From Byzantine Art to Winnie-the-Pooh: classifying a private library

摘要

I recently had the opportunity to do something unusual: create an entirely new classification scheme for a library which had not previously been catalogued or classified. The library in question is the personal property of a private individual. It consists of several thousand volumes, most of which reflect the owner's interest in art. They include monographs about art, exhibition catalogues, auction catalogues, dealers’ catalogues, museum collection catalogues, private collection catalogues, and a few other miscellaneous items. The client wanted the books catalogued as a way of keeping track of what he did and did not have in order to avoid acquiring duplicates, and because he wanted the ability to search his library for books on a specific subject – Byzantine icons, or Medieval enamels, for example.