The Aslib Cranfield Project had its beginning some years back, when several members of the Aslib Aeronautical Group took an active part in the development of a new form of index that had been proposed by the National Aeronautical Institute of Holland. Later we did some tests on the Uniterm system of co-ordinate indexing and, following a joint conference with the Classification Research Group, the idea developed of making a complete test of various indexing systems. A draft programme was prepared and was considered by many people in this country and the United States. An application was made to the National Science Foundation for a grant to cover the first stage of the investigation, and in July 1957 the Foundation advised Aslib that the grant had been approved.