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Re: New Yorker



Sometimes I despair about the profession I joined in mid-life and mid-career.

What a hopelessly defensive bunch of people archivists and librarians can  be.  Not only is this an unattractive personal characteristic, it can be very damaging to the professions as a whole.  We should listen to what our "users" think  ... not condemn them outright for having contrary views. 

Nicholson Baker is a very fine writer, who has had the temerity to suggest that not every decision made by librarians or archivists is an excellent one.

How dare he suggest that the card catalog (one of librarianship's great technological advances) had value as an historical document, as well as a useful tool.  I happen to agree with his basic point.  Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but I believe that the Harvard University Libraries stopped pitching out their old library catalogues after Baker's (controversial) article appeared in the New Yorker.  Not every library could keep its old catalogue ... but, again, some should and, fortunately, some have.

I think those of you chuckling over the supposed "unconscious irony" of Mr. Baker's having used the internet to track down books he discussed in one of his inventive essays should give him more credit.  I imagine he was fully aware of what he was doing.  More important:  there is no contradiction between his having argued that card catalogues have value as historical documents and therefore should not be cavalierly thrown out, and his having used all the digital resources at his command to do other, creative and valuable work.

I can hardly wait until the end of my work day in order to buy a copy of the New Yorker.  

Sally Gibson (diving for cover in Toronto)



>>> Richard Cox <rcox@MAIL.SIS.PITT.EDU> 07/20/00 11:32am >>>
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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