Actio 1.2: Subject Specific
(i.e. people, movement, agency)
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Summary
“The Card Catalog” explores the history of cataloging and the origins of keeping records of physical materials in a collection. Starting with a cuneiform tablet “found near the Sumerian city of Nippur and dated around 2000 B.C.” (p. 16) and including medieval libraries, and the creation and cataloging of a US National Library.
Devereaux, P., & Hayden, C. D. (2017). The card catalog: books, cards, and literary treasures. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. (worldcat.org)
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Type of History
This book is an example of the subject category. It follows the evolution of the records made and kept both for individual items and lists of all holdings in a particular collection.
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Methodology
The researchers asked ‘what were the predecessors to the physical card catalog?’ and ‘in what ways did the physical cards and the catalog evolve and why?’ Internal Library of Congress records and documents were consulted, The authors scoured image scans from the Library’s Prints and Photograph Division and chose images of book covers and interiors from the Rare Book and Special Collection Division. I think based on the sheer amount of resources at their disposal, the authors did a good job of balancing text and relevant images.
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Sources Used
The book only contains a selected bibliography. Many of the resources listed were published by the Library of Congress, which is also the institution that compiled this book. There are many scanned images of cards from different eras that appear in the book (primary source). It was very useful to see how visually the card’s contents, dimensions, etc. changed over the years.
I think the authors were effective in their use of sources. Since only 21 of its 225 pages were dedicated to libraries before the 1600s, it was appropriate to use secondary sources for that section. The main focus of the book was the construction of the card catalog around 1860, and almost all of the resources for this section are primary sources.
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Triangulation
The few secondary sources that the authors used were of high quality, and the information provided appears to be confirmed by multiple secondary sources. For this reason, typical secondary source problems are less concern in this case.
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Inherent Weaknesses
This particular topic has its limitations. Catalog cards and similar written records that change often can be seen as utilitarian and would sometimes be discarded when no longer current. Those that do exist from hundreds of years ago were handwritten and could be smudged, damaged, or in other ways difficult to read. The history from the last 15 years has been almost entirely digital, and the physical card catalog is dead. Therefore, continuing this area history will no longer have a paper trail.
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Historical Fit
It shows the important evolution of library records. It started out that collections were largely private and held by the wealthy. As more people were able to read, collections slowly started to become available to the public. The records had a new purpose and had to be understood by library patrons, not just librarians.
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Suggestions
I believe the authors did an outstanding job. It was a group effort and a book of 225 pages that was painstakingly researched and compiled. My only suggestion would be to find a way to get or take better scans of some of the old artifacts. I realize this is nearly impossible, as they are undoubtedly fragile and have restrictions about lighting sources based on inks and such.
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Critical Review
I first read this book shortly after I applied to this graduate program. A large reason I was interested in taking this History of Libraries class was because of this book. I enjoyed seeing the scans of cards that had been created using a typewriter and then had pencil handwriting to update the record. It made me think of that big wooden cabinet with all the little cards in little drawers differently.
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Addition
Once again, since this is an entire book instead of an article, there isn’t much that was excluded.
The one thing that the book didn't cover was what to do with card catalog cabinets now that they are no longer needed in libraries. This article from BookRiot.com (Links to an external site.) shows ways that card catalogs and similar furniture pieces can be used as home decor.
LIS 580: History or libraries
Spring 2020 / professor annette lamb
Submitted by Amy Coleman
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION (link here)
Read a book or an article related to library history. This should be a scholarly work. Write an analysis of this work including the following elements:
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Summary - Provide a brief summary of the article or book along with a complete citation
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Type of history - Based on Richard Krzyer's three types of library history: purpose, subject category, or historical method, what type of library history is this work?
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Methodology - What type of methodology did the researcher use in this study?
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Sources used - What specific types of primary and secondary sources were used? Provide examples and why you think they were effective or ineffective sources for this topic.
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Triangulation - Did the author do an effective job triangulating information and using a variety of sources? Provide an example
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Inherent Weaknesses - What are the limitations of this type of study and this work specifically? What are some of the limitations of studying this particular topic or time period?
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Historical Fit - How does this work fit within our larger understanding of library history? What does it tell us about libraries, library users, or librarians? What can we learn from this work? Why is this important or not important?
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Suggestions - What would you suggest to the author for future research? What do you think was missing? What questions did this article prompt in your thinking?
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Critical Review - What did you think about the work? Was it interesting and insightful or boring and biased?
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Addition - What can you add? Find something that's not incorporated into the work. Be specific.