Turn of the century bibliotheraphy

[JJ]

This may be of interest
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-...

[Matthew]

Thanks, JJ, for the article, which I found thrillingly paternalistic. (I relish reading things which could not be written today--even if I don't really agree with them.) I wouldn't presume to single out "women as objects of care to the librarian," but I do think there is something in the notion that each reader shouldn't have to wander the stacks in isolation and ignorance. A knowledgeable and interfering librarian is a good thing if you can find one. (I liked the book-mark idea.)

I usually try to find out what reading influenced favorite authors or public figures and use that as a guide, and now social networking helps, too, but it is all rather disorganized and piecemeal and sometimes I do long for the guidance of a reader as knowledgeable as A.Z.S.

I'm curious: What line of research led you to this article?

Matthew Gatheringwater

[JJ]

You're most welcome, Matthew. I had found it, and found it curious, and it was a librarianly thrill to be able to do something appropriate with it. "Each item its readers" to paraphrase Ranganathan.

I originally ran across in the course of preparing a small exhibit to accompany a year long Wind in the Willows series. I was trolling the pre-1923 NYT archives to see how Grahame and his writings were regarded - the incidental remarks of contemporaries shed a lot of light if one has the patience to ferret them out, and since my patrons might not, I try to find things they wouldn't think to look for themselves.

How to match the book (article, website, etc) and the reader is a perfectly endless study, and, as you say, has a large element of chance in it, no matter what.

Do you keep your "bibliographies of influence" anywhere? I should think they'd be of great interest to...somebody or other out there.

JJ Drinkwater, gatherer of scraps