|
|
Timeline is to scale from 500BCE to 1900 CE.
X axis is exponential
Several interesting observations about the data:
The Library at Alexandria was an extraordinary phenomenon and anomaly. While seriously damaged with considerable loss of documents at least twice, it set a standard of size that was not equaled in the Western world for over 1600 years.
The invention of the printing press with movable type by Gutenberg had obvious effects on amount of information available.
(Invention of the World Wide Web: see observation above.)
Hobson, Anthony. Great Libraries. NY: Putnam, 1970.
Greg Notess, "Search Engine Showdown: The Users' Guide to Web Searching.," http://notess.com/search/.
Library of Congress Statistics, http://www.loc.gov/today/fascinate.html#STATS [Online May 2002].
Manguel, Alberto, A History of Reading, NY: Viking, 1996.
Parsons, Edward Alexander. The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World; Its Rise, Antiquities, and Destruction. NY: American Elsevier, 1967.
Presented at Asilomar, Monterey California, Biennial California
Academic & Research Librarians (CARL) Conference
May 10 2002.
N.Fielden
SFSU
May 2002