Abstract

Abstract In the last few years, the growing use of the Internet and related information technology has made it increasingly easier to find information quickly and effectively. Many libraries have digitised their catalogues, so that they can be used regardless of place and time, just using an Internet connection. These developments affect the way in which research is carried out. Furthermore, questions that would formerly have taken too much time and hard work to be addressed can now be solved in a fraction of that time. This especially applies to bibliographical research, as I discovered myself. In March 2002 I defended my doctoral thesis A Bibliography of the Works of Descartes (1637–1704). Only 25 years earlier Guibert had published his Bibliographie des oeuvres de Descartes publiées au XVII siècle (1976). During my research I was confronted with a constant need to explain why I had undertaken to compile a new bibliography, while one had been made so recendy. The answer to this question pardy lies in the progress in the study of the history of Descartes' philosophy of the last few decades, however far more important have been the developments in the field of cataloguing and bibliography itself. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that the new media have caused an earthquake in this discipline.

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