Its mission was to advance knowledge in the field of information science, and to represent its member societies in international forums.
AFIPS represented these societies in the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), formed a year earlier under the auspices of UNESCO.
[1] In 1962, AFIPS took over sponsorship of the EJCC and WJCC and renamed them the Spring (SJCC) and Fall Joint Computer Conferences (FJCC).
AFIPS also sponsored smaller conferences such as the Office Automation Conference, published the Annals of the History of Computing and other magazines, and presented an annual award—the Harry Goode Memorial Award—recognizing outstanding achievement in information processing.
The conferences featured technical sessions and exhibits relating to the field of information processing.