A History of Information Storage and RetrievalThroughout history, humans have sought ways not only to acquire but to preserve knowledge. From when to plant crops to who begat whom, even the earliest people worked to gather and store information. Today, computers and other technologies have almost completely changed the world of information access and storage. This history traces the development of knowledge-collecting from early humans, whose minds served as repositories of culture and lore, through the first libraries and encyclopedias, to the many advances of the twentieth century. Ironically it is with these latest advances that the preservation of knowledge has foundered. For example, CD-ROMs can last no doubt for decades--but the software programs that run them will not, because they are constantly being upgraded. Both well-known and obscure pieces of the information story are explored in this work. From Diderot's encyclopedia, to anonymous librarians of the ancient world, the people who created information storage systems and the systems themselves are all presented. Fully indexed. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
2 The Greeks Had a Word for It | 13 |
3 Gifts from Asia | 21 |
4 The Early Accumulation of Books | 29 |
5 Medieval Scholarship | 37 |
6 The Printing Revolution | 46 |
7 The Uses and Abuses of the Bible | 57 |
13 The Strange History of the Britannica | 110 |
14 Modern Encyclopedias Worldwide | 120 |
15 Modern American Encyclopedias | 130 |
16 The Growth of Libraries | 140 |
17 The Complexity of Learning | 149 |
18 Entering the Computer Age | 159 |
19 The New World of Hypertext | 168 |
20 Using the Great Electronic Encyclopedia | 177 |
8 Insight Paradigms and Prejudice | 65 |
9 Bacon and the New Outlook | 75 |
10 Diderot Banned | 84 |
11 Organizing Knowledge | 93 |
12 Coleridge Encyclopedist of the Romantic Movement | 102 |
General Encyclopedias Published in English | 187 |
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Common terms and phrases
alphabet American ancient animals Aristotle arranged arts Bacon became Bible Cassiodorus CD-ROM century Chinese church clopedia Coleridge collection compiled completed contained d’Alembert Denis Diderot designed developed di›erent di‡cult Dictionary Diderot disks e›ect edition editor electronic ency encyclo Encyclopaedia Metropolitana encyclopedia England English Ephraim Chambers eventually example fact Francis Bacon French God’s Greek human hypertext ideas images included InfoSeek Internet Isadore of Seville Jules Cardinal Mazarin knowledge language later Latin learning logic London machine medieval memory method mind modern National nature never o›er O‡ce one’s Pantisocracy pedia Pergamum person philosophers Pierre Bayle printed problem published reader reference religious retrieval Roman scholars scientific scrolls search engines sections Southy Ted Nelson things tion translated Universal volumes words writing written wrote York