Information history is moving beyond listing the “what” and to answering how-and-why systems emerged, prospered, or died. This paper explores the nature of (and debates over) explanation in historical studies. The conclusion is that the history of information has to rely upon complex explanations that are a mixture of social science and humanities approaches. There are no formulas for such historical work, as shown by Boyd Rayward’s sensitive efforts on the history of Paul Otlet’s career and personal life.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
1559-0682
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49307
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2013.0036
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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