Library school in the early '70,s in reflection seems archaic. We had to learn to write library cards for the catalog; getting every single bit of information regarding a book in the right place on the card, in proper wording or abbreviating, and the subject heads and cross references had to be by the book bible, the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd Edition. My irritation in college was the working librarian who would come to class with her cards empty and whine till I let her copy my cards. People like her should burn in hell and people like me should be there to dip my finger in water for her parched mouth. That is a bit strong, perhaps.
This does not include determining the subject headings. Working in the K-12 educational libraries, which was my end goal, I and my class mates, later my library colleagues, classified our material by the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Melvil Dewey has had his system modified about 22 times. I wouldn't be surprised if he will be thrown under a table soon, if he hasn't been already. When I sent the biography of my dad, "Artist and Blacksmith: Axel Sacrison" to the Library of Congress for cataloging and copyrighting one of the subject headings listed for that book was "Outsider art."
Below will show you how tedious this business was/is. Today I have the card catalog cabinet from the high school at which I taught. I chose the cabinet from the Math department and saved one drawer of the old cards. I should have saved more. But what did I know then? Not much. When the catalog was automated the furniture went to the librarians who had to live through this brutality for most of their working years. It now makes very nice jewelry drawers. Not that I have much of that. I do have two pieces of jade in it that a New Zealand Maori artisan gave me with sandpaper to work it into a brilliant square and oblong when I get old.
This does not include determining the subject headings. Working in the K-12 educational libraries, which was my end goal, I and my class mates, later my library colleagues, classified our material by the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Melvil Dewey has had his system modified about 22 times. I wouldn't be surprised if he will be thrown under a table soon, if he hasn't been already. When I sent the biography of my dad, "Artist and Blacksmith: Axel Sacrison" to the Library of Congress for cataloging and copyrighting one of the subject headings listed for that book was "Outsider art."
Below will show you how tedious this business was/is. Today I have the card catalog cabinet from the high school at which I taught. I chose the cabinet from the Math department and saved one drawer of the old cards. I should have saved more. But what did I know then? Not much. When the catalog was automated the furniture went to the librarians who had to live through this brutality for most of their working years. It now makes very nice jewelry drawers. Not that I have much of that. I do have two pieces of jade in it that a New Zealand Maori artisan gave me with sandpaper to work it into a brilliant square and oblong when I get old.
| LC Control No.: | 2003277187 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | http://lccn.loc.gov/2003277187 |
| Type of Material: | Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.) |
| Personal Name: | Boe, Willo B. |
| Main Title: | Artist and blacksmith, Axel Sacrison / by Willo B. Boe. |
| Published/Created: | [Omaha, NE] : W.B. Boe, c2002. |
| Related Names: | Sacrison, Axel, 1899-1966. |
| Description: | 1 v. (various pagings) : ill. (some col.) ; 22 x 28 cm. |
| Notes: | "With partial catalog of art work by John Axel Sacrison." |
| Includes bibliographical references. | |
| Subjects: | Sacrison, Axel, 1899-1966 --Catalogs. |
| Outsider art --South Dakota --Catalogs. | |
| Finnish Americans --South Dakota. | |
| LC Classification: | ND237.S14 A4 2002 |
| Geographic Area Code: | n-us-sd |
| Quality Code: | pcc |
| CALL NUMBER: | ND237.S4213 A4 2002 |
| Copy 1 | |
| -- Request in: | Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms |
1 comment:
Hi Willo - for a while in my life I was a clerk in the school library and was familiar (intimate) with the Dewey Decimal System and the old outdated card files and drawers. I spent the summer of 1980 transfering the system to computers so that it would be ready for the students when they came back in the fall. I didn't think to ask for one of the drawers and really don't know what happened to them, - probably sold in a school yard sale. I guess there were/are lots of frailties in the Dewey System.
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