Cuneiform to Computer - Hardcover

Katz, William A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810832909 ISBN 13: 9780810832909

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 1998

Synopsis

Cuneiform to Computer provides a brief history of how reference works developed, but concentrates on how they reflect attitudes of their particular period of publication. Each chapter focuses on a basic reference form and highlights the major titles in its evolution. Stress is on the inter-relationship of reference sources with social change and development.

About this title

About the Author

William A. Katz is Professor at the School of Information Science and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany. He is editor of The Reference Librarian and The Acquisitions Librarian. He is also editor of Magazines for Libraries and has compiled a second edition of The Columbia Granger's Guide to Poetry Anthologies, as well as the seventh edition of his Introduction to Reference Work.

Reviews

Although not a reference book in the strict sense, Katz's survey of the evolution of reference sources through the ages is fascinating reading for anyone interested in this aspect of library science. Organizing his discussion under the usual reference source types--encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, handbooks, atlases, and so on--Katz demonstrates how "the history of reference books parallels both intellectual and technological developments from those first cuneiform tablets and papyrus rolls to the present-day digital databases."

Edition details

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810832909
• ISBN 13: 9780810832909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 440