Already a subject of significant scholarly attention by historians and other social scientists, biotechnology has developed over the last two decades in the wake of recombinant DNA techniques. Biotechnology has played and continues to play an important role in medical therapy, crop development, and human gene mapping, as well as in developing laboratory instrumentation and computer programs widely used in biological research. Biotechnology companies have been at the hub of changing relationships between academia and industry, and they are publicly visible as stock market investments, in patent disputes, and in controversies over genetic testing and DNA fingerprinting.

California is the home for almost one-third of the biotechnology companies in the United States. A recent report calls California medical centers "the seedbed of the state's health care technology industry" with one-third crediting a California research university with playing a central role in their creation and growth. The UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management has established a Biotechnology Archives to document the contributions of the University of California, San Francisco to the growth and development of the biotechnology industry. Preserving contemporary records is critical in light of the explosive growth of biotechnology and the rapid diffusion of knowledge from academia to industry.