Library and information science in fiction
Where is the life
we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom
we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge
we have lost in information?
T. S. Eliot, "Choruses", Chorus 1
from "The Rock", 1934
Fiction writers have produced inspiring ideas and metaphors which have influenced Library and Information Science (LIS). Among the most famous are: H. G. Wells (1866-1946) who (in 1938) produced the world brain metaphor, the librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) who (in 1941) wrote "La biblioteca de Babel", "the library in Babel") and Umberto Eco (born 1932) who (in 1980) wrote "Il Nome della rosa" ("the name of the rose").
Literature:
Borges, J. L.
(1941) El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (The Garden of Forking
Paths). That entire book was included within his Ficciones (1944). (Two
English translations appeared in 1962, one by James E. Irby in a collection of
Borges' works entitled Labyrinths and the other by Anthony Kerrigan as
part of a collaborative translation of Ficciones; Danish edition: Fiktioner,
pp. 77-86: "Biblioteket
i Babel").
Borges, J. L. (1977). The Book of Sand. 1st ed. New York : Dutton. (Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni from "Libro de arena). (Pp. 87-91: "The Book of Sand).
Draper, Hal (1953). Ms Fnd in a Lbry. (From Groff Conklin (ed): 17 x infinity.
New York: Adell-publ. Comp., pp. 52-58).
Eco, U. (1980). Il Nome della rosa. English
translation: The name of the rose. San Diego : Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1983. Danish translation: Rosens navn. København: Forum, 1984.
Gibson, William (1984). "Neuromancer" (Introduced the term cyberspace).
Jensen, Johannes V. (1956). Bøgernes Bjerg. København: Bogvennen. (Essay til Gutenberg-jubilæet i 1940)
Lasswitz, K. (1901). Die Universalbibliotek. English translation, "The Universal Library", IN: Great Science Fiction Stories by the World's Great Scientists. (Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh, eds.). D. I. Fine, 1985.
Toffler, A. (1979). Future Shock. London: Longman.
Wells, H. G. (1938). World Brain. London: Methuen.
Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2006). The library of Babel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
See also: Forecasts in information science;
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 22-10-2006