Bolter's Hope for Alexandria

In “The Electronic Book,” the fifth chapter of Writing Space, Jay David Bolter presents the history of how various technological forms of writing, from the earliest forms of papyrus rolls to the evolving processes of codices, illuminated manuscripts, and paged books, affected their structural organization and their conception as complete and closed structures.  With the advent of new electronic books that add immediacy with links to other texts, forms or devices, Bolter argues the idea of a book is being refashioned from a closed to an open structure.

Bolter further argues that the open structures of electronic books that synthesize or add knowledge through links are more similar in function to the way encyclopedias or libraries are structured.  Both represent the desire to collect all knowledge into a single space—encyclopedias functioning to condense knowledge—and libraries functioning to amass knowledge.  They attempt to make verbal knowledge accessible by organization and control.  And Bolter presents a thorough history and analysis of their evolving forms as an analogy to understanding the changing nature of electronic books.

Encyclopedias

Bolter recounts the history of encyclopedias that evolved to control knowledge in periods of both textual scarcity and abundance.  Encyclopedic order was an attempt to capture and summarize the important authoritative texts and to make them available to a larger audience.  As knowledge became widely available, the encyclopedia also performed a bibliographic function that made them more manageable. 

The history and rationale of encyclopedia organization from earlier associative hierarchical and topical order to the later neutral alphabetizing and indexing order is presented.  Most importantly in the electronic form, the encyclopedia merges the two historical forms of order into a system of references that include both the alphabetical as well as the associative topical or outline of ideas.  Including the distributed nature of the internet, the electronic encyclopedia presents a view of knowledge as changing collection of ideas.

Libraries

Bolter then relates the way libraries control knowledge by collecting books or texts into one conceptual or physical space, and he describes their organizing principles as being developed for utilitarian purposes.  Their call system is organized topically but is more widely known as a library shelf address.  The computer catalogue re-orders the structure into subject, title, and etc.  And they are becoming hybrids of both print and electronic forms.  Bolter argues the physical space is still relevant as the shelf allows browsing relationally, while the library itself serves as a monument to preservation of a public writing space.

As libraries become more digitized there are collections of full-text databases organized by communities with shared interests. The future hope of course is the passion for all books being organized into a universal library of Alexandria. Bolter concludes by arguing that digital technologies make libraries and their systems of order more relevant as they make cyberspace navigable and inhabitable. He sees the idea of the book as the metaphor for man’s knowledge as fundamentally evolving to include multiple and developing relationships.