* How did ppl before information age do self studies and researches on a subject when there is not google, guides and indices maintained by an online community, and especially when they dont have access to tutors and experts who are proficient in the areas? For example if one wanted to learn Latin or French by himself in 1900s. Or when someone who wanted to learn maths or history by himself. How does he know what to read, how to practise and apply the skills and knowledge etc..
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Libraries. You had to read the entirety of several publications. You were absolutely fucked if you were in it for confirmation bias as there was no way to just search keywords/phrases.
This resulted in actual learning. It was trippy.
>How did ppl before information age do self studies and researches on a subject when there is not google, guides and indices maintained by an online community, and especially when they dont have access to tutors and experts who are proficient in the areas? For example if one wanted to learn Latin or French by himself in 1900s. Or when someone who wanted to learn maths or history by himself. How does he know what to read, how to practise and apply the skills and knowledge etc..
They went to a library.
An index is not something invented by Google. Libraries are not random hoards of books. The most important aspect of a library is the fact that it [**indexes knowledge**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_catalog).
The farther back you go the less people just decided they wanted to learn something. Mostly because they didn’t have the free time like we do now. And those that did went for schooling.
As to the whole how did people know what books to look for? You read what you had access to. Your local library wasn’t carrying near the same amount of information you can get now. If your local library didn’t have the books or periodicals, you simply never had access to anything else.
The information age as you call it is mostly based on the internet and digital media. The internet was originally a research network and those have existed in some form for centuries. Researchers would know where to look or who to talk to for a given area of expertise. Libraries, guest study at universities, private tutors, research societies publications and recommendations etc
Private tutors and teachers where actually a thing in terms of ‘self study’. Young researchers would deliberately go to other countries to broaden their horizon or to learn under specific people. Exchange of knowledge as you see it today wasnt even wanted for pre-world war 2 and 1. The entire political scene was so different that a lot of research and knowledge wasnt even meant to be carried outside certain circles and countries. With digital media it became so simple to copy things that it also became difficult to ‘secure’ this knowledge which in turn lead to more open research among countries and societies.
Aside from time there was also a different kind of monetary cost involved for people to study. What you perceive to be accessible to everyone today was a lot more geared towards an intellectual elite not that long ago.
Ever had to write a bibliography? This is why
Books don’t just come out of no where, they have reference material. Reputable books will tell you what information comes from which reference material, and what those reference materials are. Most of those reference materials are scientific journals
If you are studying cloning you’ll probably want to read the article published in *Nature* by the people who cloned Dolly the sheep but might need to go read an older article from *Journal of Animal Science* to understand some of the issues they faced, but they have it listed in their citations so you know exactly which article in exactly which edition of the journal.
The oldest scientific journal in the English speaking world dates back to 1665, they were the way knowledge spread long before the information age
Now, journals won’t teach you specific skills like Latin or Algebra, but they will keep you informed on the latest developments in research of idioms in classical latin, or number theory.
For learning specific skills its really about finding a tutor with a reputation, if there is no tutor you’re likely not learning that skill, but that’s also why tutors could be recruited and would travel for those willing to pay
Prior to the Internet and search engines, people had these things called books. You could purchase a book from a book store, or borrow a book from a library. You would then have to read the entirety of the book, or look in the books index for a certain topic within that book.
you would go to libraries and archives and places that people with knowledge on what you were interested in would congregate.
everything from universities to comic books shops. life existed before the internet. i was *never home* when i was a kid. 😂
*talking to people* was a very large part of almost everything.
Readers guide to periodic literature was one source. It was a resource that collected and indexed a lot of articles. You could look up a subject ( fungus, super nova, North Sea Oil, ect ect) and find what had been published on that topic over the past few months.
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