When the Institute of Information Scientists was founded in 1958 the Internet was still germinating in the Cold War bunkers of the ARPANET, the seventeen‐year old Pele was performing his magic in the World Cup in Sweden, and librarians were still recording bits of information on 5 by 3 index cards. The 40th Anniversary Conference of the Institute which took place at the University of Sheffield from 8–11 July 1998 took place with the Net ubiquitous (well, at least in the English‐speaking countries), with Ronaldo leading the line for Brazil, and with Information Scientists confronting opportunities to remake themselves as the cutting‐edge ‘knowledge managers’ of the corporate world.