#microsoft bookshelf

[fishmech]

Check out what I got today: the Official Microsoft Bookshelf Internet Directory 1998 Edition. Published and composed in late 1997, it's among the last major attempts create a mass-market printed directory of Internet resources before the pace of changes became too rapid for anyone to bother trying. It promises that free updates were avialable online, but it's unclear how long that persisted.

On the included CD-ROM disc, the most recently modified file was from October 8th, 1997 and the main index file was last modified on August 21, 1997.

[retrocgads]

USA 1992

[ms-dos5]

[ms-dos5]

[ms-dos5]

Eight references included in Microsoft Bookshelf 1996-1997. Some of these aren’t exactly up-to-date.

There’s also some sort of zip code service where you enter a street address and it tells you the zip code.

[blockygraphics]

BSMAIN.BMP, created August 25, 1993; splash image for Microsoft Bookshelf. From Wikipedia:

“Microsoft Bookshelf was a reference collection introduced in 1987 as part of Microsoft's extensive work in promoting CD-ROM technology as a distribution medium for electronic publishing. The original MS-DOS version showcased the massive storage capacity of CD-ROM technology, and was accessed while the user was using one of 13 different word processor programs that Bookshelf supported. Subsequent versions were produced for Windows and became a commercial success as part of the Microsoft Home brand. It was often bundled with personal computers as a cheaper alternative to the Encarta Suite. The Encarta Deluxe Suite / Reference Library versions also bundled Bookshelf.”