> Now it seems in the age of computers and automatic search algorithms one just punches in a few key words and presto you search is done. But this 'automatic search process' does seem to ignore any information prior to the time when information was on paper and not digitized. A lot of information simply seem to fall off the edge of the world!
Prior to when info was on paper? How far back do you want to go? How about 1523, Fitzherbert's "Boke of Husbondrye," our first printed book on agriculture. See: Fussell, G. E. (1947). The old English farming books from Fitzherbert to Tull 1523 to 1730.
In fact, an entire book "MEDICINES FOR HORSES: THE CONTINUITY FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT" BY GEORGE R. KEISER is devoted the fact that the earliest printed books were based on handwritten ones manuscripts, already quite old. Keiser warns about the "the need for carefully qualifying oft-repeated generalizations about the dramatic changes wrought by the shift from to manuscript printed book."
Further, I think you underestimate the amount of work that researchers do. We do not simply use the internet as the sole source of information. Many of the currently published works have extensive bibliographies, which often are worth more than the actual paper.
Also, you underestimate the extent to which published information has been digitized. For example, Hathi Trust has scanned many works that are still under copyright, which means that while you cannot read them, you can search the content. This often leads one to publications that then can be obtained through inter library loan, for example.
Insofar as older material, a search for information on the "Isle of Wight Disease" prior to 1930 brings over 80 references. In fact, the search reveals that E. F. Phillips referred to it in his 1911 USDA pamphlet, "The treatment of bee diseases." A brief search on the "Isle of Wight Disease" takes us through over one hundred years of history leading to this:
> The recent concern over CCD has much in common with the his- torical“IsleofWightDisease”episode,andmanylessonscanbe learned. Initial concern about colony losses in one particular area, the USA, has led to global media attention. Moreover, colony losses throughout the world are being ascribed to CCD, yet that term was specifically coined to describe a precisely defined set of symptoms and not colony losses per se. Indeed, honey bee colonies can die in many ways, and CCD is just one of them. -- Peter Neumann & Norman L Carreck (2010) Honey bee colony losses, Journal of Apicultural Research, 49:1, 1-6
The lesson, of course, is that 99% of the media stories haven't done even this much research, or how else could they have the story so garbled?
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