How did we get here from there? Reminiscing on the early days of library automation

My title is an allusion to that old country joke — If I were going there, I wouldn't start from here. Perhaps it should have been: How did I get here from there? Why should I have been given the honour, and the pleasure, of addressing this distinguished company? It is an honour because we are celebrating the coming‐of‐age of a major professional journal and that is a notable event. It is a pleasure, because this is a gathering of friends; some here will remember that twenty one years ago audiences were not always friendly. I spent many years as the Wild Man from Southampton who wanted everyone to go into automation and claimed that it worked. Suddenly about six years ago I was turned into an elder statesman, over the hill and past his best, but a good type to be sent abroad to try to save our colleagues in the Third World from the mistakes we made twenty years ago, or to address gatherings that are more social than, shall we say, technical. I need hardly add that I preferred my role as the Wild Man, or, as I would put it, a pioneer in the application of modern techniques to library management and information handling.