Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xv
Preface xvii
Chapter 1 A Is for Antiquity
From the Beginning to the Classical World 1
Chapter 2 B Is for the Benedictines
The Monasteries and the Early Middle Ages 27
Chapter 3 C Is for Categories
Authorities and Organization, to the Twelfth Century 43
Chapter 4 D Is for Distinctions
The High Middle Ages and the Search Too! 71
Chapter 5 E Is for Expansion
The Reference Work in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 91
Chapter 6 F Is for Firsts
From the Birth of Printing to Library Catalogs in the Fifteenth to Sixteenth Centuries 105
Chapter 7 G Is for Government
Bureaucracy and the Office, from the Sixteenth Century to the French Revolution 131
Chapter 8 H Is for History
Libraries, Research, and Extracting in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 167
Chapter 9 I Is for Index Cards
From Copy Clerks to Office Supplies in the Nineteenth Century 197
Chapter 10 Y Is for Y2K
From the Phone Book to Hypertext in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries 221
Timeline 237
Bibliography 243
Notes 265
Index 301
Photo section appears after page 166
