The Wonder of Museums

I just finished reading Brian Selznick's new book Wonderstruck . While it's not really a book about libraries or museums, the book does feature books, museums, libraries, and bookstores.

The illustrations, which comprise half the book, are wonderful and the text is engaging. I loved the images and descriptions of the American Museum of Natural History http://www.amnh.org/. They just renovated their Mammal galleries with new dioramas which are described in Stephen Christopher Quinn's book Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History . In fact, the museum now has their floor plan online so you can follow the adventures of the characters in Wonderstruck. Here's the link to the floor plan http://www.amnh.org/plan-your-visit/interactive-floorplan .  

The second place the characters go is to the Flushing Meadow park to the site of the 1964 Worlds Fair http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/visitpanorama . I just had to check out is miniature model of the greater New York City. 

Wonderstruck provides a child's view of the wonders hidden in libraries and museums. Visit the website for the book and experience it for yourself. Read the essays about the libraries and museums for some extra insight http://www.wonderstruckthebook.com/home.htm

On the same topic, a student just recommended "David Beck's 'MVSEVM'" a video about a cabinet of curiosities at the Smithsonian.  The video starts 20 seconds in and is 7 minutes long. http://youtu.be/6Loer27MWTY  

Personal Libraries

In our exploration of libraries, we discussed many collections owned by individuals but none of the articles described how collectors feel about the materials in their homes and along their walls. Each of us has our own feelings about our books, why we acquired them,and where. Many of the books hold special memories. For me, they are souvenirs of places I've visited and people I've met. In other cases, they represent subjects I've studied over the decades. Some of the books are by authors I enjoy reading and so I want ALL their books.

Walter Benjamin's article "Unpacking My Library" (in Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1968); 59-67) is really a reminiscence of when and where he found the books in his collection. He describes the hunt, the quest, the drama of finding and acquiring books that he can read, fondle, and consult. For me, he captures the essence of collecting. 

Alberto Manguel in The Library at Night (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2008) ruminates about different types of libraries and collections that he has owned or visited. While I considered it as optional reading for the course, I'm no longer certain it fits into the overall focus of readings. What do you think? 

A fun book I came across is a series of interviews and glossy pictures of personal libraries by Leah Price entitled Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books (Unpacking My Library Series) (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2011). Between the covers of this slim, colorful boards, Price illustrates the arrangement of collections and the types of books that various writers collect. Check it out, perhaps your favorite author is included in the work.

There are other books about collectors and their books. Nicholas Basbanes, author and editor of Fine Books and Collections Magazine, has written a number of books about collectors. My favorites are A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books and Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World. The first is about the obsession of collectors, the second about how books shape thought and events throughout time. 


What's in your library?

National Agriculture Library

Many government agencies and organizations have their own libraries. The US Department of Agriculture  is no exception. The organization complex houses the National Agriculture Library http://www.nal.usda.gov/.

As librarians it is important to remember that the library site for an institution isn't the only place to search for information or answers to questions. Always check out the entire site, and their publications.

Follow this link if you are interested in learning more about this interesting and important library http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/series-so-what-do-you-do-national-agricultural-library-special-collections/

Their special collections are worth a look http://specialcollections.nal.usda.gov/

National Library of Medicine Digs into its History

The National Library of Medicine announced its new blog Circulating Now http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/ . The blog will showcase items from the history of the library and the history of medicine.

Their collections are vast and broad, and include books, manuscripts, prints, and objects. Herbals and botany, early works on medicine and diseases, and of course, cures. The blog posts will tie history and medicine together. Here's a link into the History of Medicine hosted by the National Library of Medicine http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/

Check it out and see for yourself.

Cataloging and organizing library collections

When we read Battles chapter 5 this week "Books for All," there's a lot of emphasis on organizing and cataloging collections. Of course, if a library isn't organized  or organized well, as most home library collections are not, it's difficult to find that particular book you are looking for. The same is true for libraries. 

In the nineteenth century, library collections increased dramatically, to the point that a basic inventory was no longer useful or helpful. Various librarians developed systems for cataloging books, that is assigning numbers or codes through which a librarian and / or researcher could retrieve the book and subsequently like titles from the shelves. Classification by subject is part of the same process. How do you shelve or co-locate like titles together. 
That's what Melvil Dewey and Charles Ami Cutter,
John Shaw Billings http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/about/collectionhistory.html#A1 design for American libraries, and by mid twentieth century Henry E. Bliss did the same for British Libraries http://www.blissclassification.org.uk/bcbibliog.shtml . But earlier, monks and librarians organized there smaller collections, as we read in previous weeks.

We've already read about the earlier efforts. I think Battles does a good job of describing what and how Panizzi organizes, catalogs, and classifies the British Museum collections. Here's an interesting article about the Panizzi's 91 Cataloging Rules http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=2426  Panizzi also designed the main reading room, the Round Reading Room at the British Museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museums_story/reading_room.aspx Just a few decades later, we see these same organizing principles applied to US collections.

Now there are other reasons why someone might catalog a collection. If one is a collector of a certain author or genre, he might want to confirm that he owns all the books and works. Using a bibliography of that author's collected works, the collector can catalog or inventory against the bibliography entries and describe specific copies held in that collection. Such is the case of described by Jerry Morris as he organizes his Boswell collection for subsequent sale. Read all about it on his blog: A Sentimental Library  http://mysentimentallibrary.blogspot.com/2013/06/cataloguing-and-recataloguing-boswell.html

Libraries in the New World

If you want to read more about the history of libraries in North America, you might check out these titles.

Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress: for Congress, the Nation & the World. John Y. Cole and Jane Aikin, editors Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress; Lanham, MD : Bernan Press, 2004

Webcast by John Y Cole "A History of the Library of Congress" Library of Congress Webcast - Library Docent Training  http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5058

Ewing, Heather. The The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian NY: Bloomsbury, 2007.

Society and Special Libraries

As we continue our exploration of libraries, we shift focus to libraries in North America. Just as there is a change in the nature of libraries and book collections in Europe, particularly England, in the 18th century, so there's a rise of subscription and circulating libraries in North America. Many of these libraries are called society libraries and the articles we read define this term as not libraries for a certain class, but for a group of like minded people interested in intellectual exchange and debate. Of the many institutions that were chartered and incorporated in the 18th century, only a few remain. Many are celebrating their 200th and 250th birthdays.

Last fall when traveling along the east coast, I took the time to visit some of the society libraries. Here are some photos of my trip.

The NY Society Library http://www.nysoclib.org is inconspicuous on the outside, tucked on a side street just off 5th Avenue in NYC and around the corner from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Their history is recorded by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr. and Jenny Lawrence in The New York Society Library: 250 Years (NY: New York Society Library, 2004). From coffered ceilings to curved stair cases, the library holds many riches that are available to its members.

The Boston Athenaeum http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/ is tucked in a side street in historic Boston with art galleries open to the public. The library is open to members only.

The Library Company of Philadelphia  http://www.librarycompany.org/ welcomes scholars and researchers into its quiet rooms. Now a rare book collection, this was once a vibrant society library open to anyone in Philadelphia.

While we don't really study the American Antiquarian Society http://www.americanantiquarian.org/, which collects published works pre-1850, that institution is celebrating 200 years. Philip F. Gura wrote Gura, Philip F.; THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, 1812-2012: A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY. (Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2012) (available through Oak Knoll Press) that showcases the rise of this institution dedicated to printed and the printed book. Isaiah Thomas, its founder, was fascinated with newspapers and inventoried the numerous publications as he studied the rise of the printing press. The institution collects widely and is open to researchers around the world.

The American Philosophical Society http://www.amphilsoc.org/, founded in 1743, focuses its collections on science, collecting both books and specimens. Benjamin Franklin was also a member of this august group of men. Their 250th anniversary was celebrated in 1993 and documented by Edward C. Carter II in "One Grand Pursuit" A Brief History of the American Philosophical Society's First 250 Years, 1743-1993 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1993).

Lawrence W. Towner wrote numerous essays on Past Imperfect: Essays on History, Libraries, and the Humanities (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1993) edited by Robert W. Karrow, Jr. and Alfred F. Young. Within this slim tome, are articles about the Newberry library http://www.newberry.org/, various influential libraries and archivists, and about the profession as a whole. A feast for the eyes and a treat for librarians.

My final example is a new book by Sarah Wadsworth and Wayne Wiegand (Library Historian) entitled Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman's Building Library at the World's Columbian Exposition (Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book) (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012) . These authors describe and study the 8000 volumes of women's writing that filled the Woman's Building Library in 1893 http://archive.org/details/worldscolumbiane14worl at a time when women were professionalizing and the library field was beginning to be dominated by women. Here's a link to the PBS program about the fair http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/peopleevents/pande08.html

This is just a taste of the many books write to celebrate libraries and the fascinating histories.

Readings about libraries - for your spare time

Every week, books about libraries wander across my e-mail.
Here's one suggested by a fellow student:
James Carley,Books of King Henry VIII and his Wives (British Library) (London: British Library, 2005) 

If you have other fun and informative reading suggestions, please pass them along 

Free for All: Inside the Public Library - a Film & Social Media Project

Since we are  talking about public libraries this week, I thought this would be a good video to look at and react to.  Through the various clips we see how libraries bring books to their communities and how patrons react to and respond to libraries.

Free for All: Inside the Public Library - a Film & Social Media Project

Here's the article that goes with the video http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Free-for-All-explores-libraries-value-4301986.php

Libraries are an integral part of my life. Not just because I teach about libraries and librarians, but because I visit the library several times a week. From videos to books, from reference books to primary sources, the library holds many treasures to explore sometimes I think the knowledge stored within is endless. 

For small communities, public libraries are community centers and lifelines particularly for those looking for work and applying for government assistance. They are places from which you can borrow reading and viewing materials for entertainment and education. 

What do you do at your public library?

Subscription and Circulating Libraries: What did they collect?

After reading the articles on circulating and subscription libraries, I wanted to explore the books that the members read. After all, the articles listed many books and magazines and I haven't read them, or at least not recently. The authors also mentioned that this period, the 1700s to early 1800s, gave rise to the periodical and the newspaper. Haven't newspapers and magazines been around forever? The answer to that question is no, these forms of communication really start in the late 1600s and flourish in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

One magazine that I wanted to explore is "The Gentleman's Magazine" which began publication in 1731 and ended in 1922. Wikipedia has a nice entry on the magazine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine along with some images of the front pages. Some of the issues are available through the Internet Archive and through Google Books. 

The Bodleian Internet Library of Early Journals http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/ provides full text / image access to Gentleman's Magazine and several others from the 18th and 19th centuries. 

I find these periodicals fascinating for their content and because the modern reader peaks into the past to see what others were reading.

What about books that were collected by these subscription and circulating libraries? What did people read? A combination of non-fiction books and treatises about philosophy, politics, science, technology, exploration and discovery, and of course religious sermons. The articles include many titles of early novels, including Pamela by Samuel Richardson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Richardson and even books by Swift and Scott. The attitudes of subscribers concerning fiction are similar to today's library patrons, "why are libraries collecting low-brow fiction, why not just literature?"Then again, when is the last time you read literature when it wasn't required in Grad School?

Think about the variety of books in your private library or that you have read. Do you read a variety? Would you want the local library to acquire only books according to your taste and interests or do you want more to select from? Reading books that are outside your comfort zone will make you a better librarian, able to provide better readers' advisory services, and of course, makes you well rounded.  What have you read that was different lately?

Just how do books function?

By now many of you have seen this wonderful video "The Medieval Help Desk" http://youtu.be/pQHX-SjgQvQ . The video has been around for a while. Nevertheless, the help and the attitude of the librarian as he relates to the monk faced with a new fangled book is priceless.

Enjoy.

Late Medieval and Renaissance Libraries

As I scrolled through the various e-mails and blogs I subscribe to, I came across one for the Peterhouse Perne & Ward Library at Cambridge http://perneward.wordpress.com/ This blog has two posts of interest to our class. The first post describes Richard Crashaw, poet and patron of the library, the second post talks about a donation of books and the wonders that will be added to the collection.  Why include this blog in mine? and why now? The Peterhouse Perne & Ward was founded in 1286 and has a rich history. Check out their website to learn all about it.

A colleague pointed out Jenny Weston's wonderful blog posting entitled "The Last of the Great Chained Libraries" http://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/the-last-of-the-great-chained-libraries/  . By the mid 1600s, most libraries have removed the chains from their collections. This is the last of the magnificent chained libraries. The photographs provide a glimpse of how difficult it must have been to read books that were attached to the wall, podium, or shelf.

If you want to read more about chained libraries, and their chains, check out John Willis Clark The Care of Books: An Essay on the Development of Libraries and their Fittings from the Earliest Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge at the University Press, 1901. (There's a digital copy on HathiTrust that's available through the KSU Libraries).

Here are some other books that shed light on the late Renaissance and Early Modern Period of Libraries. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (NY: WW Norton & Co, 2011) who writes about the discovery of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and its effect on the thinkers of the Renaissance. One of the main characters is Poggio Bracciolini, a Renaissance book hunter, who traveled to monastery libraries seeking books in Latin and Greek. The books Poggio found were transcribed and printed in Italy for the growing class of literate merchants and tradesmen as well as the intelligentsia. An earlier chapter describes the library at Herculaneum which we covered last week.

The Name of the Rose (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) by Umberto Eco (NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980) describes the adventures of a monk (played by Sean Connery in the movie) as they investigate a murder in a monastery. There are detailed and vivid descriptions of the library in Day One after nones and Day Two after compline and at terce. I've included a movie clip of one of the library scenes in the syllabus.

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (NY: Harcourt, Inc, 1993) describes the hunt for the few extant copies of a Dumas manuscript. The book dealer / detective (played by Johnny Depp in The Ninth Gate) searches through private and academic libraries and book shops for these manuscripts. I've also included some movie clips of this book in the syllabus.

Aside from fiction about libraries, I thought  you might enjoy a humorous poem about librarians Das Narrenschiff, by Sebastian Brant, which he called The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde (first printed 1509). Here's a link to the lines of verse that describe the librarian.

If you want to read the text of the poems, there's a copy on Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20179 . Look for "Here begynneth the foles and first inprofytable bokes."

Miniature Libraries

Libraries come in all shapes and sizes. Miniature Libraries which include miniature books are a marvel to behold. These special libraries are filled with tiny books that are legible with the naked eye and contain the full text.

Take a look at the creative way miniature books are housed and displayed.
What would you do with a library full of tiny books?

Library at Alexandria in the Roman Period

If you've become enchanted or curious about libraries in Rome or the Alexandrian Library itself, you might want to read Alexandria (A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery) by Lindsey Davis (Aug 31, 2010). In this work of fiction, Falco and his wife investigate murders at the library at Alexandria. The reader learns all about the layout, librarians, researchers, and history of the building and its collection. Of course, we don't really know all that much about the library as you've discovered. Nevertheless, Davis writes a good mystery and includes as much historical fact as is known.

If you encounter other mysteries about libraries in the past, please send along some titles so I can add them to the blog and the syllabus. 

Resources for histories of libraries

I've been thinking about Libraries all this week, that is the week before the course starts. I've come to realize that there are lots of ways to approach the subject. Some people want to look at pictures of libraries and their architecture, inside and out. Other people want to know about the collections libraries house and the treasures within. Still other people want to know about the history of collections, how they came about, and who uses the materials. We'll be exploring all these subjects and looking at libraries from a variety of perspectives. It is most important to recognize that libraries have evolved over the past 3000 years from repositories of records and knowledge to vast collections of writings throughout the ages. There are librarians and scholars who were influential in the development of libraries, of museums and archives. Others influences the collections by donating their books and creating a core around which to collect; I'm thinking of Thomas Jefferson and the Library of Congress. Most fascinating are the subscription libraries and the people who wanted to share their books. 

What type of library do you frequent? Do you share and trade books or titles with your friends and with strangers? Do you use GoodReads or LibraryThing or Bookish? How do you remember what you've read and do you go back to reread books?  My answer is yes to all these questions.

Throughout the next five weeks we are going to explore all facets of the history of libraries and their collections. You are going to study a library of your choice and write a short biography of it. The rules are loose. Find a library you want to know more about and create a biographical sketch.  There has to be a library you want to explore.

Below are some books that contain short biographical sketches and bibliographies. You'll find them in the library. If you cannot find a copy and want me to check out my copy, let me know via e-mail.

Books about Libraries that include bibliographies of libraries
Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson
Great Libraries by Anthony Hobson
The History of the Library in Western Civilization in 5 volumes by Konstantinos Staikos 

There's also a bibliography of American Library History entitled American Library History: A Comprehensive Guide to the Literature that you can find on the ALA LHRT website http://www.ala.org/lhrt/popularresources/amerlibhis . Each chapter is available as a PDF that you can download and search.


Take a look at the other links on my website http://www.mbkcons.com/wkshp/HistoryLibraries/HistoryLibrariesLinks.htm

Happy exploring.

Initial Thoughts about History of Libraries

As this course on the history of libraries begins in two weeks, the topic is on my mind. I cannot wait to delve into the articles I've selected this year. You can find the list on my website at http://www.mbkcons.com/Courses/HistoryLibraries/HistoryLibrariesSyl_Sum2013.htm

This blog is my opportunity to write about what I learn about the history of libraries.

A friend pointed me toward the article in the Wall Street Journal on the New York Public Library written by Julie V. Iovine entitled "The Library's Future is Not an Open Book" (May 14, 2013 pD5). Alas, the article is available online through a subscription only so I'll write about the article instead. Iovine describes the place of main reference / research libraries in the history of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century library construction. The buildings are magnificent representatives of the place of monumental libraries in society. Today, in the twenty-first century, the buildings are being renovated to fit our new view of libraries as centers for acquiring access to the internet and other digital resources, and places for meeting and collaboration. The magnificent centers of learning are undergoing a fundamental change in place and meaning within our society. Just as libraries have changed since the 18th century, so they are morphing into something that boggles the mind. How much libraries will evolve in our lifetime is unknown.