Page 91 - Virtual Research Lab flip book

presentation by the New York Times, which used so many features of the In- ternet, was marvelously effective.
In reviewing the differences between reading interactive web pages and the traditional printed codex we must consider the multiplicity of ways that printed codices are read. For example, when I read a novel, typically I will read it from one end to another. Sometimes I turn back to prior pages that I have read to refresh my memory of what happened, but the process is basically one-directional. On the other hand, when I use a cookbook, or some other reference book, typically I search the table of contents or the index for what I want and read that section or related sections. This does not mean that anyone can’t read a cookbook from cover to cover. I am sure that some people enjoy reading a complete cookbook, but that is usually not my preference. As you might imagine, creating HistoryofInformation.com required a great deal of reading both online and on paper, and as this project has unfolded, it has been my pleasure to collect and read hundreds of books on the history of media, nearly all of which are non-fiction. Some of these printed books I use as reference books from which I read portions relevant to a specific topic, usually placing a bookmark at the relevant locations for future reference. Other physical books I read from cover to cover. However, the way that I read them may depend on several factors, usually based on the ways that these books are organized. For examples I will cite two different books on the history of media that I read from cover to cover. My goals in each of them were basically the same—to find information and references that I could use to improve and expand the database and these essays. The first of these works is the superb book by Ann M. Blair entitled Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age, published by Yale University Press in 2010. This is a book of 397 pages, of which approximate- ly the final one-third (pp. 269-397) consists of footnotes, bibliographies of primary and secondary sources, and an index. There is an introduction and five chapters. Each of the five chapters has about 200 footnotes, so that all together there are about 1000 footnotes in this work. Whenever possible I try to cite primary sources as well as relevant secondary sources in the da-
91