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[lizzybennet]

"What can be more easy (those lacking understanding say), having looked at the title-pages than to write down the titles?" But these inexperienced people, who think making an index of their own few private books a pleasant task of a week or two, have no conception of the difficulties that rise or realize how carefully each book must be examined when the library numbers myriads of volumes. In the colossal labor, which exhausts both body and soul, of making into a alphabetical catalog a multitude of books gathered from every corner of the earth there are many intricate and difficult problems that torture the mind." -Sir Thomas Hyde, 1674

Do you read that? TORTURE THE MIND!! Being a librarian is going to torture my mind!

This is a quote from one of my text books in my cataloging and classification class. In our getting-to-know you posts, our teacher asked if any of us cataloged or classified anything in our own homes. Um, no? How about I'm lucky to know where a book is much less have it cataloged. I'm going to blame this on the fact that life with kids is too busy to bother with such things. Yeah, that sounds like a good excuse. I was surprised to hear how many people in my class DO catalog their things. One popular item turned out to be spices. Several people in the class alphabetize their spices. I keep wondering what about all that extra room behind the spices? Of course, that is if they keep their spices in the cabinet like I do. I suppose it makes perfect sense in a rack. Another person commented how he likes to go to his friends' houses and alphabetize their dvd collections (and then group by director.)

I do like to organize. At least, I used to like to organize before it just got stamped out of me. Honestly, how many times can I sort the toys by type only to have them mixed back up together before I'm a completely defeated person? Sometimes I daydream about the day when, in the far-off future, my house will be organized. When that day comes I'll alphabetize my spices and my dvds. For now, I've resigned myself to the fact that when I need to find a certain spice, I have to climb onto the counter to look through all of them until I find what I'm searching for, lurking in the deepest recesses of the shelving.

Comments

[gnawtee.livejournal.com]

heh We alphabetized our spices. It actually helped. But we have 3 full cabinet shelves full of spices, plus one overhead cabinet above the stove full of spices. I will find a recipe I like and not remember I already have the spice(s) I need and go buy another one. So I have like 10 black peppers and 3 paprikas. LOL

My brother has about 1000 DVDs (not exaggerating) and they are all alphabetized. God help you if you put one out of place. hahah

[themenow.livejournal.com]

My husband is like that. Last night we cooked dinner together because I'm trying to learn how to cook. I pulled out all the spices and found three black peppers and several salts. We have two big boxes of kosher salt too. And flour - holy moley, we have so much flour and sugar! I think maybe in a couple of months I'll do a big clean of our pantry and cabinets.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

I thought neither of you baked! What are you doing with so many baking supplies, lol?

[themenow.livejournal.com]

Well, I baked - as in past tense. I love baking cookies and cake because I like the batter the best. But really, I only did that on birthdays and around Christmas. But now I get to throw it all away!

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

Does your brother in law have kids? If so, wow! I'm amazed he can keep he's dvd's in order. I guess it's like anything else. If you teach them to keep things a certain way, they eventually will. Maybe I shouldn't knock the alphabetical spice thing until I try it. I'm pretty careful about only having one of each because I want them to stay relatively fresh. I've been in kitchens with spices from the 70's and I think that's just not for me. I guess limiting the amount I keep is my way of not having ancient spices, if that makes sense.

[gnawtee.livejournal.com]

My brother didn't have kids until he moved in with his girlfriend who has a 5-year-old. I don't know what happened to their DVD collection after he and his wife split...

I definitely need to do a spice purge. I'm sure some of mine are at least 10 years old and that no es bueno.

[themenow.livejournal.com]

hee hee maybe i need to get into librarianism. When we were teenagers I used to have every cd and tape cassette categorized and then alphabetized within the category. I did the same for my books. Now I just have my non-fiction books separated by my fiction books but everything is alphabetized, and if I know it, the books are done by series. If I don't know what order the books were written in by that author I'll shelve them by title alphabetically.

I try to organize our pantry but, like your kids, Mike just goes in there and tosses stuff around. So I've stopped doing that.

But I liked organizing and cataloging. Sometimes I hyper categorize and that causes me a lot of distress, so I try not to organize too much.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

The organizing part of librarianism I think you'd excel at. However, I'm starting to learn that a big part of the job is to deal with stupid questions all day, every day in a graceful and helpful manner. One example we talked about this week is research group who called around to the top 25 public libraries in the country and asked when Valentine's day was. It might seem like a stupid question, but the premise was that it is a question that might be asked by an immigrant who wasn't familiar with American holidays. It's amazing how many rude answers they got. The point of the article is that a librarians job is to help, no matter how silly or ridiculous the question might seem.

You can come over and help me organize my books :) HOnestly, since we've been moving so much I've sort of adopted the frame of mind that my books are transatory. I read them and then send them on to a new home. I'm starting to change that idea though. I want to start building my own library. Right now I just group them by paperback and hardback, then size. Not very logical, but it looks nice on the shelf :)

[themenow.livejournal.com]

to deal with stupid questions all day, every day in a graceful and helpful manner.

uuuugggghhhhh nooooooooo

The part about internationals asking questions is the hardest part to remember when dealing with them. I constantly have to remind myself that what may seem like an easy statement to me could be very confusing to someone else. It's really hard to constantly maintain that level of professionalism - for me anyway. Sad, huh?

I'd love to make my books more transitory but I love rereading them so much. I have pared down quite a few and have only kept the ones I like the most. But I'm still building. I like having a library. I would LOVE to have a real library some day.

[frizbeemom.livejournal.com]

I have my spices organized by... one big basket all thrown together and tossed onto the pantry shelf. :) I dream of one day having my house organized, decluttered and everything in its place. To make that dream a reality, my children will have moved out and possibly my husband. LOL.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

Even a basket is easier than what I have. SInce I'm so short and my shelves are so high, I just can't see what's in there. At least with a basket you can pull it down and dig through it. I like that idea!

And I totally agree. Someday, when the kids are gone, we can have an organizing party :)