Information Literacy Skills > Paper information source

Introduction

From earliest times human beings have had the urge to express themselves so that their ideas could be shared with others and preserved for posterity. Cave paintings have been found across the world dating from many thousands of years ago. Later different civilizations used various media on which to record their ideas - clay tablets in Mesopotamia, wax tablets by the Romans, papyrus by the Egyptians, silk by the Chinese. From biblical times onwards papyrus and parchment were preserved in rolls, called scrolls - an early example of a sort of book.

You may have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a large collection of religious manuscripts discovered fifty years ago in Israel. Paper was first made in China around 600BC but it took until the Middle Ages for the papermaking process to spread to Europe.

The first real books were very different from those we see today. Books created between the 7th and the 13th centuries were constructed and written by hand and were mainly religious works. They were usually written in Latin and many contained beautiful hand-painted illustrations. You may have heard of famous examples like the Book of Kells.

You can see an example of an Illustrated Manuscript

From the 13th to the 17th century books were still created laboriously by hand but, in addition to religious works, their themes covered philosophy, history etc. These books were used in the libraries of universities and were also found in the homes of wealthy individuals.

Moveable type printing

Types of paper information sources

Advantages and disadvantages