Converging on the Universal Library: From Memex to Googolplex. Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. South Carolina Digital Collections 2006. August 30, 2006. Columbia, SC.

1. Converging on the Universal Library: From Memex to Googolplex Martin R. Kalfatovic Smithsonian Institution Libraries

2. Vast, But Not Infinite

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5. Vast, But Not Infinite “ I assumed you packed the library in 1,000 volume boxes, each box having a capacity of precisely one cubic meter. All space to the farthest known spiral galaxies would not hold the Universal Library. In fact, you would need this volume of space so often that the number of packed universes would be a figure with only some 60 zeros less than the figure for the number of volumes… The figure is not infinite, it is a finite figure.” - Kurd Lasswitz, “The Universal Library.” 1901

6. Vast, But Not Infinite The sum of our collections, libraries, archives, and museums is Vast, but by most practical – and even impractical counting methodologies – it is finite. Vast, but Finite!

10. The Memex In 1945, Vannavar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, outlined the ultimate tool of the near term future, the Memex, in the article “As We May Think”

11. The Memex

12. The Memex Memex images from MouseSite (Stanford University)

13. The Memex

16. Filling the Memex: Digitization Projects Million Book Project

17. Filling the Memex: Digitization Projects Amazon: Search Inside the Book

18. Filling the Memex: Digitization Projects Google Book Search

19. Filling the Memex: Digitization Projects Open Content Alliance

20. Filling the Memex: Digitization Projects Biodiversity Heritage Library

22. Future Shock? Or Death by Snippets! This is … a pretty grisly scenario … Books traditionally have edges: some are rough-cut, some are smooth-cut, and a few, at least at my extravagant publishing house, are even top-stained. In the electronic anthill, where are the edges? The book revolution, which, from the Renaissance on, taught men and women to cherish and cultivate their individuality, threatens to end in a sparkling cloud of snippets

23. Future Shock? Or Death by Snippets! “ Defenders of the book often stress the ‘pleasure of handling books’ as a reason for the continued use. Of course this argument sometimes amounts to little more than an appeal to the bibliophile’s pleasure in handling his possessions” - Geoffrey Nunberg (1993)

24. Future Shock? Or Death by Snippets! “ Some bookes are to bee tasted, others to bee swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. That is, some bookes are to be read only in parts; other to bee read, but not curiously; and some few to bee read wholly, and with diligence and attention” – Francis Bacon (1612)

26. Future Shock? Or Death by Snippets!

27. Memory Institutions

28. Memory Institutions “ And as for the Library (which was linked to its neighbour by a system of passageways whose subtlety would extend almost beyond the possibility of symbolic representation), here there lay mysteries which were greater still. The same Classification was used as in the Museum - the two buildings forming mirror images each of the other …

29. Memory Institutions Each object in the Museum … would have been associated with a book (or several books) in the Library. However, there would also be many books which could not correspond with any exhibit (the natural history of unicorns, for example, or the geometry of round squares) …

30. Memory Institutions The fact that these books greatly outnumber those whose function is to catalogue the exhibits next door means that the overall size of the Library (despite the density of its shelving) is equal to that of its neighbour …. One had then … a perfectly balanced edifice, in which everything which the human mind is capable of inventing or understanding has its place.” - Andrew Crumey, Pfitz (1995)

33. Memory Institutions: Archives Unlike libraries, where the objects, books, can have their content transformed to other media without too much loss of original intent…

34. Memory Institutions: Archives … a manuscript letter, a mimeographed memo, a diary page, loses some of its being when translated to a printed page or a computer screen.

35. Memory Institutions: Archives At the same time, digital project allow for the creation of digital spaces where various archival resources – journals, photographs, contextual essays, video – can be easily brought together in one space

36. Memory Institutions: Archives

37. Memory Institutions: Archives

39. Memory Institutions: Museums

40. Memory Institutions: Museums

41. Memory Institutions: Museums

42. Memory Institutions: Museums 26,000,000 21,000,000 5,000,000 Harvard Univ. Herbarium/Mus. Comp. Zoo. 30,000,000 21,000,000 9,000,000 American Museum of Natural History, New York 58,877,300 50,000,000 8,877,300 Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 60,200,000 55,000,000 5,200,000 Natural History Museum, London 83,000,000 78,500,000 4,500,000 National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC Total Animal Specimens Plant Specimens Institution

43. Memory Institutions: Museums Plant Collection Institution 5,219,216 Missouri Botanical Garden 5,500,000 Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques, Geneva 5,600,000 Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 5,770,000 Komarov Botanical Institute 7,000,000 New York Botanical Garden 7,000,000 Royal Botanical Garden, Kew

44. Total Specimens in top 17 collecting museums and botanical gardens world-wide: 384,166,516 Memory Institutions: Museums Bill Gates' Flower Fly. Eristalis gatesi Thompson . Found in the high montane cloud forests of Costa Rica August 1, 2006 Bill Gates’ net worth: $23.51 Billion

47. What Do You Do With a Million …? One of the key things we need to remember is that whatever we digitize and make available, people will use it in ways we can’t or won’t imagine. People are going to slice, dice, reformat, reuse, repurpose and recreate whatever is out there. This is one of the disturbing things John Updike points out in his essay

48. What Do You Do With a Million …?

49. Factors

50. Factors: Wetware

57. Factors: Networks Broadband over Power Line (BPL) is a new technology that offers a potential competitor to the cable and telecommunications lobbies

60. Factors: Intellectual Property U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

61. Factors: Intellectual Property “ History belongs to everybody. It shouldn’t be locked away in dark rooms,” says Michael Edmonds, deputy administrator of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s library archives division. “It should be on everybody’s laptops at Starbucks.”

62. “ The vindication lies in the finding ... Now every volume lies instantly within our grasp, and we possess a far greater understanding of our identical impotence. I would that I lived in the old days.” - Daniel Langford. “The Net of Babel by J*rg* L**s B*rg*s” (1995)

63. Conclusion? “ The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it” - Vannevar Bush (1945)

65. Converging on the Universal Library: From Memex to Googolplex Martin R. Kalfatovic Smithsonian Institution Libraries [email_address]