Monday, March 31, 2014
Monastery's catalog is now online
To make the monastery's library holdings more accessible, the full catalog is now available online. This will allow monks to look things up from desktop machines or mobile devices. The standalone catalog file currently in two monastery locations is no longer the fixed point for look ups. In addition to the obvious convenience to the community, the librarian located some 6,000 miles away can immediately update holdings as new materials are added to the collection or when weeded titles are removed.
Earlier this month (March 2014), after working on reclassification of the Liturgical sub-collection, the monastic community welcomed him to an evening recreation. Among the topics of conversation were the diversity of the library's collection and some history on how some of the books were acquired. Along with that was mentioned an interesting cataloging practice, namely that books which authors personally signed were noted within the catalog records. Try out the catalog entering the keyword "signed". You may be impressed with what you discover there!
Search the OPAC.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Shifting Shelves, Shifting Paradigms
A subtle and almost imperceptible change has been taking place in libraries for some years now. Going away or gone is the traditional notion that libraries are confined to book collections. Instead, libraries refer to what they have in terms of print and electronic collections, the latter being retrieved by machines on site, off-site, or through mobile devices, such as smart phones. Another development among various types of libraries, including academic ones, is that their space is no longer used exclusively for quiet reading. The Monastero San Benedetto library and its collections are not exempt from changes in both what they hold and how their resources are used.
When the handsome bookshelves were constructed in time for the library’s inauguration and blessing in 2003, they seemed perfectly adequate for the need at hand. In fact, the books owned by the monastery at the time were too few to fill the shelves. Over time, of course, the holdings grew and there were various discussions and proposals offered on how to alleviate the overcrowded shelves and the backlog of books waiting for a permanent spot. Today, as in the beginning, priority has been given to the “sub-collections”: works on liturgy, monasticism, and patristics. This focus on formative texts has put perspective on the disposition of books containing all other subjects. For now at least, prioritization has helped to solve the issue of shelf space. The purchase of some very nice portable shelving, too, has both given additional space for books and helped carve out a new location for community and individual activities such as classes, recreation, meetings, and reading.
One of the more interesting developments noted on this author’s visit in 2011 was a small digitization project which reflects, in microcosm, a broader societal trend toward ubiquitous mobile communications. One of the monks of the community who needs to travel frequently has found a way to observe the monastic orario while away from the community through use of a digitized Antiphonale Monasticum placed on his iPhone. A future possibility is that he may have the Breviary digitized for his phone as well. Although the books used for the liturgy of the hours are not technically part of the library collections, it is worthwhile to note that these two highly valued texts are in the process of going mobile. This may have profound implications for library resources, particularly if older, heavily used texts become digitized and used, while bypassing the library’s physical space.
As a result of this development locally, and a proliferation of this pattern in libraries worldwide, we can say that the word “library” has been redefined or that “collections” are a more adequate substitute for the former term. The monastery’s most important texts will always be those selected for its sub-collections and it is certainly conceivable that some of these will qualify for digitization and access from anywhere, any time. However, necessity and the transitional states of publishing, technology, and the monastery’s existing library holdings will all play a part in what will redefine the “library” for the monks of Norcia.
When the handsome bookshelves were constructed in time for the library’s inauguration and blessing in 2003, they seemed perfectly adequate for the need at hand. In fact, the books owned by the monastery at the time were too few to fill the shelves. Over time, of course, the holdings grew and there were various discussions and proposals offered on how to alleviate the overcrowded shelves and the backlog of books waiting for a permanent spot. Today, as in the beginning, priority has been given to the “sub-collections”: works on liturgy, monasticism, and patristics. This focus on formative texts has put perspective on the disposition of books containing all other subjects. For now at least, prioritization has helped to solve the issue of shelf space. The purchase of some very nice portable shelving, too, has both given additional space for books and helped carve out a new location for community and individual activities such as classes, recreation, meetings, and reading.
One of the more interesting developments noted on this author’s visit in 2011 was a small digitization project which reflects, in microcosm, a broader societal trend toward ubiquitous mobile communications. One of the monks of the community who needs to travel frequently has found a way to observe the monastic orario while away from the community through use of a digitized Antiphonale Monasticum placed on his iPhone. A future possibility is that he may have the Breviary digitized for his phone as well. Although the books used for the liturgy of the hours are not technically part of the library collections, it is worthwhile to note that these two highly valued texts are in the process of going mobile. This may have profound implications for library resources, particularly if older, heavily used texts become digitized and used, while bypassing the library’s physical space.
As a result of this development locally, and a proliferation of this pattern in libraries worldwide, we can say that the word “library” has been redefined or that “collections” are a more adequate substitute for the former term. The monastery’s most important texts will always be those selected for its sub-collections and it is certainly conceivable that some of these will qualify for digitization and access from anywhere, any time. However, necessity and the transitional states of publishing, technology, and the monastery’s existing library holdings will all play a part in what will redefine the “library” for the monks of Norcia.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Getting Closer
As follow up to the last post, work began anew in December 2009 to fine tune call numbers assigned to the books. With Dewey classification manuals at hand, we concentrated on the library’s church history section. Not a cataloger by profession, this librarian met his learning curve, encouraged by Italian coffee and guided by Br. Peter Damian’s good sense. If I were to state that classification of church history is somewhat complicated, this would be understating things. Illustrating this are the questions that need to be answered (for classification purposes) concerning saints: Are they founders of religious orders? Are they men? Women? Did they live in the apostolic period or after 1054? Were they mystics? Did they also leave a body of writing? These and other considerations would determine an exact call number for each book. This was something of a hair-splitting exercise, but the end result is that church history (approximately 300 books) is in far better shape now than it was before. To further distinguish the topical changes within this section, Fr. Cassian ordered nicely finished blocks of wood to serve as faux books. The current plan is to label these dividers with the subject matter of each sub-section, with the purpose of informing browsers of topical progressions.
October 2010
Most recently, I returned for a few days in October to resume work on the classification refinements. This time, attention was paid specifically to what is being called the “monastic sub-collection”. This is a section of a few hundred books set aside on separate shelving. These texts support the formative development of the community and include books such as the Rule of the Master, commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict, works by Dom Columba Marmion among other substantial works. Fundamentally, this section is now tighter in focus, with books classed for the most part under 255 (Religious Congregations and Orders) and 271.1 (Religious Orders in Church History). What happened in the initial round of cataloging was that anything resembling monasticism was placed there. The book titled Monks and Wine is one such example. Inasmuch as it is about what some monks do, it doesn’t necessarily fit well with monastic spirituality, theory or philosophy. Also, many books about specific monasteries, beautifully illustrated with photography, were located there. We decided to place these instead in the more appropriate architectural or geographical sections. Historical works on specific monasteries around the world remained in the sub-collection, but these, too, needed further call number refinement. Geographic Cutters (numbers specific to places) were added to the basic call number of each book. It’s now possible to browse this part of the collection and expect to find histories of specific monasteries in a more satisfying, logical order.
Comparisons to more established libraries
I spent a little time in the library at the Pontificio Ateneo Sant'Anselmo exploring the organization of its collections. They use an accession type of classification system to order their materials. Often this means that books are located on the shelves according to broad subject areas. A number is assigned with the lettered prefix. For instance: Mon 1337. The prefix ”Mon” would indicate that the work is generally about monasticism and 1337 simply indicates which book it is in the order of books received or purchased. This makes the backend cataloging process a cinch, but is not much help for someone browsing the shelf, expecting all books on a single topic to be close together. Consequently, one must use the catalog to search for books on a given subject. As a point of comparison, I think our system which strives to keeps books in discrete topical order following a reasonable progression, has greater advantage in terms of find-ability. The monks’ library at Norcia has been organized under the theory that its community members will easily be able to view and select from areas of the collection that interest them. This remains the ideal, of course, and progress is being made toward that goal slowly and incrementally.
If this were strictly an academic library, it's possible that the catalog would be used to a greater extent since important books for scholarship are plentiful, but not always located in obvious locations. This is particularly the case when the subject matter is interdisciplinary in nature. If I were to try to class the library in terms of type, I couldn't say it's a purely academic collection. In a sense it is an academic library since monastic and patristic works are used for the formation of the members who take formal classes and much of the donated material has been based on academic research. And indeed the purpose of the library is to support this. However, the community also tends to view the library as a source for books of personal interest, and so resembles a public library in this sense. Regardless of the type it more closely resembles, it needs to be organized in a way that makes sense and is useful to its owners. The work of correcting the classification numbers will be ongoing, but certain areas will need to be given priority. For personal enjoyment and spiritual enrichment, the monks tend to look for books on spirituality, biography, and literature, particularly fiction. These areas will be given full attention in the coming year.
October 2010
Most recently, I returned for a few days in October to resume work on the classification refinements. This time, attention was paid specifically to what is being called the “monastic sub-collection”. This is a section of a few hundred books set aside on separate shelving. These texts support the formative development of the community and include books such as the Rule of the Master, commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict, works by Dom Columba Marmion among other substantial works. Fundamentally, this section is now tighter in focus, with books classed for the most part under 255 (Religious Congregations and Orders) and 271.1 (Religious Orders in Church History). What happened in the initial round of cataloging was that anything resembling monasticism was placed there. The book titled Monks and Wine is one such example. Inasmuch as it is about what some monks do, it doesn’t necessarily fit well with monastic spirituality, theory or philosophy. Also, many books about specific monasteries, beautifully illustrated with photography, were located there. We decided to place these instead in the more appropriate architectural or geographical sections. Historical works on specific monasteries around the world remained in the sub-collection, but these, too, needed further call number refinement. Geographic Cutters (numbers specific to places) were added to the basic call number of each book. It’s now possible to browse this part of the collection and expect to find histories of specific monasteries in a more satisfying, logical order.
Comparisons to more established libraries
I spent a little time in the library at the Pontificio Ateneo Sant'Anselmo exploring the organization of its collections. They use an accession type of classification system to order their materials. Often this means that books are located on the shelves according to broad subject areas. A number is assigned with the lettered prefix. For instance: Mon 1337. The prefix ”Mon” would indicate that the work is generally about monasticism and 1337 simply indicates which book it is in the order of books received or purchased. This makes the backend cataloging process a cinch, but is not much help for someone browsing the shelf, expecting all books on a single topic to be close together. Consequently, one must use the catalog to search for books on a given subject. As a point of comparison, I think our system which strives to keeps books in discrete topical order following a reasonable progression, has greater advantage in terms of find-ability. The monks’ library at Norcia has been organized under the theory that its community members will easily be able to view and select from areas of the collection that interest them. This remains the ideal, of course, and progress is being made toward that goal slowly and incrementally.
If this were strictly an academic library, it's possible that the catalog would be used to a greater extent since important books for scholarship are plentiful, but not always located in obvious locations. This is particularly the case when the subject matter is interdisciplinary in nature. If I were to try to class the library in terms of type, I couldn't say it's a purely academic collection. In a sense it is an academic library since monastic and patristic works are used for the formation of the members who take formal classes and much of the donated material has been based on academic research. And indeed the purpose of the library is to support this. However, the community also tends to view the library as a source for books of personal interest, and so resembles a public library in this sense. Regardless of the type it more closely resembles, it needs to be organized in a way that makes sense and is useful to its owners. The work of correcting the classification numbers will be ongoing, but certain areas will need to be given priority. For personal enjoyment and spiritual enrichment, the monks tend to look for books on spirituality, biography, and literature, particularly fiction. These areas will be given full attention in the coming year.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Classification Review
When the librarians began to organize the monks' collections, we created catalog records employing what's called "copy cataloging". This is basically a process of taking machine readable code from trusted sources, and importing it into catalog software. We hummed along for several years using this standard practice, but paid only occasional attention to which edition of Dewey Decimal Classification was associated with the call numbers imported with each record. The net result of this is that now there are some disruptions within the logical hierarchy of subjects, which are most obvious to community members who browse the shelves for a good book to read. Of course, the catalog will direct monks to the specific location of books, but many find it more enjoyable to go directly to the shelves.
Realization of the classification problem was slow in coming. We librarians should have known this was an issue for the community when they first brought it to our attention in 2003. Our response was simply that the community needed to be educated on the conceptual subdivisions of the Dewey 200 religion class. But very little would get in the way of our rapid-fire copy cataloging machine. When the cataloging process was slowed to a halt last Spring due to space constraints, it turned into an opportunity to review what had been accomplished since the beginnings in 2001. Taking time to examine some rather glaring examples of mis-classification led to a reconsideration of both the classification system in use and our standard for accepting imported bibliographic records.
With time to think things over, some research, and discussion with more experienced librarians, we began to look at alternate classification systems. Would a change to the Library of Congress Classification System give us a more satisfying taxonomy? Greater accommodation for very specific subjects? More stability with respect to classification authority? Could a retrospective conversion of nearly six thousand records be completed by one person in a short period of time?
Turning to the literature on the philosophical underpinnings on the major classification systems, we were encouraged by what we found in John L. Gresham Jr.'s article, "The Place of Religion in the Universe of Knowledge according to Various Systems of Bibliographic Classification." (See Journal of Religious & Theological Information Vol.2 (1) 1994). Dewey looked at the body of religious knowledge through a decidedly Christian lens. In fact, he left only a few call numbers at the end of the 200 class (the 290s) for non-Christian religions. While about half the collection at Norcia are theological monographs, the remainder are non-religious. For serious reading, the community members draw primarily on the books located within the 200 class. Conceptually it makes sense to employ the religious sensibility of a class which originated from a Christian worldview. However, Roman Catholic subjects do not necessarily fit well within this class, yet the system is pliable enough to allow for modification.
For our purposes, we will likely continue with Dewey classification, but review all records to ensure that a single edition (20th), will be used to ensure consistency. In December, this librarian will seek to correct some of the more glaring deficiencies, and add some discrete signs to delineate the major divisions within the 200 scheme.
Realization of the classification problem was slow in coming. We librarians should have known this was an issue for the community when they first brought it to our attention in 2003. Our response was simply that the community needed to be educated on the conceptual subdivisions of the Dewey 200 religion class. But very little would get in the way of our rapid-fire copy cataloging machine. When the cataloging process was slowed to a halt last Spring due to space constraints, it turned into an opportunity to review what had been accomplished since the beginnings in 2001. Taking time to examine some rather glaring examples of mis-classification led to a reconsideration of both the classification system in use and our standard for accepting imported bibliographic records.
With time to think things over, some research, and discussion with more experienced librarians, we began to look at alternate classification systems. Would a change to the Library of Congress Classification System give us a more satisfying taxonomy? Greater accommodation for very specific subjects? More stability with respect to classification authority? Could a retrospective conversion of nearly six thousand records be completed by one person in a short period of time?
Turning to the literature on the philosophical underpinnings on the major classification systems, we were encouraged by what we found in John L. Gresham Jr.'s article, "The Place of Religion in the Universe of Knowledge according to Various Systems of Bibliographic Classification." (See Journal of Religious & Theological Information Vol.2 (1) 1994). Dewey looked at the body of religious knowledge through a decidedly Christian lens. In fact, he left only a few call numbers at the end of the 200 class (the 290s) for non-Christian religions. While about half the collection at Norcia are theological monographs, the remainder are non-religious. For serious reading, the community members draw primarily on the books located within the 200 class. Conceptually it makes sense to employ the religious sensibility of a class which originated from a Christian worldview. However, Roman Catholic subjects do not necessarily fit well within this class, yet the system is pliable enough to allow for modification.
For our purposes, we will likely continue with Dewey classification, but review all records to ensure that a single edition (20th), will be used to ensure consistency. In December, this librarian will seek to correct some of the more glaring deficiencies, and add some discrete signs to delineate the major divisions within the 200 scheme.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Are you following Fr. Benedict's Nuncium posts? Are you interested in further coverage of the monastery or Norcia itself? Google Alerts is a free notification system which harvests keywords you provide and delivers articles, blog entries, and other web content to you by email or feeds. This service began in 2003, and is attracting librarians who use it to track any topic. Visit http://www.google.com/alerts for further detail.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Recent Additions :the Fathers
Augustine
The Works of Saint Augustine: expositions of the Psalms / III-XV
PAT 189.2 .A92 2006
Gregory, of Nyssa, Saint, 335-394.
De vita Moysis.
La vita de Mose.
PAT 222.109 .M6 G731 2001
Origene.
74 Omelie sul Libro dei Salmi / traduzione e adattamento di Gerolamo; introduzione, traduzione e note di Giovanni Coppa.
PAT 223.206 .O69 S171 1993
Tezzo, Giovanni.
La Trinita di Sant' Ilario di Poitiers / a cura di Giovanni Tezzo.
PAT 231 .I27 T832 1971
Leo I, Pope, (d.461).
I Sermoni di Leone Magno: fra storia e teologia.
PAT 239.3 .L43 1997
Sant' Agostino.
Un Canto a Deici Corde
PAT 242.2 .A6
Sant' Agostino.
Le Confessioni.
PAT 242.2 .A6 1949
St. John of Damascus.
On the Divine Images.
PAT 248.3 .J62 1994
Cassiano, Govanni.
Le Istituzioni Cenobitiche.
PAT 248.47 .C345 1989
Bouyer, Louis.
La Spiritualita dei Padri
PAT 248 .B782 1988
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Publications about our Library
For information on the initial organization of our library, read
- Allen, E. and Wolf, M. (2005). To each monk his book: providing access through collection organization at Norcia's new library. Journal of Access Services, 3 (1), 1-16.
For an assessment on the development of our library, read
- Allen, E. (2006). Ranganathan’s third law and access at Norcia: an assessment. Journal ofAccess Services, 4 (3/4).
One of our librarians was recently featured in The Palm Beach Post newspaper: Library association leader lives life of many chapters July 30, 2008.
The Spring 2008 issue of the ATLA Newsletter carried a summary of our librarians' December 2007 visit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)