Garfield, the fourth I.P. Sharp lecturer, delivered the address that follows at the University of Toronto on April 8, 1993. He was introduced by his longtime colleague Professor Charles Meadow, Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Toronto.