Skip to content
BY-NC-ND 3.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter June 28, 2013

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

  • Patryk Wasiak EMAIL logo
From the journal Human Affairs

Abstract

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.

[1] Ardis, A., Collier, P. (Eds.). (2008). Transatlantic Print Culture, 1880–1940: Emerging Media, Emerging Modernisms. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230228450Search in Google Scholar

[2] Barbrook, R. (2007). Imaginary Futures. From Thinking Machines to the Global Village. London and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press. Search in Google Scholar

[3] Bateman, S. (1986). New Technologies. The Converging Digital Universe, Compute!, 1986, April, 20. Search in Google Scholar

[4] Bourne, C., Hahn, T. (2003). A History of Online Information Services, 1963–1976. Cambridge and London: MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/3543.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

[5] Campbell-Kelly, M. (2003). From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. Cambridge: MIT Press. Search in Google Scholar

[6] CDTV Catalog of Titles, Vol. 1 (1991). Commodore Electronics Ltd., place unknown. Search in Google Scholar

[7] Dane, J. (2011). Out of Sorts. On Typography and Print Culture. Oxford and Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 10.9783/9780812203639Search in Google Scholar

[8] Dant, T. (1999). Material Culture in the Social Worlds. Values, Activities, Lifestyles. Buckingham: Open University Press 1999. Search in Google Scholar

[9] Deibert, R. J. (1997). Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order Transformation. New York: Columbia University Press. Search in Google Scholar

[10] Finkelstein, D., McCleery, A. (2005). An Introduction to Book History. New York and London: Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

[11] Forester, T. (1988). High-tech Society: The Story of the Information Technology Revolution. Cambridge and London: MIT Press. Search in Google Scholar

[12] Foster, E. (1985a). CD-ROM: Megabytes into Minispace, InfoWorld, 1987, September 23, 27–29. Search in Google Scholar

[13] Foster, E. (1985b). Grolier Puts Works on CD-ROM, InfoWorld, 1985, July 29, 22. Search in Google Scholar

[14] Free, J. (1991). Multimedia. Popular Science, December 1991, 92–96, 122. Search in Google Scholar

[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. Search in Google Scholar

[16] Hall, D. (1996). Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Search in Google Scholar

[17] Hawkins, W. (1990). CD Libraries: New Power for Home PCs. Popular Science, May 1990, 75–78. Search in Google Scholar

[18] Hoard, B. (1996). A Microsoft-centric Walk Down Memory Lane, Computerworld, 1996, September 30, 33. Search in Google Scholar

[19] Jones, S. (Ed.) (2003). Encyclopedia of New Media: An Essential Reference to Communication and Technology. London: Sage Publications. 10.4135/9781412950657Search in Google Scholar

[20] Kilgour, F. (1998). The Evolution of the Book. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Search in Google Scholar

[21] Krajewski, M. (2011). Paper Machines. About Cards & Catalogs, 1548–1929. London and Cambridge: MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015899.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

[22] Krantz, L. (1994). The CD-ROMs Rated: A Guide to the Best & Worst CD-ROMs & Multimedia Titles. New York: McGraw-Hill. Search in Google Scholar

[23] Ludovico, A. (2012). Post-digital Print — The Mutation of Publishing since 1894. Amsterdam: Onomatopee. Search in Google Scholar

[24] McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Search in Google Scholar

[25] Morley, D. (2007). Media, Modernity and Technology. The Geography of the New. London and New York: Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

[26] Pohlmann, K. (2001[1989]). The Compact Disk Handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Search in Google Scholar

[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. Search in Google Scholar

[28] Robertson, F. (2013). Print Culture: From Steam Press to Ebook. London: Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

[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. Search in Google Scholar

[30] Welch, M. (1986). CR-ROM Makers Say Standards Top Priority List, InfoWorld, 1986, March 10, 8. Search in Google Scholar

[31] Samuel, L. R. (2009). Future. A Recent History. Austin: University of Texas Press. 10.7560/719149Search in Google Scholar

[32] Sands, O. and Wallace L. R. (1990). Multimedia is the Message, Amiga World, 1990, February, 22–24. Search in Google Scholar

[33] Schlicting, M. (1993). Behind the Scenes at Broderbund’s Living Books, http://silicon-valley.siggraph.org/MeetingNotes/LivingBooks.html. Search in Google Scholar

[34] Striphas, T. (2009). The Late Age of Print, Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control. New York: Columbia University Press. Search in Google Scholar

[35] Tufte, E. (1997). Visual Explanations. Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Chesire: Graphics Press. Search in Google Scholar

[36] Winston, B. (1998). Media, Technology, Society. A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. London and New York: Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2013-6-28
Published in Print: 2013-7-1

© 2013 Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Downloaded on 30.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13374-013-0135-3/html
Scroll to top button