Chekhov's Mistress
Book Slums Revisited: High Rise Condos
Responding to TEV’s bookshelf pictures, I posted the other day about the slum-like conditions that my books (those that have not been boxed up) live in. Yesterday, the NY Times looked at the home librarian of a librarian who I suppose is at the pinnacle of librarianism. In A Bibliophile, 3,600 Friends and a System, Kathie Coblentz, a New York Public Library librarian and author of “The New York Public Library Guide to Organizing a Home Library”, talks about how she organizes her book collection that runs around 214 feet of bookshelves, or 16 book cases, or 70+ boxes, or 3600 volumes, depending how you like to measure. None of these are organized in Deweyesque fashion, but all do fit in her apartment of about 900 square feet. Carole Braden of the Times distrustfully points out that Ms. Coblentz’s books are “Dust-free and with carefully cracked spines (a sign that books have been read, or at least leafed through).” But besides the hefty library, it is indeed her organizational scheme that is awe inspiring…
“Before arranging her books, she created a cataloging system: each bookcase and shelf gets a number, and space is allotted to categories and subcategories according to their estimated ”book feet“ requirements.
Grouped by country of origin – Ms. Coblentz speaks or reads 10 languages – the collection includes 12 shelves of classic German literature and 14 of Swedish mysteries. In her bedroom are two narrow oak bookcases holding dictionaries and foreign-language books and another small bookcase for cookbooks and English and American literature.
Since most shelves are at capacity, new finds necessitate ”overflow“ shelves and annex units, including a library cart in a corner of the living room.
To avoid the warping that results when tall books are interspersed with short ones, Ms. Coblentz has subdivided her categories by size, ranked 1 to 5; 1 is devoted to diminutive books including some Swedish tails, travel guides and comics.
Personal categories, of course, reflect personal sentiments: Ms. Coblentz’s ”special meaning“ section…”
What do you say to that? Wow! She would be horrified if she saw the stacks in my little book slum. If you would like to better organize your own library, the Times helpfully provides us with a link to Ms. Coblentz’s “Home Library System.” As for me, organization is futile.
Read widely, think well, and write often.
comments
I like the personalisation she can indulge in at home, however - large libraries don’t always have space or time to rank books by size. You’d be amazed how messy they really are - try volunteering for shelving in a public library sometime. It is such a physical business. No wonder when the librarian is at home, she tries to indulge some of the things she can’t get away with at work. Like ‘special meaning’ subject classification. Sweet. Think of it in the same terms as tidying up programming code.
– genevieve (02/12 at 07:58 AM)
I wish I had organized books. Mine are in the shelves according to size. Most of the bookshelves are double-shelved, which I am sure is a no-no. When I move this summer, I am contemplating some sort of organizational system. Then again sometimes when I am searching the shelves for a specific book, I come across one I had forgotten about.
– bookdwarf (02/16 at 03:38 PM)
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: February 11, 2005
- Filed Under:
Dependent Children of Independent Bookstores
- Comments:2
- Links to this Post: Technorati
