Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload, ca.1550-1700
Citation
Blair, Ann. 2003. Reading strategies for coping with information overload, ca.1550-1700. Journal of the History of Ideas 64, no. 1: 11-28.Abstract
This article surveys some of the ways in which early modern scholars responded to what they perceived as an overabundance of books. In addition to owning more books and applying selective judgment as well as renewed diligence to their reading and note-taking, scholars devised shortcuts, sometimes based on medieval antecedents. These shortcuts included the use of the alphabetical index, whether printed or handmade, to read a book in parts, and the use of reference books, amanuenses, abbreviations, or the cutting and pasting from printed or manuscript sources to save time and effort in note-taking.Other Sources
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2003.0014Terms of Use
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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3228379
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