Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age

By David M. Levy

We are surrounded by documents of all kinds, from receipts to letters, business memos to books, yet we rarely stop to reflect on their significance. Now, in this period of digital transition, our written forms as well as out reading and writing habits are being questioned and transformed by new technologies ad practices. What is the future of the book? Is paper about to disappear? With the Internet and World Wide Web, what will happen to libraries, copyright and education? Starting with a simple deli lunch receipt, SCROLLING FORWARD examines documents of all kinds from the perspectives of culture, history, and technology in order to show how they can work and what they say about us and the values we carry into the new age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Release date: Jan 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781611459845

Reviews for Scrolling Forward

[jaygheiser · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not an especially deep book, but it had its moments. His concept of 'Documentation' is essentially what I've been trying to capture in my book on 'Information', being that stuff that is captured. Good material on publishing industry providing a vettin

[vpfluke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book explores changes in written communications, now that the digital age is upon us. Levy first has a mediation on the uses of a simple retail store receipt to information only available on the computer or via the internet. Although the book was written ten years ago, it well worth reading today. David Levy can wax philosophical but nevers wallows in that space, keeping grounded in the reality of how we have changed over the years. The word document has a far wider meaning now that computer files are called documents, some change from the day when every document seemed official, if not officious. Levy has spent some years doing calligraphy, so understands the physicality of the book and of writing itself with specialized instruments.