|
|
| Sunday, June 26, 2005 07:32 PM |
| The funny librarian, or why I (usually) don’t like cataloging |
| by poppy |
(Note: I wrote this yesterday, about the previous yesterday.)
Until yesterday, the various media items I posses were not arranged in an order that would appear logical to anyone but myself. I had a certain sense of pride about it; if asked, I could immediately lay hands on something that appeared lost to the uninitiated outsider. My CDs for instance. Firstly, I used to use folders and chuck the jewel cases, so a huge chuck of my collection is effectively hidden on the shelf. A stranger would not know of my love of REM or Throwing Muses because nearly all of the evidence to that effect is tucked away. Within those folders (and, until yesterday, on my little shelf of jewel-cased-encased items), the items are arranged thematically. It may not seem so bad, except a theme might be “music I was listening to when I was breaking up with that asshole” or “music not to have sex to” (sorry, NIN doesn’t do it for me in bed). There is also band evolution; Breeders is followed by Belly which is followed by Tanya Donnelly’s solo stuff. Some of the jewel case items were arranged together because they all had cardboard casings, and a bunch of live stuff was placed together. I was upset years ago when I found out that Michael Penn and Aimee Mann were married, because I certainly would have put them together instead of placing her largely within the movie soundtracks.
Far worse than that however were my books. I gave up on the idea of trashing my library in favor of an ascetic’s décor, so yesterday I was once again tasked with arranging the many books that inhabit our lives. The non-fiction arrangement is important to me, because I often get on kicks and books that might not seem related on the surface actually have a lot to do with one another (quite apart from the tenuous association in my head that is). But really, when you come down to it, there are a finite number of “super-categories” for non-fiction; Dewey only acknowledges 10 after all. All in all, it is a fairly straight forward proposition. Philosophy gets a shelf next to mythology/religion. Poetry and drama intermingle. When it comes to fiction however, my previous arranging mirrored to above CD drill; themes known only to me. I often arranged “pretty” (i.e. trade paper) together and left the beat up, used mass markets fend for themselves sans rhyme or reason. Yesterday something stuck me, perhaps the spirit of compromise (though I’m guessing exhaustion), and I asked feanor, “Do you want me to arrange the fiction alphabetically?” This pleased him a great deal, so I began. And almost immediately wondered why in heaven’s name I did not do this before. It was so freeing not to have to interpret something so fickle as fiction. And though some strange pairings have been wrought, overall it is pleasing. And now all our fiction and CDs are in alpha order. My cataloging professor would be proud.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
