Early reactions to information growth

Abstract

The expansion in the number of journals being published really took off in the nineteenth century. Between the beginning and end of that century, the problems of dealing with the spread of literature appearing consequently grew rapidly. The reactions of scientists to this included a move towards increasing specialisation in their research, and a higher level of organisation of their communication activities. In particular, ways of assisting information retrieval were developed then which became extremely important in the twentieth century. Two of these developments are examined here — the provision of abstracts for scientists and of popular articles for non-scientists. Parallels can be found between these two activities, as well as differences due to the different target audiences. It is noted that both appeared in print environment: an electronic environment may affect their futures differently.