[WEB4LIB] Re: "books on the floor" metaphore

[kliss at hbs.edu]

A couple of venerable Net figures -- Ed Krol and Mitch Kapor -- were quoted
along these lines in late 1992 (see below), but I bet someone can find it
earlier.

"What we had was a library where all the books were dumped on the floor and
there was no card catalogue," Ed Krol, author of "The Hitchhikers Guide to
the Internet," said. "Now there's a card catalogue and people are starting
to put the books on the shelves." 
-- "Getting up to speed on the computer highway," by Joshua Quittner,
Newsday, November 3, 1992

Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corp. who is now head of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that "seeks to develop public
policies to maximize the social potential of new computer and
communications technologies," likened Internet to a library where all the
books are dumped on the floor in no particular order. 
-- "Arctic one small step for Internet users," by Robert E. Calem, New York
Times News Service, Globe and Mail, December 9, 1992

=====================
Ken Liss
Editor, HBS Working Knowledge
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu
kliss at hbs.edu
617-496-6862
=====================

>Hanan, I included the quote in the Libraries FAQ,
>http://www.geocities.com/awilson57/sect8.htm , and I have also tried to
>track down the author:
>
>According to Copernicus http://www.copernicus.win-uk.net/quotes.htm :
>
>"It's like being in a library where someone has scattered all the books on
>the floor, attached them together with threads and you are in the dark."
>MorningSide, CBC Radio, May 1995
>
>
>But then again it may be the ALA:
>http://wings.buffalo.edu/nursing/dl/distedu4.htm
>
>Or Patrick Casey (Associated Press, Oklahoma City):
>http://www.sfdrs.ch/linkpage/suche/  &
>http://ajr.newslink.org/web/intro.html
>
>Or Anonymous: http://www.gananda.k12.ny.us/library/mshslibrary/LIBQTE1.HTM
>
>> On the opening page, I want to write : "The internet is the biggest
>library in
>> the world with all the books on the floor".
>>
>> Does anyone know to whom can I credit this saying to ?
>
>