The Information Stream

by Russ Roberts on June 6, 2007

I’m reading Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger, scheduled for an upcoming podcast. The book is about how we try and create order out of the disorderly world of information and some of the differences between ordering the physical and digital worlds. Fascinating, so far. Some nice facts on the Library of Congress:

The Library of Congress owns 130 million items, including 29 million books on 530 miles of shelves. Every day, more books come into the library than the 6,487 volumes Thomas Jefferson donated in 1815 to kick-start the collection after the British burned the place down.

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Bill Conerly

I've been asked what is Oregon's most important industry--wood products or high tech? I answer that it's "Miscellaneous and Other." The odds and ends are much more important than the big guys--like the long tail argument.

True_liberal

At least that's one problem Islamic countries don't have. In fact, my casual observation is that most of them have no secular public libraries at all.

Russ Roberts

Nathan and Joe,

Typo fixed. Thanks.

Joe Grossberg

I think you mean 1815.

Nathan T. Freeman

I am fascinated by the notion that Jefferson donated books to the Library in 1915, about 90 years after his death.

I guess the British burned it down in some strange WWI mixup?