In Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, D. F. McKenzie shows how the material form of texts crucially determines their meanings. He unifies the principal interests of both critical theory and textual scholarship to demonstrate that, as all works of lasting value are reproduced, re-edited and re-read, they take on different forms and meanings. By witnessing the new needs of their new readers these new forms constitute vital evidence for any history of reading. McKenzie shows this is true of all forms of recorded information, including sound, graphics, films, representations of landscape and the new electronic media. The bibliographical skills first developed for manuscripts and books can, he shows, be applied to a wide range of cultural documents. This book, which incorporates McKenzie's classic work on orality and literacy in early New Zealand, offers a unifying concept of texts that seeks to acknowledge their variety and the complexity of their relationships.

在公元前一世纪晚期，中国上古文献的文本形式发生了一次革命性的巨变，其剧烈程度甚至超过了孔子时代。同一部书，在此界限前后，我们需区别对待，而非等而视之。这不仅关乎我们对传世文献的认知，也会左右我们对出土文献价值的评判。若混同这种前后的变化，以东汉以来的传世文本为基础，以《汉书·艺文志》为想象模型，来描述先秦学术或文学，我们勾勒出的只是先秦的镜像，而非早期知识世界的真实图景。
观察西汉以前的知识世界，刘向和《汉书·艺文志》是必要的起点，但也是特别需要超 越的视点。刘向、刘歆父子所描绘的早期知识世界，被班固简化为《汉书·艺文志》中的六艺、诸子等清晰的线描图谱。但是，这个图谱只是一种叙事的结构，我们后来的人被这个叙事结构给“规范”了。如何站在学术传统之外观察这个结构，以及如何超 越它对我们的“规范”，乃是此书研究的中心问题和元方法。