Microsoft Bookshelf

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Microsoft Bookshelf was a collection of writing aids for IBM-compatible computers that were released on a CD-ROM by the manufacturer Microsoft . The product contained numerous reference works such as dictionaries , encyclopedias and collections of quotations and was intended to promote the CD as the new storage medium for the computer at the time.

history

The company Cytation was founded in 1984 and was one of the first companies to applications on CD-ROM published. In January 1986 the company was bought by Microsoft, in the same year the new medium was officially presented at a conference. Finally, in September 1987, the first version of Microsoft Bookshelf for MS-DOS was released. The program was ported to Windows in 1991. The last version was Bookshelf 2000, after which the product was discontinued and replaced by Microsoft Encarta .

content

The product was available in different language versions, each with a locally adapted composition.

Microsoft Bookshelf contained in the 1992 version for the USA a. a. the following works:

Over time, individual editions of the books were updated or replaced with completely different, more modern works. From the mid-1990s, before the heyday of the search engines , a web directory was even included as an aid for online research.

See also

In Germany, the alternative product LexiROM later represented a comparable collection of dictionaries for the domestic market, which also contained a conversation dictionary.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roy A. Allan: A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology . 1st edition. Allan Publishing, London (Ontario) 2001, ISBN 0-9689108-0-7 , chap. 20 , p. 3 ( retrocomputing.net (PDF; 0.1 MB)).
  2. ↑ Allan, 12, p. 7 ( retrocomputing.net (PDF; 0.6 MB))
  3. ^ A b Jeanne M. Lesinski: Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist . Twenty-First Century Books, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-58013-570-2 , pp. 48 .
  4. ^ Patrick Marshall: Bookshelf for Windows makes believers of multimedia skeptics . In: InfoWorld . 13, No. 49, December 9, 1991, p. 90.
  5. ^ Paul Bernstein: Computers for Lawyers: Comprehensive Guide to Automating Your Law Firm . ATLA Press, Washington DC 1992, ISBN 0-941916-64-2 , chap. 25 .