Anzovin, Steve The Green PC: Making Decisions that Make A Difference. Windcrest 1993 $9.45 ISBN 0-8306-4311-7. Raising environmental issues that computers present in the areas of energy, ergonomics, and hardware disposal.
Aspray, William, ed. Computing before Computers (Iowa State Univ Pr 1990. $27.95. ISBN 0-8138-0047-1. Articles on the historical contributions of Napier, Babbage, Hollerith, Vannavar Bush, and others before the appearance of the first electronically stored digital computer in 1945.
Aspray, William. John von Neumann and the Origins of modern Computing. MIT Press 1990 $37.50. ISBN 0262011212. A serious study of von Neumann's practical and theoretical contributions to computing written by a mathematical historian and computer historian, heavily annotated with generous us of archival source material. See also William Aspray and Arthur Burks, eds. Papers of John von Neumann on Computing and Computer Theory (MIT 1987. ISBN 026222030X.)
Barrett, Edward, ed. Sociomedia : Multimedia, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Knowledge. MIT 1992 $45.00. ISBN 0262023466. Papers from the first conference on The Social Creation of Knowledge at MIT in Spring, 1991.
Barrett, Edward, ed. Text, ConText, and HyperText : Writing with and for the Computer. MIT 1988 $47.50. ISBN 0262022753. Despite the alliteration in the title, actually a collection of articles on technical communication, computer documentation, designing on-line help, and writer training.
Barrett, Edward, ed. The Society of Text : Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information. MIT 1989 $19.95. ISBN 0-262-52161-X. Twenty-two essays on networking, online systems, hypermedia, and hypertext, including case studies of MIT's Athena, Brown University's Intermedia, and the University of Maryland's Hyperties.
Barry, John A. Technobabble. MIT 1991 $22.50. ISBN 0262023334. A warning that the indiscriminate use of computer terms and computer concepts is corrupting our language and ways of thinking, incidentally valuable for providing the history of such terms as bug, glitch, kludge, nerd, and Winchester.
Birnes, William and others. McGraw-Hill Personal Computer Programming Encyclopedia : Languages and Operating Systems. McGraw-Hill 2nd ed. 1989. ISBN 0070053936. Bibliography. A guide across a number of standard operating systems, programing languages, and applications packages, now adding commands in Postscript, Snobol, SPSS, dBASE III, and Paradox.
Bitter, Gary, ed. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Computers. 2 vol. Macmillan 1992 $150.00. ISBN 0028970454. A reference source targeted to students and non-specialists, with 200 articles plus biographies.
Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space : The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Erlbaum 1991 $49.95. ISBN 0805804277. A significant explanation of how hypertext differs from printed text, tracing the major consequences for reading, writing, literary criticism, literary theory, and public literacy--by the author of Turing's Man.
Chicago Guide to Preparing Electronic Manuscripts. Univ. of Chicago Pr. 1987 $9.95. ISBN 0-226-10393-5. A description of standardized procedures and a style guide for electronic text production and transmission.
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. Ed.-in chief, John Sinclair. Collins (London) rev. ed. 1992. ISBN 0-003-70023-2. A dictionary produced by the Collins Birmingham University International Language Database project (COBUILD) in which 20 million words were scanned to determine and classify actual practices in contemporary English See also "Looking Up: An Account of the COBUILD Project" in Lexical Computing (London: Collins, 1987).
Computing Reviews offers monthly coverage of books, journals, newsletters, technical reports, and the like, mostly reviewed by volunteers writing on separate items but sometimes in longer comparative articles.
Computing Surveys selects three or four subjects in each issue and covers each in considerable depth, frequently with hundreds of significant reference citations.
Corr‚, Alan D. Icon Programming for Humanists. The Icon programming language in humanities applications. The first third party treatment of Icon, intended for programmers with some previous experience.
Cringely, Robert X. Accidental Empires : How The Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, And Still Can't Get a Date. Addison-Wesley 1992 $11.00. ISBN 0201570327. Refreshing, readable, and informative stories, anecdotes, gossip, and expos‚s of successful computer executives in the inimitable manner of the author's column in Infoworld.
Delany, Paul and George P. Landow, eds. Hypermedia and Literary Studies. MIT 1991 $39.95 ISBN 0262041197. ISBN 0262041197. A useful collection on the theory and design of literary hypermedia, studies of actual hypermedia projects in schools, and some consequences for creative composition, teaching, and literary criticism.
Delany, George P. Landow & Paul Delany, eds., The Digital Word.
Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Stuart E. Dreyfus. Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. Free Press 1988 $12.95. ISBN 0-02908061-4. The continuing case against AI, expert systems, and computers in education, written as a reply to "Fifth Generation" enthusiasts such as Pamela McCorduck, whose optimistic Machines Who Think was in its turn an answer to Dreyfus's pessimistic What Computers Can't Do.
Feldman, Paula R., and Buford Norman. The Wordworthy Computer: Classroom and Research Applications in Language and Literature Random House 1987 $13.00. ISBN 0-394-35623-3. Bibliography. What lies beyond word processing, namely indexing, concordances, literary analysis, and text editing, using microcomputer examples in a useful teacher's handbook..
Forester, Tom, ed. Computers in the Human Context : Information Technology, Productivity, and People. MIT 1989 $40.00. ISBN 0-262-06124-4. A useful collection of essays on computing and information technology in the mid- and late-1980s, superseding Forester's previous anthologies issued in 1980 and 1985.
Freedman, Alan. The Computer Glossary : The Complete Illustrated Desk Reference. AMACOM 5th ed. 1990 $34.95. ISBN 0814450202. A general introduction to computer literacy, easy to read and generously illustrated with photographs, diagrams, and cartoons.
Garson, Barbara. The Electronic Sweatshop: How We Are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past. Simon & Shuster 1988 $17.95. ISBN 0-671-53049-6. A provocative expos‚ alleging that data clerks are dehumanized and managers are undermined in the "second industrial revolution" now taking place in the high-tech workplace.
Gilder, George F. Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology. Simon and Schuster 1989 $10.95. ISBN 0671509691. The boldly stated view that the impact of the microchip on mind and the realm of information amounts to "the overthrow of matter," expressed by a leading New Age futurist.
Hafner, Katie and John Markoff. Cyberpunk : Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier. Simon & Schuster 1991 $22.95. ISBN 0671683225. Case studies of how three new-style hackers, sociopaths or criminals in international espionage, replaced the old-style hackers, formerly harmless and dedicated local technical amateurs with a love for free phone calls and reading other's people's mail.
Hardison, O. B. Disappearing Through the Skylight : Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century. Penguin 1990 ISBN 0-140-11582-X. Highly esteemed and profound queries into the arrival of modernism and technology in the twentieth century and the resulting disappearance of traditional ideas of nature, history, language, art, and human self-identity.
Hobbs, Jerry R. Literature and Cognition. ISBN 0937073539. A two-fold introduction: literary studies for cognitive scientists, and cognitive science for literary specialists, written by a computer scientist with unexpected insights into literature, psychology, and discourse analysis.
Hughes, John J. Bits, Bytes, and Biblical Studies: A Resource Guide for the Use of Computers in Biblical and Classical Studies. Zondervan (Grand Rapids) 1987 $29.95. ISBN 0-310-28581-X.
Hypertext creative literature: Published by Eastgate Systems of Watertown, MA, in the form of computer software, representing authors some of whom are also distinguished for academic discussions of hypertext: Michael Joyce, Afternoon, A Story (1990), Stuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden (1991), and Jon Lanested and George P. Landow, The In Memoriam Web (1993).
Hypertext: Jon Lanested and George P. Landow, The In Memoriam Web, Eastgate
Hypertext: Michael Joyce, Afternoon, A Story, Eastgate Systems, Watertown
Hypertext: Stuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden, Eastgate Systems, Watertown MA,
Ide, Nancy. Pascal for the Humanities. Univ. of Pennsylvania Pr. 1987 $28.95. ISBN 0-812-21242-8. Systematic explanations of computer programming in literary and textual analysis, taking the student step-by-step through examples of graduated difficulty in standard PASCAL.
Jennings, Karla. The Devouring Fungus : Tales of the Computer Age. Norton 1990 $10.95. ISBN 0393028976. A light-hearted collection of amusing anecdotes, stories, and jokes, often at the expense of such solid monuments of computing as IBM, Marvin Minsky, Alan Turing, Norbert Weiner, and Joseph Weizenbaum.
Johnson-Laird, Philip. The Computer and the Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Science. Harvard Univ. Pr. 1988 $32.50. ISBN 0-674-15615-3. A high readable book that makes the case that three decades of making models of the mind as a digital computer has been both high useful and, at the same time, fraught with misunderstanding and disappointment.
Kehoe, Brendan P. Zen and the Art of the Internet : A Beginner's Guide. Prentice Hall 2nd ed. 1993 $22.50. ISBN 0130107786. The revision of a very accessible beginner's guide to the Internet, the first edition of which, practicing what it preached, was available on-line.
Kozol, Jonathan, Savage Inequalities
Krol, Ed. The Whole Internet: User's Guide & Catalog. O'Reilly 1992 $24.95. ISBN 1565920252. Mike Loukides, ed. A well received and authoritative guide to the Internet, explaining telnet, e-mail, finger, software online, FTP, Archie, Gopher, WAIS, WWW, Internet relay chat, and other advanced features.
Lancashire, Ian and Willard McCarty, eds. The Humanities Computing Yearbook 1988. Oxford Univ. Pr. 1988 $69.00. ISBN 0-19-824442-8. The first of a series of annual surveys of world wide computing activity by humanities scholars.
Lancashire, Ian, ed. The Humanities Computing Yearbook 1989-1990. Oxford Univ. Pr. 1991 $60.00. ISBN 0-19-824253-0. The second of a series of annual surveys, including a comprehensive guide to humanities software and other resources.
Landow, George and Paul Delany, eds. The Digital Word. MIT 1993 $39.95. A collection of essays on text projects, electronic texts, text retrieval, text software, text corpora, text editing, electronic conferences, scholarly research, electronic publishing, critical analysis, and electronic reading.
Landow, George P. Hypertext : the Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr. 1992. $45.00. ISBN 0801842808. Bibliography. Parallels between post-modern deconstruction in literary theory as practiced by Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes and he decentered, readerly, and antihierarchial structure of recent computer hypertexts.
LaQuey, Tracy with Jeanne C. Ryer. The Internet Companion : A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking. Addison-Wesley 1993 $10.95. ISBN 0201622246. Foreword by Vice President Al Gore. A compact and inexpensive introduction that covers the necessary basics for beginners on the Internet.
Leebaert, Derek, ed. Technology 2001 : the future of computing and communications. MIT 1991 $29.95. ISBN 0262121506. Twelve visions of the next decade--also the next century and next millennium--by scientists representing major companies such as Digital, IBM, and Intel who explain when they expect from computer chips, cellular telephones, portable computers, optical storage devices, on-line information, and the new culture of information.
Longley, Dennis and Michael Shain. Van Nostrand Reinhold Dictionary of Information Technology. Van Nostrand 3rd ed. 1989 $34.95. ISBN 0-44-223685-9. The revised and extended edition contains extended entries on artificial intelligence, CD-ROM, desktop publishing, and the three wings of information technology, computers, telecommunications, and video.
Lucky, Robert W. Silicon Dreams: Information, Man, and Machine. St. Martin's 1989 $19.95. ISBN 0-312-02960-8. The executive director of research at Bell Labs presents a serious yet understandable overview of the nature of information, from Shannon's information theory to accounts of how language, data, pictures are processed.
Miall, David, ed. Humanities and the Computer: New Directions. Oxford Univ. Pr. 1990. $55.00. ISBN 0-19-824244-1.
Minsky, Marvin, and Seymour Papert. Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computer Geometry. 1969. MIT rev. ed. 1987 $13.50. ISBN 0-262-63111-3. An expansion of the classic on learning machines, which prints the 1972 corrections with a survey of subsequent progress and problems.
Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind. Simon & Schuster 1988 $19.95. ISBN 0-671-60740-5. Its pages a mosaic of separate and self-contained statement, the total book emerges as something larger, suggesting how the biological brain operates locally but becomes mind when it functions globally.
Mungo, P. and B. Clough. Approaching Zero. David McKay 1992 $21.50. ISBN 0-679-40938-6. Computer underworld, cyberspace
Nelson, Ted. Computer Lib/ Dream Machines. 1974. Microsoft Pr. rev. ed. 1987 $18.95. ISBN 0-914-84549-7. A re-issue with some revisions of the classic double-decker that introduced the notion of hypertext.
Nyce, James M. and Paul Kahn, eds. From Memex to Hypertext : Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine. Academic Pr. 1991 $39.95. ISBN 0125232705. Tracing the consequences of Vannevar Bush's suggestion in Atlantic magazine in the 1940s for non-linear, automated retrieval of disparate texts from microfilms and how the suggestion eventually led to hypertext.
Pagels, Heinz R. The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity. Simon & Schuster 1989 $9.95. ISBN 0-553-34710-1. The role the computer plays in the philosophical problem of complexity, and how we think about "the nature of physical reality, the problem of cognition, the mind-body problem, the character of scientific research, the nature of mathematics, and the role of instruments in research" (Preface).
Penrose, Roger. The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and he Laws of Physics. Oxford Univ. Pr. 1989 $30.00. ISBN 0-19851973-7. A distinguished scientist opposes the "strong AI" position by taking the high ground of the philosophy of science, cosmology, and quantum mechanics to argue the natural limits of human consciousness.
Penzias, Arno. Ideas and Information: Managing in a High-Tech World. W. W. Norton 1989 $18.95. ISBN 0-393-02649-3. Thoughtful and non-technical explanations and anecdotes of computation and information technology by a Nobel prize winner, enlivened with reflections on European history, art, and recollections of three decades at Bell Labs.
Pickover, Clifford A. Computers and the Imagination : Visual Adventures Beyond the Edge. St. Martin's 1991 $29.95. ISBN 0312061315. Serious mental games and mathematical and visual challenges that leapfrog Tetris, fractals, and similar familiar amusements. See also the same author's Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty: Graphics from an Unseen World (St. Martin's 1990 $29.95. ISBN 0312041233).
Polly, Jean Armour "Surfing the Internet".
Pool, Ithiel de Sola. Eli Noam, ed. Technologies Without Boundaries : On Telecommunications in a Global Age. Harvard Univ. Pr. 1990 $27.50. ISBN 0674872630. A recommended account of the social aspects of telecommunication and related technological innovations.
Postman, Neil. Technopoly : the surrender of culture to technology. Knopf 1992 $20.50. ISBN 0394582721. A controversial warning that our excessive trust in computers as harbingers of supposedly superior wisdom and intelligence will lead to dangerous consequences for contemporary thought and language.
Potter, Rosanne G., ed. Literary Computing and Literary Criticism: Theoretical and Practical Essays on Theme and Rhetoric. Univ. of Pennsylvania Pr. 1989 $38.95. ISBN 0-8122-8156-X.
Quarterman, John. The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide. Digital Pr. 1990 $50. 0-13-565607-9. One of the first standard treatments of the global consequences of computer networking and conferencing.
Ralston, Antony and E. R. Reilly, eds. Encyclopedia of Computer Science. Van Nostrand 3rd ed. 1993 $59.95. ISBN 0442276796. More than 700 articles, including 175 new items, with a classification guide, cross-referenced keywords, indexes to both subjects and names, and a table of computer terms in English and four foreign languages.
Raymond, Eric S., ed. The New Hacker's Dictionary. MIT 1991 $22.50. ISBN 0262181452. Assistance and illustrations by Guy L. Steele, Jr. A pungent sampler of the unofficial English and slang of hackers, generally unprinted. running to choice specimens like "Microsloth Windows" and "spaghetti code."
Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Reality Simon & Shuster 1992 $12. ISBN 0-671778978. An account of the social impact and cultural consequences of virtual reality, written by an editor of the Whole Earth Review.
Rosenberg, Jerry Martin. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Information Technology and Computer Acronyms, Initials, and Abbreviations. McGraw-Hill 1992 $12.95. ISBN 0070537356. A compact source book for abbreviations, acronyms, and initials in the field of information technology.
Shneiderman, Ben. Designing the User Interface : Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley 1992. 2nd ed. ISBN 0201572869. A standard work on human-computer interaction, user interfaces, and system design, useful for evaluating both general computer user interfaces and specialized library applications.
Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates. Doubleday 1993 $25.00. ISBN 0-385-42075-7. A portrait of Bill Gates of Microsoft, perhaps at the same time the most loved and the most loathed person in the software business, reciting incidents from the mythology of his aggressive, confrontational style such as his favorite Porsche and his predilection for the multi-tasking bath over the uni-tasking shower.
Sterling, Bruce. The Hacker Crackdown : Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. Bantam 1992 $23.00. ISBN 055308058X. An examination of the 1990 crackdown in fourteen cities by the Secret Service on computer hackers supposedly dealing in stolen credit card numbers and telephone access codes, and the unexpected rebound in support for First Amendment protection of computer bulletin boards.
Stoll, Clifford. The Cuckoo's Egg: Inside the World of Corporate Espionage. Doubleday 1989 $18.95. ISBN 0385249462. A true-life detective story of the search, undertaken without assistance from the FBI, CIA, or NSA, to explain a mysterious seventy-five-cent charge for computer time, to discover that supposedly secured computers at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory were being entered by a hacker in West Germany.
Strangelove, Michael and Diane Kovacs. Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists. Association of Research Libraries 6th ed. 1993. A frequently updated published listing of on-line serial publications, directories, periodicals, information networks, and machine-readable documents that is also available on-line.
Tufte, Edward R. Envisioning Information. Graphics Pr. 1990 $48.00. ISBN 0-9613921-1-8. An exciting and inspiring presentation of the relations between the visual presentation of information and its statistical content by a prophet of the new field of visual information design, showing the inherent differences in several types of graphs, charts, and diagrams. See also the same author's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Graphics Press 1983 $40.00. ISBN 0-9613821-8).
Tuman, Myron C., ed. Literacy Online : The Promise (and Peril) of Reading and Writing with Computers. Univ. of Pittsburgh Pr. 1992 $34.95. ISBN 0822937018. An outstanding collection of essays on the nature of literary texts, teaching English, and critical thought, addressing the impact of computers and computing technology upon standards of public literacy.
Tuman, Myron C. Word Perfect: Literacy in the Computer Age. Univ. of Pittsburgh Pr. 1992. ISBN 1-8229-3735-2. The place of the computer in the rivalry between print literacy and on-line literacy, and the consequences therefrom for college instruction in literature, reading, and writing.
Walter, Russ. The Secret Guide to Computers. Somerville, MA. 17th ed. ISBN 0-939151-0. A fascinating, sassy, and memorable collection of Walter's wisdom and humor about computing, software, hardware, and much else, , refined by 20 years of seminars and now compressed into a single volume, self-published by the author (yes, ask about quantity discounts).
Winston, Patrick. Artificial Intelligence. 1981. Addison-Wesley 3rd ed. 1992. ISBN 0-201-53377-4. An update of the classic text, first issued in 1981 when the horizon for AI seemed unlimited, still authoritative in introducing the three main wings of AI, representation and methods, learning and recognition, and vision and language (instructor's manual: ISBN 0-201-50030-2).
Wurman, Richard Saul. Information Anxiety is Produced by the Ever-Widening Gap Between What We Understand and What We Think We Should Understand. Doubleday 1989 $19.95. ISBN 0-335-24394-4. Offbeat and essential reading on the technology gap created by teachers who have forgotten what it's like not to know.
Zuboff, Shoshana. In the Age of the Smart Machine : the Future of Work and Power. Basic Books 1988 $11.95. ISBN 0-434-92486-5. The unusual result of five years of field work by a faculty member of the Harvard Business School, showing how the information revolution changes knowledge in the workplace, the nature of computer-mediated work, and the structure of managerial power.