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
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?
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.
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
