Too much to know
Subtitle: managing scholarly information before the modern age
By: Ann M. Blair
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 397
ISBN-13: 9780300112511; 9780300165395
Description: The flood of information brought to us by advancing technology is often accompanied by a distressing sense of 'information overload', yet this experience is not unique to modern times. In fact, says Ann Blair in this intriguing book, the invention of the printing press and the ensuing abundance of books provoked sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European scholars to register complaints very similar to our own. The author examines methods of information management in ancient and medieval Europe as well as the Islamic world and China, then focuses particular attention on the organization, composition, and reception of Latin reference books in print in early modern Europe. She explores in detail the sophisticated and sometimes idiosyncratic techniques that scholars and readers developed in an era of new technology and exploding information.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Information management in comparative perspective; title: Note-taking as information management; title: Reference genres and their finding devices; title: Compilers, their motivations and methods; title: The impact of early printed reference books.