LS 500 Hidden Wisdom & Unseen Treasure

Russell, B.M. (1998). Hidden Wisdom and Unseen Treasure: Revisiting Cataloging in Medieval Libraries. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 26(3):21-30.

In this article Beth M. Russell talks about how catalogers in medieval times dealt with the same challenges and problems that current day catalogers face.

The issues Russell examines are:

• How to organize information
• How to serve local needs
• How to provide access to individual works within larger bibliographic formats

Russell states:
“Library Cataloging reveals how those entrusted with the care of books thought about the books and just as interesting, how they thought about the knowledge contained in the books.”

Russell then goes on to say:
“Modern authors see the study of library catalogs as a source of literary and intellectual history, and it seems clear that library catalogs serve first and foremost as a source of the history of the book itself.”

It is interesting to note that Russell herself is a cataloger. The bottom front page of the article lists, Beth M. Russell, MA MLIS, is Original Cataloging Librarian, Cushing Memorial Library, Texas A&M University. So an article about catalogers by a cataloger; it makes sense to me as I’ve always heard, Write what you know.

In medieval times there was no standard from which all catalogers were able to start from. They each started from scratch when cataloging every collection. By contrast in today’s times there are standards and guidelines that catalogers follow. An example of this would be what IS and what IS NOT a Library of Congress Subject Heading. The foundation that that catalogers both in medieval times and catalogers of today built upon revolved around what the catalog was needed for, who would be using the catalog and what terms would they be searching the collection by.

Russell gives a working definition of catalogs as:
“Guides to the content and location of the books available for use.”

I do agree with most of what Russell states in the article. Catalogers in medieval times and catalogers of today definitely face some of the same problems. Most of those problems are able to be solved by out-of-the-box thinking in both eras. It just takes as Russell stated in her article someone that cares about the books and the knowledge inside of them. Librarians and Catalogers in particular are those people. We are the guardians of information and responsible for disseminating it quickly and efficiently to those that require or want access to the information.