Next week, the world's first auction of rare manuscripts and artefacts charting the origin of the internet will take place at Christie's in New York. That it should have taken more than 30 years after the development of the internet for this to happen speaks volumes about the collectors who specialise in the history of science and technology. They tend to be a conservative bunch who are preoccupied with the world of science in the 19th century and earlier. But science has moved on and I believe the world of collecting must change too. The library for sale is mine. It draws together important documents from the history of computing, networking and telecommunications. It contains rare books that date as far back as the 17th century, including the first edition of the mathematician John Napier's book describing a mechanical way of speeding up the use of logarithms (estimated price $25,000-$30,000). This classic is typical of the manuscripts that many collectors look for: it is old, significant and valuable, all of which help make such items relatively straightforward to spot.
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