Keywords In and Out of Context

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I have a “mind of paper” in that much of what I believe I know is actually based on works I’ve read over the decades. One important influence was the late Raymond McInnis, an academic librarian at Western Washington University, who probably should have been cited as a Continue reading

In chapter 6, I highlighted the gradual transition to “modernity” by noting that: “The diffusion of modern technologies can be tracked by the initial dates in the dictionary for the published use of such neologisms as newspaper (1667), bureaucracy (1759), telegraph (1793), steamship (1819), railroad (1822), analytical engine (1843), telephone (1864), and typewriter (1868), all Continue reading

“On Indexing: The Birth and Early Development of an Idea” by Giancarlo Abbamonte and the late Craig Kallendorf wasn’t published until after my book went to press, so I was unaware of this excellent article on the intellectual history of indexing until recently, when I was casually looking for new citations to the work of Continue reading

Thinking a little further about Niklas Luhmann and his card index file (which is available online here, though mostly in German, and here is an excellent article about it by project director Johannes F.K. Schmidt), I am reminded of Alberto Cevolini’s work on indexing, which continues to intrigue me. I briefly cited his 2014 “Indexing Continue reading