Most Compelling Sentence: "But scholars have had to deal with too much information for millennia, and in periods when information resources were multiplying especially fast they devised ingenious ways to control the floods" (Grafton, 2).
Anthony Grafton in his article proves yet again that history always repeats itself. The multi-faceted term "information overload" is currently en vogue, and it is easy to see why. Not only is there more information available right now than ever, but it is available in more forms than ever. Everything from a receipt that you receive at the grocery store to an online .pdf about incorporating railroads competes for attention (and conservation). The question becomes, what do you keep and what can librarians overlook?
From Renaissance information specialists such as Jeremias Drexel (he taught students how to "arrange the contents of literature by headings"), to Fremont Rider in the 1940s (he was in some ways the most significant champion of microfilm), everyone through time has been paranoid that there is too much to know, and that the madness must be properly organized and preserved.
Grafton goes on to explain how the Google Book Project, while flawed, is well-situated to serve the information needs of the public. While it has a number of issues (copyright, the sheer amount of historical text to be put online), it is not nearly as limited as microfilm. Anyone with a computer can pull up a text on Google Book Search. In conclusion, Grafton explains that while Google's intentions are positive for the dissemination of information, an inquiring mind will ultimately need to visit the library once in a while due to the limitations of ALL mediums to possess ALL of history.
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