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New Yorker



Terry Abraham: "In addition to decrying the elimination of card catalogs
(because they hold information on use as well as specialized library
knowledge noted by librarians) Nicholas Baker also wrote a piece for the
New Yorker some years back in which he identified and commented on the
books used as backgrounds in sales catalogs, primarily those of Pottery
Barn."  Yes, that article is in his book of essays I mentioned in my
message.

Terry Abraham: "The interesting thing is that all he had to go on were the
fragments of titles on the spines. So he looked them up in an on-line
bibliographical database to identify them. Ironically, he did not seem
conscious of the fact that this would not have been possible in a card
catalog."  Right!  Baker didn't understand WHAT he was writing about.  It
is a very antiquarian, idiosyncratic view of the world.

Barbara Allen: "Does anyone know if Nicholson Baker is a librarian or
historian? I am just wondering where he is coming with his so-called
expert advice regarding management of libraries."  He is a WRITER.  He is
one of those people who thinks because he reads and writes books he is an
expert on libraries.


Richard J. Cox
Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice:  412-624-3245
FAX:    412-648-7001
e-mail: rcox@mail.sis.pitt.edu
homepage: http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~rjc

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