CD-ROM encyclopedias: Extending the Gutenberg galaxy to include computer multimedia technologies

• Authors: Patryk Wasiak
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of this article is to discuss the “multimedia encyclopedia” genre launched in the 1980s, the era of “the multimedia revolution.” Encyclopedias of this kind were released on CD-ROM by several well-respected encyclopedia publishers and were widely discussed as an innovation which would lead to information and communication technologies extending rather than replacing the Gutenberg Galaxy. While discussing the launch of multimedia encyclopedias I aim to show how the culture of the printed word was perceived in “the information revolution” discourse of the time by relevant cultural intermediaries.

Keywords

EN

encyclopedia; CD-ROM; multimedia, electronic book

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 382-392

Dates

published

2013-07-01

online

2013-06-28

Contributors

author

Patryk Wasiak

• Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

References

• [1] Ardis, A., Collier, P. (Eds.). (2008). Transatlantic Print Culture, 1880–1940: Emerging Media, Emerging Modernisms. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• [2] Barbrook, R. (2007). Imaginary Futures. From Thinking Machines to the Global Village. London and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press. [WoS]
• [3] Bateman, S. (1986). New Technologies. The Converging Digital Universe, Compute!, 1986, April, 20.
• [4] Bourne, C., Hahn, T. (2003). A History of Online Information Services, 1963–1976. Cambridge and London: MIT Press.
• [5] Campbell-Kelly, M. (2003). From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• [6] CDTV Catalog of Titles, Vol. 1 (1991). Commodore Electronics Ltd., place unknown.
• [7] Dane, J. (2011). Out of Sorts. On Typography and Print Culture. Oxford and Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• [8] Dant, T. (1999). Material Culture in the Social Worlds. Values, Activities, Lifestyles. Buckingham: Open University Press 1999.
• [9] Deibert, R. J. (1997). Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order Transformation. New York: Columbia University Press.
• [10] Finkelstein, D., McCleery, A. (2005). An Introduction to Book History. New York and London: Routledge.
• [11] Forester, T. (1988). High-tech Society: The Story of the Information Technology Revolution. Cambridge and London: MIT Press.
• [12] Foster, E. (1985a). CD-ROM: Megabytes into Minispace, InfoWorld, 1987, September 23, 27–29.
• [13] Foster, E. (1985b). Grolier Puts Works on CD-ROM, InfoWorld, 1985, July 29, 22.
• [14] Free, J. (1991). Multimedia. Popular Science, December 1991, 92–96, 122.
• [15] Interview with Gary Kildall. In S. Lammers (1986). Programmers at Work: Interviews with 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry, pp. 56–69. Redmond: Tempus-Microsoft.
• [16] Hall, D. (1996). Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
• [17] Hawkins, W. (1990). CD Libraries: New Power for Home PCs. Popular Science, May 1990, 75–78.
• [18] Hoard, B. (1996). A Microsoft-centric Walk Down Memory Lane, Computerworld, 1996, September 30, 33.
• [19] Jones, S. (Ed.) (2003). Encyclopedia of New Media: An Essential Reference to Communication and Technology. London: Sage Publications.
• [20] Kilgour, F. (1998). The Evolution of the Book. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• [21] Krajewski, M. (2011). Paper Machines. About Cards & Catalogs, 1548–1929. London and Cambridge: MIT Press.
• [22] Krantz, L. (1994). The CD-ROMs Rated: A Guide to the Best & Worst CD-ROMs & Multimedia Titles. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• [23] Ludovico, A. (2012). Post-digital Print - The Mutation of Publishing since 1894. Amsterdam: Onomatopee.
• [24] McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• [25] Morley, D. (2007). Media, Modernity and Technology. The Geography of the New. London and New York: Routledge.
• [26] Pohlmann, K. (2001[1989]). The Compact Disk Handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• [27] Rider, R. (1998). Shaping Information: Mathematics, Computing, and Typography. In T. Lenoir (Ed.). Inscribing Science. Scientific Texts and the Materiality of Communication. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• [28] Robertson, F. (2013). Print Culture: From Steam Press to Ebook. London: Routledge.
• [29] Roszak, T. (1994[1986]). The Cult of Information. A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High-Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and The True Art Of Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• [30] Welch, M. (1986). CR-ROM Makers Say Standards Top Priority List, InfoWorld, 1986, March 10, 8.
• [31] Samuel, L. R. (2009). Future. A Recent History. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• [32] Sands, O. and Wallace L. R. (1990). Multimedia is the Message, Amiga World, 1990, February, 22–24.
• [33] Schlicting, M. (1993). Behind the Scenes at Broderbund’s Living Books, http://silicon-valley.siggraph.org/MeetingNotes/LivingBooks.html.
• [34] Striphas, T. (2009). The Late Age of Print, Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control. New York: Columbia University Press.
• [35] Tufte, E. (1997). Visual Explanations. Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Chesire: Graphics Press.
• [36] Winston, B. (1998). Media, Technology, Society. A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. London and New York: Routledge.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-013-0135-3