New Institutional Economics and Information History—Is There a Point of Contact

Argues that library and information history needs to become more theoretical. Examines the work of the economic historian Douglas C. North and suggests that the perspectives he presents might be exploited by library and information historians. It is the cultural heritage, including the accumulation and forms of knowledge, that determines levels of success in economies, something which has important implications for those conceptualizing and researching knowledge, or information, history.