I'm a PhD student in the field of library and information studies and want to say that this is the best book in our discipline. It covers all the essential ideas about information organization and access in the form of clear, creative, and at moments funny essays. [For example, you've just got to smile over Bates' coinage of the verb "bibble" (to use a bibliography) or White's wry critique of bibliographic essays being awkwardly "file-ish."] At different times in my student career one and then the other of the chapters have been my favorite -- whether Bates' Search Tactics or White's External Memory. The three authors happen to be some of the greatest contributors to this discipline in the last 30 years, and these are all seminal pieces. Another reviewer called this book boring, and I object. Every chapter is lively and the authors and editor (White) obviously took great pains to teach and cajole the reader through very abstract matters. In style and substance, nothing compares to this book in the field of library and information studies.
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