Packaging knowledge: the evolution of the book

October, 1998

An old standby evolves into an interconnected web of print, hypertext, and database

The book is one of the oldest and most familiar examples of a knowledge "package." In this article we look at how the book is evolving into a more complex (and useful) way of packaging knowledge. Over the last decade, our concept of a "book" has broadened from a printed document to an interconnected web of both print and electronic components. As our publishing toolkit grew more sophisticated and our business needs became more demanding, we were forced to broaden our definition of "book" to include a companion Web site and, most recently, a companion database ("virtual library"). Society members have the opportunity to "test drive" the expanded format with a new publication, "The Route to Knowledge Base Publishing: Trends and Shaping Forces." This collection of seventeen articles, published from 1992 through mid-1998, includes a 55-page printed book, a private Web site, and a database library with citations for each of the articles and over 60 external Web links. Users can add their own items to the library as they explore the topics on the Web, in commercial databases, and on their corporate intranet.

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