Organized thematically, this book tells the story of the European encyclopedia from 1650 to the present.

Search skills of today bear little resemblance to searches through print publications. Reference service has become much more complex than in the past, and is in a constant state of flux. Learning the skill sets of a worthy reference librarian can be challenging, unending, rewarding, and-- yes, fun.

Idaville's secret weapon against lawbreakers, ten-year-old Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, helps the police force solve ten new cases, the solutions to which are found in the back of the book.

"With more than 100 experts in their fields, including space, animals, wars, mummies, brain science, and many, many more!"

'Witty and geekily eclectic' The Times An erudite and amusing exploration' Financial Times 'Full of jawdropping facts' Mail on Sunday 'Remarkable . . . engrossing' Sunday Times 'A pleasure' Spectator 'An infectiously enthusiastic history' Times Literary Supplement The encyclopaedia once shaped our understanding of the world. Now these huge books sell for almost nothing on eBay while we derive information from our phones. What have we lost in this transition? All the Knowledge in the World tracks the story from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. It exposes how encyclopaedias reflect our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race and technology, uncovers a fascinating part of our shared past and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge - that most human of ambitions - will forever be beyond our grasp.