The two articles are relatively focused, failing to give a broad overview of hypertext. That should become clear, instead, from the lecture and from the exercises. In particular, working with the Hypertext Compendium and WWW should allow you to read interesting background materials. See also the boxes and sidebars in the CACM articles and Krol Chapter 13. While the Krol chapter is not discussed in depth below, it is a good reference for WWW. A copy of his book is on reserve in the library, in addition to the copies of chapters 12 and 13 that were made available separately.