[Web4lib] Gutenberg Parenthesis

[Robert Balliot]

Ptolemy III had a standing order that visitors coming to Alexandria would
surrender written works so that copies could be made for the library.  With
subsequent fires, permanence was not granted to those collections.  But,
potential readership at least doubled.

Google has a standing order to accumulate books from wherever they might
obtain them so copies can be made for that digital library. It is
unclear what would lead to impermanence of those collections.  Potential
readership is unlimited.

Kings and Dominant Corporations. Mobile Ships as vessels of information and
Libraries with Interlibrary Loan.  Sanskrit and Hexidecimal.    Ideas and
Ideas.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com



On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 3:37 PM, <IsisInform at aol.com> wrote:

>
> Thanks for sharing this article, Robert.
>
> In the opening to Section 2, the authors define clay tablets  as books.  If
> a clay tablet can be defined as a book, so can a  single web page.
>
> Rather than the object, a more instructive view is the  method.  It is the
> method of inscription that leads to cultural  change.  Here writing itself
> is the primary invention beginning with  handwritten communication (clay
> tablets through monastic bibles) and continuing  to printed and then to
> digital
> material.
>
> Prior to handwriting, communication was oral and therefore unrecorded, its
> audience limited to those within the sound of a voice.  Handwritten
> objects can be read more than once, so the invention of  writing added
> permanence
> and increased the  audience.  Printing allowed the production of identical
> written  objects, again increasing the audience.  The more there is  to
> read,
> the more there are people who want to read and to write.  So  printing also
> led to literacy and increased the audience and the  authors.
>
> Digital continues this process, increasing audience,  increasing authors,
> and adding  revisability.  We insert our own thoughts as easily as we
> delete.  More ephemeral than a clay tablet, the digital  medium sacrifices
> permanence for the ability to change  everything.
>
>
> Katherine  Bertolucci
> Isis Information Services
> _katherine at isisinform.com_ (mailto:katherine at isisinform.com)
> _www.isisinblog.typepad.com_ (http://www.isisinblog.typepad.com/)
> _www.isisinform.com_ (http://www.isisinform.com/)
>
>
>
> In a message dated 11/22/2010 10:04:21 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
> web4lib-request at webjunction.org writes:
>
> Send  Web4lib mailing list submissions to
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message:  1
> Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 13:34:07 -0500
> From: "Robert L. Balliot"  <rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com>
> Subject: [Web4lib] Gutenberg  Parenthesis
> To: <publib at webjunction.org>,  <web4lib at webjunction.org>
> Message-ID:  <E8A98BD04B5943B7BF0374CC1CCFAB1A at junior>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="us-ascii"
>
> Excellent position paper on the culture of the  book:
>
> Gutenberg  Parenthesis
> <
> http://www.sdu.dk/Om_SDU/Institutter_centre/Ilkm/Forskning/Forskningsprojek
> ter/Gutenberg_projekt/PositionPaper<http://www.sdu.dk/Om_SDU/Institutter_centre/Ilkm/Forskning/Forskningsprojekter/Gutenberg_projekt/PositionPaper>
> >
>
> Jeff Jarvis (author of What Would Google Do?) discusses this in  the
> Huffington Post today in Who says our way is the right  way?
> <
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/who-says-our-way-is-the-r_b_78653
> 4.html<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/who-says-our-way-is-the-r_b_786534.html>
> >
>
> *************************************************
> Robert L.  Balliot
> Skype: RBalliot
> Bristol, Rhode  Island
> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
> *************************************************
>
>
>
>
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