Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload ca. 1550-1700

Journal of the History of Ideas 64 (1):11 (2003)
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Abstract

This article surveys some of the ways in which early modern scholars responded to what they perceived as an overabundance of books. In addition to owning more books and applying selective judgment as well as renewed diligence to their reading and note-taking, scholars devised shortcuts, sometimes based on medieval antecedents. These shortcuts included the use of the alphabetical index, whether printed or handmade, to read a book in parts, and the use of reference books, amanuenses, abbreviations, or the cutting and pasting from printed or manuscript sources to save time and effort in note-taking.

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Citations of this work

Natural history and information overload: The case of Linnaeus.Staffan Müller-Wille & Isabelle Charmantier - 2012 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (1):4-15.
Medizinische Loci communes: Formen und Funktionen einer ärztlichen Aufzeichnungspraxis im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert.Michael Stolberg - 2013 - NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin 21 (1):37-60.
The nature of the glut.Nick Levine - 2017 - History of the Human Sciences 30 (1):32-49.

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