Information Curation from the Library of Alexandria to the World Wide Web

In his debut Salon, Rafael Nepô will tackle the complexities in dealing with Information with a deep dive in Curation throughout history.

“Humanity is at a turning point in its history. The mass of available information is formidable. New instruments are necessary for simplifying and condensing it or the intellect will never know how to overcome the difficulties which overwhelm it, nor realise the progress that it glimpses and to which it aspires.”  – Paul Otlet, Traité de Documentation, 1934

This is but one of many citations from different time periods that all share the same feeling. Too many books, too many articles, too many websites etc. We will never have time to read it all.

It’s an issue that we’ve been dealing with since humanity started putting thoughts into paper. In the first part of this Salon, we will talk about information in the context of search (not just web) and discuss how we find information about the things we want to learn more about.

We use a variety of methods to gather and interpret information. We have books, encyclopaedias, libraries, museums, magazines and newspapers, and of course, the internet.

The internet has made information curation possible on a scale never before seen. It’s been called the “world’s largest library” because it contains so much information.

How do you know you’re done searching for things, if ever? What are some of the struggles we have while searching for things?

So during the second part of this Salon we will explore and talk about some of the complexities we’re dealing with our current tools and methods and try to glimpse into different ways of thinking and dealing with information in our day to day.

How do we curate information on the things we like? How do you know who to trust?

So if you’re ever spent hours upon hours researching things and creating folders with references and gathering all your find about your favorite things, then i think you’ll feel quite at home in this Salon. 🙂

Reading List:

• (9 mins) What Is A Cabinet Of Curiosities?
• (10 mins) Why do I Cry?
• (3 mins) Ask a Librarian
• (9 mins) The Internet Archive
• (6 mins) Curators are the new Creators

Viewing List:

• (5 min) Navigating Knowledge: Hypertext Pioneers
• (2 mins) 350 years of The Gazette
• (11 mins) See, Spot, Run: Misinformation and Disinformation 101
• (9 mins) The moral bias behind your search results

***

📋 Code of Conduct 

📚 Become a member, get a free ticket every month, access our forums, members-only events, and more!