nothing new under the sun

[anotheranon]

What do Elizabethan fencing treatises have to do with programming? Rather a lot, surprisingly - or not, as the discipline of of naming and organizing knowledge to make it easier to understand and use wasn't the invention of Victorian-age librarians.

I admit a particular affection for the link above (swords AND software!) but it's just an extension of my nascent interest in information organization/retrieval beyond the web/digital realm. I've been working with the latter for years but only of late have I started investigating the history of how people get data and organize it into something meaningful/useful. My latest reading on this is Alex Wright's Glut which demonstrates that there have always been ways and means, even when they aren't obvious to modern observers.

Food for thought...

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Cool!

Didja know that the earliest-known-to-us school for teaching standardized organization and retrieval of information (aka the first library school) was founded by Hammurabi?

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Did not know that, but given Hammurabi's codification of law, that he was organized about other things is no surprise.

I know that what I typed above probably isn't news to you or anyone else who's actually studied library science, but to me it's damn interesting.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

And your perspectives and discoveries help keep me looking at what I do from new angles ... whenever you share your discoveries, you're a part of what helps me stay flexible and adaptable in my profession. To be really good at cataloguing, one has to be able to see it simultaneously from the inside (the rules, the software, the standardizations that codify and organize the info) and from the outside (how users/patrons/new learners and explorers look for and use that info) ... because no two people see or think alike, maintaining as many continuously changing perspectives as possible is an essential part of the job.

And you keep finding such wonderful stuff ... I shared the Elizabethan programming link with our IT wizard 'cause I knew he'd like it, and "Glut" is now on my to-read list. :-)