Pardon the library humour. I intended to keep up with this blog daily when I started out. Sadly, this has not been the case....nor will it be in the future. I have been, to quote Maurice Moss, a "busy Miss Lizzy". I will endeavor to post as often as I can however.
Cataloguing has been the bulk of my work at Wichita State University's Ablah Library. Manipulating records to increase findability is fascinating work. This is really the first time I have had the chance to perform subject analysis, albeit very little since most of it is copy cataloguing, but I have been able to add fields, other than subject headings at this point, to give patrons more access points for their searches. I have split my time between books for the regular collection and rare books in Special Collections. The latter has been my favourite focus. When I met with the curator of Special Collections, I knew we would get along well, and I can't wait to start working with her. From my CV, she knows that I have an appreciation and love for medieval and Renaissance topics, so she pulled out a copy of
Fragmenta Regalia from 1641 for me to see. I actually got to, very carefully, peruse the pages. It's a beautiful book.
From working on the rare books collection last week, I have come across a number of treasures. One of the perks of the job was that I discovered the artist, Rockwell Kent. I have undoubtedly come across his work at some point in my life, as his style is very recognizable, but now I can put a name to the pieces. There is a donor who has gifted the Library with books containing illustrations by Rockwell Kent. Here is the
link from the Archives of American Art for more information.
As a side note, there are pieces of equipment behind the scenes in Special Collections that each have pictures of the Marx brothers attached to them. I have no idea what they do, they are all identical, but apparently the "bad one" is in the back. That, of course, is Groucho.
