Glut
Subtitle: Mastering Information Through the Ages
By: Alex Wright
Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9780309102384
Subjects: Information; Classificaties; Information organization; Information storage and retrieval systems; Information society; Informationsgesellschaft; Information retrieval; Informationssystem; Geschichte; Wissensorganisation; History; Informationsverarbeitung
Description: "Spanning disciplines from evolutionary theory and cultural anthropology to the history of books, libraries, and computer science, Wright weaves a narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the World Wide Web. Finally, he pulls these threads together to reach a surprising conclusion, suggesting that the future of the information age may lie deep in our cultural past."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-269) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction -- -- 1.; title: Networks and hierarchies -- -- 2.; title: Family trees and the tree of life -- -- 3.; title: The ice age information explosion -- -- 4.; title: The age of alphabets -- -- 5.; title: Illuminating the dark age -- -- 6.; title: A steam engine of the mind -- -- 7.; title: The astral power station -- -- 8.; title: The encyclopedic revolution -- -- 9.; title: The moose that roared -- -- 10.; title: The industrial library -- -- 11.; title: The Web that wasn't -- -- 12.; title: Memories of the future --; title: Appendixes -- -- A.; title: John Wilkins's universal categories -- -- B.; title: Thomas Jefferson's 1783 catalog of books -- -- C.; title: The Dewey decimal system -- -- D.; title: S.R. Ranganathan's colon classification --; title: Acknowledgments --; title: Notes --; title: Index.