Reading Tree

I recently subbed at an elementary school and I had library time with my class. At the last minute I decided to bring my camera to the job to take pictures of the library. I thought it might be good to start a file on what the different school libraries looked like for ideas. I’m glad I did. Inside the library on a large wall was this tree.

The tree breaks the plane of the wall and creeps out onto the carpet. The leaves are filled with standardsand goals created by teachers after a training supported through a grant. What I saw in this tree is the potential to encourage children to read. What if a teacher, school librarian, or youth public librarian created a tree with each student filling in a leaf on a book that he or she read? Think of the tree growing larger and larger over the course of the year. Small acorns turn into large oak trees, and a single book read after another book fills the tree of knowledge.

What other ways could a tree be used to encourage children to learn and grow?

 

 

Forestville ES, Fairfax, VA.

Not 90, but “91Rules”

And almost 92 rules. Really?

The story of 91 rules goes back to the Victorian Period. Remember those Victorians and their love of scientific inquiry: Their need to classify, label, describe? Imagine this. In the1830s British Parliament argued for and against catalogs. Like catalogs could be a bad thing. Emotions were hot. How could a dictionary-like catalog be better than a living librarian? Absurd. And who says what information we catalog and how? Clearly, important debates for the British government.

But the contentious attitudes did not stop there. No. It was compounded by Anthony Panizzi, the newly appointed Assistant Librarian of the British Museum (1831) and later the Keeper of the Printed Books (1837) – really, the Keeper. I think we call that person the Curator now. But that aside, it was the fact that Panizzi was an Italian! A political refugee! Slanderous! A foreigner believed to sell white mice in the streets of London! Yes, the horrors! Even with all of these slanderous statements against Panizzi, he was able to convince Parliament to approve his cataloguing code that consisted of 91 rules, and became known by that name. Panizzi wasn’t happy. He had to relinquish one of his rules on corporate main entry. We almost had 92 rules – and as well all know, we should have had that 92nd rule.

The “91 Rules” became the basis of our modern day cataloguing. Charles C. Jewett was deeply influenced by Panizzi and created a code for cataloguing in 1850 that was to be used by the Smithsonian Institution.

Ironically, we have continued this debate only we have replaced dictionary-like catalogs with online search engines. Are librarians doomed to extinction? Or will they assimilate and become Borg – or cybrarians?

In all of the absurdity, irony, and oddity – I named this blog after Panizzi’s “91 Rules.”

 

Source: Taylor, A. and Joudrey, D. (2009) The Organization of Information, 3rd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, pp. 73 – 75.

What does the CIA have to do with Cataloguing?

Wow – where does the time go? It is time I wrap up this little story on the naming of the blog.

But first, I digress. What does the CIA have to do with cataloguing? This is wild! Another little gem of useless information. Or is it?

Back during World War II, for those of you old enough or interested in history you will remember we had the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) which later became the CIA. The OSS was feverishly working to create the bomb first. All kinds of scientific research was being conducted and it needed to be organized with bibliographic control. And it needed to be mechanized to keep up with the pace and to allow for greater access. Then, when we started winning the war, we began collecting German intel which then needed to be organized quickly so that we could use the information we gathered. Enter one Frederick Kilgour. He headed the distribution of this information for the OSS.

What became of Mr. Kilgour? He later went on to create the catalog of all catalogs – OCLC or less commonly known as the Online Computer Library Center. Need to find a book anywhere in the world? OCLC is your answer. The user interface is called WorldCat. Heard of that one? No? Go check it out. It is a lot of fun. And it is free! Find the book in a local library or where to buy.

www.worldcat.org

Okay – I’m going to make you wait on the 91rules reason. Not quite as interesting as the CIA. But what is?

I leave you with this thought:
Perhaps the organization of information – CIA and catalogs – are not all that dissimilar. Scary thought: national security and libraries.

Source of this priceless little gem? Taylor and Joudrey. (2009). The Organization of Information, 3rd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

91rules

So why 91rules?

I was reading scintillating material on the history of cataloging books. It was pretty dry until I got to the origins of the first card catalog. Any guesses? Go ahead try! But I know you’ll never figure this one out.

It has something to do with the French Revolution. Like tinned food? Hmmm.

Give up?

Okay – After the French Revolution, the new government decided it needed to figure out what was in the libraries, returning all of the materials that had been confiscated during the war back to their rightful homes.

But wait – there was a paper shortage.

So necessity and creativity came to the rescue. All of those decadent playing cards (which happened to be blank on the back) were converted into catalog records. One entry per card. They saved the Aces and deuces for books with longer titles. The government decided what information would be included on each card/record like author, size of the book, what it was made of, what it was about. Blah blah. And then they underlined the keyword that would be used for organizing/ alphabeticizing this big mess. When it was time to organize the cards, they sewed them together, threading through the lower left corner so that they would not become a mess again.

How cool is that?

But I still haven’t told you why this blog is called 91rules.

You’ll just have to wait for the next post.

Ah, man!

I learned this little gem in Arlene G. Taylor’s and Daniel N. Joudrey’s (2009) The Organization of Information, 3rd ed. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited. Amazon? B&N?