The Librarian of Babel: The self-citation machine

Mike Holderness, Freelance Journalist ( Homepage)

Ariadne 1997
(ReLIS:doi:doiari:y:1997:i:10:p:25)

Abstract:

Good morning, and welcome back to the Library of Babel. Today's tour will focus on some of the issues raised by our unique acquisitions policy. As you probably know, our Mission statement enjoins us: To make accessible to all the totality of human knowledge and we aim, towards this end, to collect all possible texts. We have been greatly assisted in this by the work of Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Caillau without whom our enterprise might have remained forever a pipe-dream. This work has also, however, made our comprehensive task significantly more difficult. Naturally, the Library must seek to collect all translations of Shakespeare, including those into Xingu and the original German. Recent developments in cultural theory have left us with the alternately depressing and gigglesome task of collecting the script and cast photos of the stage musical based on the Disney cartoon of the film of the play of the book of whatever folk-tales inspired the Quasimodo industry. And all the intermediates, and their reviews, and the Web pages inspired by each.

Note: The Librarian, talking to Mike Holderness, uncovers the true purpose of the World-Wide Web. This article appears in the Web, and not the print, version of Ariadne.
Month: Tuesday July 15th, 1997
Year: 1997

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