Indeholder "Chapter I: A Parametric", "The Author's apology to the Reader. His definition of a Computer.", "Chapter II: Of Feasibility", "The author becomes entangled in the London Stage Information Bank & conceives of a Pilot Project. He questions Administrators & Computer Scientists, visits Widener Library & the Association for Computing Machinery, where he encounters a Living Advertisement. He considers the scarcity of Funds, and draws to an Inside Straight.", "Chapter III: Concerning the Specs", "Will Daland, the Programmer/Analyst, arrives. Some accounts of The London Stage, 1600-1800. The first Advisory Board meeting. The Author's correspondence, &c., with Brüder Rosenbaum about Monotype Spools. His Dialogues with Will. The Geography of The London Stage and the first edition of the Specs.", "Chapter IV: Of Implementation", "The Author interfaces an MT/ST Pool. He explores Route 128, observes Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Digital Equipment Company & Viatron. He shops in the Yellow Pages of Boston & encounters John Chan. Will delivers some printouts. How Will's programs work, demonstrated with Flowcharts. How Flowcharts work. The second Advisory Board Meeting, with a digression on Indexing. The Author enquires about Optical Scanning & Cathode Ray Terminals, meets the Grand Old Man of Offshore Keypunching, deduces an Ideal Input Device, & grades real ones. He hunts down a compatible Character Set. Superfluity of Funds. Experiments with Optical Scanning. His search for John Chan & conversations with David Shiu. He discovers ICI.", "Chapter V: Of Input", "ICIFIX. Another Board Meeting, at which Reinhold is discovered in a Dragon. How the Burden of Editing was lightened. The Author decides to treat The London Stage as a single unbroken line. The Author gets an Editor with a quid pro quo. IBM finds out that it makes an OCRB Golf Ball. The Author surveys his growing Empire.", "Chapter VI: Of Throughput", "The author sets deadlines. Disaster strikes when the Scanner cannot recognize Nothing, and the Author courageously modifies 8 OCRB Golf Balls. He commits Hubris toward the Mails, travels to a Computer Conference at Danmouth, & hears John Kemeny. Nemesis in the form of the Mails again. The Author flies to Kansas City. He is introduced to the Mysteries of International Trade. The Crises of August the 1st & 9th. The Author & Family head for England via Lake Michigan and New York City. Further mysteries of International Trade.", "Chapter VII: Of Output", "The Author visits CSC; in Wembley & discovers a little-known Railway Line. The Crises of 10th and 30th September, and of 15th October, including a narrow view of IBM-London, the reason for Hong Kong's Delay, a lecture on Communications, the Initial Punctuation Disaster, & the Author's battle with BOAS & H.M. Customs. The Crisis of 11th December, in which the Author exports and imports the same shipment, & learns an expensive lesson in Capitalization.", "Chapter VIII: An Overview", "The Author reflects on his Experiences: among other things touching upon a Cybernetic View of the London Stage Information Bank; Incompatibilities, Catches of Computing. Interfaces; an English Professor's Information Theory; a Dialectical Approach to Programming; and peaceful Uses of Computers.".

Handler om en professor, der vil omsætte The London Stage, et værk på 8000 sider, til en database til brug for forskning i 1600- og 1700-tallets teaterhistorie.
Uhyre velskrevet og stadig aktuel bog om problemerne med at omsætte et gammelt tekstkorpus til noget en computer kan forstå. Også virkelig god som kilde til alle mulige problemer i kommunikation mellem computerfolk og andre godtfolk.

Ifølge dette link http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/71768 gik databasen næsten tabt i løbet af få år. Men måske er den genfødt og tilgængelig igen. ( )