[SIGCIS-Members] A Favor to Each Other

[Petri Paju]

I think I had an idea when responding to Jim on this issue of sharing 
bookshop information. Unfortunately I don't know any such (one) good 
bookshop to recommend for Finland (or alas, any other European country). 
Second hand bookshops (also on the net) might have something, but 
usually they don't (in Finland). Bookfinder.com is handy (first aid) for 
the big language & cultural areas in Europe.

But there's a second alternative: The public university libraries are by 
far the best sources and they loan books or deliver copies for a fee.

See (for Univ. of Turku)
http://kirjasto.utu.fi/en/borrowing/ill/index.html

Typically it's a big help to have a native speaker locating the 
materials from the databases, but it can be done without also.

Following this idea, maybe in addition to (or to replace) bookshops we 
should ask for the best (national/local) databases / univ. libraries (as 
these differ a lot) to turn to for each country?


For example, here's the national bibliography for Finland:
https://fennica.linneanet.fi/

There one can find just about anything published here. But the services 
are not that good and one needs to go to a regular univ. library for 
copying service:

For the IT history materials in Finland, the above mentioned is as good 
as any: http://kirjasto.utu.fi/en/


Sweden also has a nice national catalog: http://libris.kb.se/

Here's how to get the books: 
http://librishelp.libris.kb.se/help/getit_eng.jsp?open=getit

Best,

Petri




James Cortada wrote:
> Over the past 2 years I have been acquiring books and other publications 
> concerning the history of ICT from around the world, not just about the 
> USA, GB, and Japan as many of us have already done. And in the process 
> have had enormous difficulty in finding materials for all the usual 
> reasons: lack of bibliographies, lack of ISBN numbers, ignorance about 
> which book dealers to go to etc. When I find materials, it is often by 
> accident--clearly not a good way to gather materials. It seems that 
> every time I go to a new country on business, I discover materials that 
> are not listed in the normal places; recently while in Switzerland, I 
> came across a book on the history of IT in Swiss railroads, another on 
> Swiss banking, and heard of a book being published later this year on 
> the history of Swiss ICT.
> 
> *I would like to ask my colleagues if we each could share with everyone 
> else the names, addresses, and Internet location of the book stores in 
> your country that you find the most reliable for purchasing old and new 
> materials on the history of ICT.* I would be happy with one per country 
> where, for example, if I wanted all the key works on Finish or Polish 
> computing I could reach out to a book dealer, knowing that he or she 
> would find most if not all the materials. One per country would be 
> fantastic. And if we could collect enough names, perhaps we could find a 
> place to keep the list, such as at the CBI website. All of Europe, Latin 
> America and Asia need to be covered, regardless in what languages 
> publications appear.
> 
> As an example of the problem, we all are familiar with Simon Nora and 
> Alain Minc's 1978 report to the French Government on ICT; the one volume 
> was translated into English by MIT, and it also appeared in Spanish and 
> German. But I could not find the full set of 5 volumes that the French 
> government published originally here in the US or in by chance visiting 
> book shops in Paris until one day by accident I found the full set and 
> in reading that set, I uncovered a considerable amount of useful 
> information about ICT in countries not discussed in the one volume 
> summary that everyone has seen. These kinds of materials have to be 
> rescued, and used.
> 
> I feel a sense of urgency about this because I am now focusing on the 
> global history of ICT and find that the American university libraries 
> are missing a great many items and they are not showing up in the usual 
> Internet websites, such as abebooks.com, Alibris, etc. in sufficient 
> amounts. So I have to build my own collection. Furthermore, I would like 
> to build up a nice collection that, when I am finished with my research, 
> I can donate to CBI.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help to me and to each other,
> 
> 
> Dr. Jim (James) W. Cortada
> IBM Institute for Business Value
> 2917 Irvington Way
> Madison, WI 53713 USA
> jwcorta at us.ibm.com
> 608-270-4462
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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-- 
Petri Paju, FT, tutkija, Turun yliopisto
-- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku
http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/