Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Anything, Anytime, Anywhere

I answered my first 4:45 AM reference question of my career today. When did Gutenberg invent movable type? Unfortunately there does not appear to be a good answer for that question. I checked a couple of sources and Britannica Online seemed to summarize it the best. Sometime in 1436 Gutenberg borrowed money for some type of project he was working on. He was farther along and borrowed more in 1448 then by 1450 his press was farther along and by 1455 he had printed his famous Forty-Two-Line Bible. So Gutenberg’s movable type printing press was invented sometime between 1436 and 1455. That is a stinky answer, but pretty darn good standing at a table with someone else’s laptop at 4:45 AM. If we had instant messaging and we each had a laptop and an alarm we could provide that kind of service year round.

Kinda makes yah go hmmmmmmmmmm.



Only a few diehards left. I had to quiet some people down. Trying to pick my subject databases but the text keeps moving on the screen. Or maybe the desk is moving? I am sick of those little red and green squiggley lines in my email. I think I’ll just start adding words to my dictionary. How come Chaucer got away with writing the way he wrote, and I got hassled for it all through school? I think that maybe the public school system deprived the world of a 21st century Chaucer. Or maybe I should have just done my homework? Who Knows?

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