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

Bibliographic Data

ID5306147
AuthorsAnn Blair (0000-0002-2912-0140, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume64
Issue1
Pages11-28
Publication date2003-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jhi.2003.0014
OpenAlexW4253135597
LanguageEN
Citations received11

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

Art · Coping (psychology) · Diligence · Due diligence · Index (typography) · Information overload · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Reading (process) · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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