As books became more prevalent and libraries formed to house and collect books, people needed a way to organize and find them. In Roman times libraries needed less organization. There was a place for writings in Greek, and writings in Latin. Those that could read knew who the authors were and could find writings by knowing who wrote them: "Socrates, Plato, Ah here we go: Aristotle."

Ok, so it was not ideal, but it worked. But in modern times libraries had many more books to choose from, many more subjects and available to a wider audience. Each library did things a little differently, until Melvil Dewey came up with a system of organizing the knowledge of the library. You have to love the Dewey Decimal System.

Burke, J.J.  (2009).  Neal-Schuman library technology companion: a basic guide 

         for library staff (3rd ed.).  New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

The Next Chapter

The invention of paper, the heir of papyrus and vellum, took a few forms to contain writing. Scrolls were a widely used form, though usually only one side was utilized, and they had large sticks used to roll the scroll up. The scroll's use fell out of favor when a much easier and economical form came into being: the codex.

The Codex, or a book as it is more well know, was easier to carry around, and utilized both sides of the paper. It was a laborious process to make a book by hand, but with the invention of the Gutenberg printing press, books were able to be produced more quickly and became more widely available.

Burke, J.J.  (2009).  Neal-Schuman library technology companion: a basic guide 

         for library staff (3rd ed.).  New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Jacobs, A. (2011). Christianity and the future of the book. New Atlantis: A Journal
         of Technology & Society, 33, 19-36. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com

The Beginnings

So how should we think about the Internet?

It is a new technology. It is a lot of fun when you are at work watching cat videos. It is necessary for some people's jobs.
The Internet has shaped the way we consume media and changed the way we interact with other people and society.

So where did this all start?

Perhaps we should start at the beginning.
Perhaps with the birth of technology that allowed for saving information for later use: Writing.

Writing evolved from use of pictographs in prehistory. Eventually these pictographs became a system of writing. Writing had huge advantages over memorizing information since memory can fade and change overtime and often changes as knowledge is passed down form individual to individual. Writing can easily pass information onto other people over vast distances and over long periods of time. Depending of the medium used to write on, information can last thousands of years. Much of what we know form ancient cultures, like the Egyptians, we know from writing that has survived. Imagine how much we have lost from culture who did not have written records.

Burke, J.J.  (2009).  Neal-Schuman library technology companion: a basic guide 

         for library staff (3rd ed.).  New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.