SKU: 69253304437

Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age

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Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information AgeThe dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius.

In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Paul Otlet, a librarian by training, worked at expanding the potential of the catalog card, the world's first information chip. From there followed universal libraries and museums, connecting his native Belgium to the world by means of a vast intellectual enterprise that attempted to organize and code everything ever published. Forty years before the first personal computer and fifty years before the first browser, Otlet envisioned a network of "electric telescopes" that would allow people everywhere to search through books, newspapers, photographs, and recordings, all linked together in what he termed, in 1934, a reseau mondial--essentially, a worldwide web.

Otlet's life achievement was the construction of the Mundaneum--a mechanical collective brain that would house and disseminate everything ever committed to paper. Filled with analog machines such as telegraphs and sorters, the Mundaneum--what some have called a "Steampunk version of hypertext"--was the embodiment of Otlet's ambitions. It was also short-lived. By the time the Nazis, who were pilfering libraries across Europe to collect information they thought useful, carted away Otlet's collection in 1940, the dream had ended. Broken, Otlet died in 1944.

Wright's engaging intellectual history gives Otlet his due, restoring him to his proper place in the long continuum of visionaries and pioneers who have struggled to classify knowledge, from H.G. Wells and Melvil Dewey to Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee, and Steve Jobs. Wright shows that in the years since Otlet's death the world has witnessed the emergence of a global network that has proved him right about the possibilities--and the perils--of networked information, and his legacy persists in our digital world today, captured for all time.



Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/01/2014
ISBN: 9780199931415
Pages: 350
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 1.20d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2014
Publishers Weekly 04/21/2014
Choice 12/01/2014 pg. 654
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SKU: 69253304437

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J Clemence
Belleville, US
★★★★★ 5
Great resource for keeping up biblical language skills
Format: Hardcover, Format: Hardcover
I am excited to have purchased this book. I graduated from seminary over a decade ago, and I have definitely lost a lot of my proficiency with Greek and Hebrew. I have been looking for something to help get back into the flow of things, and this just might be it. The book contains both the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, which makes it several inches thick. On the plus side, the whole Bible is there in one book. However, it's not as portable as I'd like it to be. But that is the only downside I've discovered so far. The pages and hard over are of really good quality--they just feel good in your hands. The Hebrew and Greek fonts used are very readable, better than my critical editions. Some other reviewers have commented negatively on the yellow paper, but it hasn't been an issue with me. (Your results may vary.) The text itself has footnotes with quick definitions for all infrequent words (occurring <100x for Hebrew, <30x for Greek), so you don't have to look up that one word in the passage that, as it turns out, is a hapax legomenon or something. Each Testament also has a short lexicon with quick definitions for every word not defined in the footnotes. So in theory you should be able to look up any word quickly and easily just with this book. As an added bonus, infrequently occurring names in the Hebrew Bible are indicated in a light grey font, so again, you can quickly see that it's a name instead of getting frustrated trying to translate it as a regular noun. One word about usage: This is not an "academic" book per se. That is, you're not going to be able to do detailed word studies or compare manuscript variants with this book. Even the definitions are just quick glosses, meant to get you down the road, not to provide technical etymological information. The purpose of this book is to help you read and familiarize yourself with the original-language text, or, like me, to keep your language skills sharp. And I believe that it will do this well.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2020
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Bridget A. Trotter
New York, US
★★★★★ 5
Works well
Format: Hardcover
Great study tool
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Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2025
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A Writer and the Word
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 4
An Great Upgrade from the Previous Edition, but a bit yellow
Format: Hardcover, Format: Hardcover
The Zondervan Greek/Hebrew Reader's has been a classic for students of biblical languages, who desire a full biblical text (WLC for OT/Eclectic text (NIV) for NT) with the helps and assist of a Reader's edition. The first edition (black, bonded leather) has been a mainstay for a number of years. This new release (second edition) updates a few things from the previous edition. The second edition comes in a cloth-bound hardcover, which is an upgrade in my opinion from the previous editions bonded leather cover. The cover provides structure to the updated and improved binding. The fonts have been updated across the board, they are bolder and easier to read. This editions brings a lot of great updates and improvements on the first edition. Unfortunately, the glosses provided at the bottom of each page are organized in paragraph form, rather than in columns (UBS5), which makes it a bit difficult to find the footnote number and word you're searching for. Another big change is the paper color. The first edition had a bright white paper, the second edition is a deep creamy yellow paper. While I'm a fan of how readable this edition is (due to font changes), I feel the paper is way too yellow than it should be. (check pics see the difference). All in all, if you can deal with the yellow paper, this is a fantastic edition to have for reading in the biblical languages. **bible graciously provided by Zondervan for an honest review
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020
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Stephen Mathews
Battle Creek, US
★★★★★ 5
Very nice
Format: Hardcover
They greatly improved the font (ie. a kappa looks like a kappa) and the yellowish pages are easier on the eyes. I really like it.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2021
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Jason
Louisville, US
★★★★★ 5
Excellent quality, great readability
Format: Hardcover
Great for reading. No complaints here.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2022

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