Keyboards and keying An annotated bibliography of the literature from 1878 to 1999

Abstract

This bibliography covers the period from 1878 through 1999. It contains, in chronological order, a thorough sampling of the literature concerning the design and use of keyboards. The sources are selected and annotated to reflect the status of engineering and technology know-how, and knowledge about ergonomic aspects of the use of the keyboards with, first, mechanical typewriters, then electric typewriters and finally, from the 1960s on, computers. The bibliography illustrates the origin of Sholes’ 1878 QWERTY keyboard and its continued use in spite of its many shortcomings, which may be – at least partially – the reason for cumulative trauma disorders in yesteryear’s typists and today’s keyboarders.