Information overload - and the printed text

Ann Blair reflects on the innovations (indexes, libraries, catalogues etc.) that helped 15th and 16th century readers cope with the sudden explosion of information available through printed books. Some lovely parallels with current struggles with digital information. She quotes Erasmus' opinion of printers: “[they] fill the world with pamphlets and books that are foolish, ignorant, malignant, libelous, mad, impious and subversive; and such is the flood that even things that might have done some good lose all their goodness".