1. The Historical Development of Information Infrastructures and the Dissemination of Knowledge: A Personal Reflection.
- Author
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Rayward, W. Boyd
- Subjects
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INFORMATION superhighway , *INFORMATION science , *RESEARCH libraries , *INFORMATION resources management , *INTERNET - Abstract
The article presents the author's views on the historical development of information infrastructures and the dissemination of knowledge. The author has published a number of historical studies examining utopian schemes for managing knowledge, the evolution of institutionalized or organizational aspects of information infrastructure, and the emergence of what he thinks of as an interdiscipline. The "Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organization" was an initial study of a hitherto neglected figure. A Russian translation of this book was published in 1977 and a Spanish edition in 1996. With the advent of the Internet and the Web, it has become clear how pioneering and important historically the work of Paul Otlet and his colleagues was. It seems yet even more relevant today with the recently announced agreement between Google and a number of research libraries to digitize and make their collections available through the Web. In Information Processing and Management, "Some Schemes for Restructuring and Mobilizing Information in Documents: A Historical Perspective," the author examines the utopian information management ideas of John Dury and Samuel Hartlib.
- Published
- 2005
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