Reader Responsibility in Knowledge Organisation Readers between Reference Books, Commonplace Books, Wikipedia, and Pinterest Lea Maria Ferguson (B.A.), s1283464 Master’s Thesis Book and Digital Media Studies, Leiden University First reader: Prof. A. H. van der Weel Second reader: P. Verhaar Date of Submission: 1st July 2015 Words: 19.530 (incl. footnotes) Abstract The possibilities for exerting reader responsibility as an expression of democracy on the Internet are manifold. Reader responsibility may be seen as the process of finding, accessing, making sense of, interpreting, judging, and putting to use the information that can be gained through reading, and thereby turning it into knowledge. However, the 'democratisation discourse' on the Internet is often (mis-)used to promote mere economic aims, even under the guise of ‘digital socialism’. This is not only an obstacle to understanding reader responsibility and the process of reading, but also to gaining access to knowledge and making use of information resources successfully and effectively. It is encouraging to see though that the potential presented by reading and writing is (partly) being implemented. Historically, this occurred through commonplace and reference books, and currently it is happening through Pinterest and Wikipedia - despite some problematic economic and political circumstances. Embracing the responsibilities of the reading process will be conducive to developing the political potential of reading and as such be beneficial for society at large. Despite the connected and implied struggles of this, it is important to realise that readers can only turn information into knowledge and utilise it in their lives by being active and informed. Keywords Reader responsibility, textual knowledge navigation, commonplace books, reference books, Wikipedia, Pinterest Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Keywords ............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Reader Responsibility in Knowledge Organisation .................................................................................. 4 Historical and Contemporary Reader Responsibility .................................................................... 5 Defining Reader Responsibility .................................................................................................................... 7 Distinguishing Knowledge and Information ......................................................................................... 9 Outline of Argument ....................................................................................................................................... 10 The Typographic and Spatial Organisation of Knowledge ............................................................ 11 (Non-)Materiality of Paper vs. Screen ................................................................................................. 12 Typographic Innovations within Information Management .................................................... 16 Reading and Writing Commonplace Books ..................................................................................... 16 The Political and Social Side of Commonplace Books .......................................................... 18 Analogue Knowledge Organisation ....................................................................................................... 19 Pinterest and Knowledge Navigation ................................................................................................... 22 The Communication and Discourse of Knowledge ............................................................................. 27 Darnton’s Communications Circuit ........................................................................................................ 29 What is a Reference Book? ...................................................................................................................... 30 Wikipedia and Digital Knowledge Organisation ............................................................................ 31 Problematic Cases of Information Organisation .......................................................................... 34 The Politics of (Communicating) Knowledge ........................................................................................... 36 Defining the Political ...................................................................................................................................... 36 Reading in the Public Sphere .................................................................................................................. 37 Reader Responsibility among Power, Conflict, and Antagonism ....................................... 38 Hyperlink Reading and Reader Responsibility Online .............................................................. 41 An Outlook for Reader Responsibility .......................................................................................................... 44 References....................................................................................................................................................................... 46 Reader Responsibility in Knowledge Organisation Today’s perspective on what reading can mean is to a certain extent a paper one, the terminology we use reflects this when we speak of e-books and web pages, and these being “published, scrolled, browsed, and bookmarked”.1 While this is the case, we also strive to capture new developments and medial possibilities. This mindset spans from notions of making ‘the great unread’ accessible through distant reading to Goodreads’ virtual online book clubs. Also new inventions are meant to aid in this process, as for instance portable ‘eye tracking glasses’ that are intended to facilitate the reading process by continuously supplying the reader with translations and definitions and highlighted words to encourage easier deep reading and, at other times, speed reading. Such novel inventions and neologisms have become firmly rooted in today’s language. This extends also to sites as Wikipedia, combining the ‘wiki’ with encyclopaedias, and Pinterest, where one can ‘pin’ interesting images and texts to virtual boards. In this thesis I strive to analyse these digital phenomena, numerical in nature and “composed of digital code”,2 of information creation, organisation, navigation, and sharing – in comparison to analogue media. Two interesting comparative examples of traditional media for knowledge organisation are commonplace books3 and reference books. These are different textual genres,4 but they share many aspects. Ann Blair’s study Too much to know (2010) clarifies the connecting elements, namely the practice of information management, or as mentioned in this thesis’ title, (textual) knowledge organisation. In this thesis I will analyse the process of ordering and accessing of knowledge through the exertion of reader responsibility. Commonplace and reference books make use of excerpts of other texts and information as a means of coping with information overload, and countering information loss. They both facilitate the (social) discussion and communication of ideas.5 The same seems to be the case in Pinterest and Wikipedia. This thesis attempts to analyse the potential for active engagement for the reader that such resources provide. 1 A. Van der Weel, “Explorations in the Libroverse”, K. Grandin (ed.) Going digital: Evolutionary and Revolutionary Aspects of Digitization. Nobel symposium 147 (Stockholm: Centre for History of Science, 2011), p. 36. 2 L. Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001), p. 27. 3 The term commonplace book stems from the Latin locus communis, thus it held “phrases worthy of imitation under topical headings” so the writer-reader could find them again easily when the time arose to make use of them in conversation (A. M. Blair, Too much to know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2010), p. 69f.). 4 One very important distinction in this is of course whether the books were handwritten, printed, for private use, or intended for wider distribution. Thus, while I first focus on spatiality and typography regarding mostly hand- written commonplace books, the notion of communication, exchange, and influence on a wider audience will be scrutinised in this thesis, as well, under consideration of printed reference books. Some of these reference books were based on hand-written common place books, as e.g. the Officina by Johannes Ravisius Textor (1520), (Blair, Too much to know, p. 131f.), and then made accessible to larger audiences by print. Important to note is that these different genres of information organisation aim at presenting the reader with many different options to choose from instead of only presenting one single source (Blair, Too much to know, p. 6). 5 Further genres and terminologies that might be interesting in this regard are encyclopaedias – with the intention of summarising knowledge, miscellanies and florilegia, which consists of selected “passages or ‘flowers’ from authoritative sources” – “the term ‘florilegium’ [comes] from flores for flowers and legere in the sense of ‘select[ing]’”. (Blair, Too much