Organization In 21st Century America

So I was reading a book on Benjamin Franklin's book collection yesterday, and his attempts to organize it. This made me realize 1) my book collection is completely uncataloged (and, since it is currently in boxes, very unorganized) and 2) I really ought to consider making up a finding aide for my dissertation research notes.

In other news, my friends at the APS let me go up into the rare book vault and browse the shelves that have all the books I've been requesting, in case I missed something in the catalogue. It makes me realize how much, when I'm in open stacks, I like to do shelf browsing around the books I request. The difference between the online organization and the physical organization is pretty incredible. And I find it much easier to scan a shelf of books than to scan a list of books by shelf number. Of course, I also find it easier to scan/read a book in its original than flip electronic pages. Does this make me the electronic-age version of a dinosaur?

Research accomplished yesterday and today:

1) Read a bunch of political pamphlets.

2) Read through a couple of algebra and Latin arithmetic textbooks

3) Discovered the London Gazette online (thnx Taylor!)

Now I'm taking off researching early to go dissertate. A week to the ACLS deadline and counting!

Name That Englishman

One of the things I love the most about reading early modern stuff is all the names. I mean, sure, you've got the boring ones like John Lee or John Harris. And then you've got the uninspired names like William Williams (hello, imagination anyone?) or a slew of "The Elder"s and "The Younger"s kind of like our Senior and Junior nowadays. And then you've got the names that you just can't read (the handwriting's that bad).

But sometimes you come up with a winner. Like Nathaniel Clutterbuck. Jacob Tinkersone. John Nash (remember, the guy I decided was haunting the 20th c. John Nash). Hiblye, Stibbs, Asheyes, and the now-familiar Snape also pop up.

Then there are the awesome phonetic spellings, because nothing's standardized yet. Browne's not too bad, and Martyne's still recognizable. Jenckins, Symounds, and ffletcher are a little more out there.

Okay, I cheated on that last one. For those of you who don't know "ff" is the same thing as "F" in early modern English.

At any rate, early modern names are fun! Shakespeare, anyone?

Research accomplished today:

1) Finished one very annotated almanack and started reading through another.

2) "Read" a few Latin arithmetics.

3) Picked up a bunch of auction catalogues and had a fun discussion with Alvan about how a Rare Books & Manuscripts library acquires its collections.

Two Days And Counting!

Home Stretch

So today begins my last week in Illinois! I got to the library right on time this morning (okay, I do that most every morning) and stayed almost to closing (you can't stay all the way to closing because that's rude - the staff wants to leave at closing, too, but they've got to put away all your books first).

After all that hard work, I headed over to Panera, where the internet is much faster than my hotel and tried to email pictures into the Saint Mary's College of Maryland 2009 Governor's Cup Photography Competition. Phew, that's a mouthful! But I have some beautiful pictures... if only they weren't such huge files!

Research accomplished today:

1) Read some more almanacs, including one that had a list of "corrupt jurors" in it. THAT's a helluva way to go down into history!

2) Read some books about mathematical games and how to cheat at cards.

3) Read an Italian arithmetic book. Well, read is perhaps too strong a word, considering I don't read Italian. Although Italian is basically Latin. Which I barely read. But Latin, I mean, it might as well be Spanish. Now THAT I can read...!

P.S. I'm apparently really into my exclamation points today. Must be because I read about this:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2009/09/victoria-strauss-vdm-verlag-dr-mueller.html

and am still in !?!?!?

My Precious...

So for anyone who hasn't seen my car, it's a big gold-and-silver SUV. I love my car, but have mixed feelings about a very useful and multifunctional gas-guzzling SUV being my only mode of vehicular transportation. That combined with the fact that the Lord of the Rings movies were still coming out when I got it lead to the natural nickname of "My Precious."

Know the country music song "Think Before He Cheats" ? It's all about a girl who destroys her boyfriend's car because he cheated on her. I like the song, but anyone who did that to MY car would get socked with 1) a lawsuit 2) a restraining order and 3) my brother, all in short order.

With all this in mind... I come down from my room this morning and find a rose sitting on the hood of my car. Very deliberately placed there, as you had to tromp through a planter and stand on a bush to get to the hood of my car. I was - and still am - thoroughly creeped out by this, as basically no one in Illinois knows me. Whoever my secret admirer is... I don't have the faintest idea who THEY are. And given the distinctiveness of my car (did I mention it currently has a bike rack sticking out of its trailer hitch?) I'm pretty sure they didn't mistake my car for someone else's.

Insult to injury - a spider decided to create a web between my tailgate and my bike last night. I knocked it off the bike and am hoping it will remove itself from my Precious of its own free will while I'm at work. More likely, it'll lurk around under the handle of my driver's side door and bite me when I try to go grocery shopping this evening. But hey, if a rejected and irate stalker/serial killer blows up my car the instant I open the door, I'll never have to die of the spider's poison.

Paranoid? Not me...

Research accomplished today:

1) Finished my latin arithmetic book

2) Searched through several manuscript finding aides and one small manuscript collection. Haven't transcribed any of the cool documents yet, just found them so I know where to start on Monday... err... Tuesday... because apparently Monday's Labor Day.

All I can say is... TGIF!

Is This Seat Taken?

So I went off for my normal tea break today, and came back to find this guy sitting in my chair.

Now, admittedly, I hadn't left any books at my spot. Or my computer. Those are the big things that even the absolutely clueless can't miss. But you still have to be pretty out of it to not see all my papers, my pencil, and my laptop cord.

I went and carefully extricated my stuff (he'd set his laptop on my papers, his books on my pencil, and was SITTING on my computer cord).

He never once acted embarrassed or apologized.

(Insert judgmental term of choice here.)

Research accomplished today:

1) Read some commonplace books.

2) Plowed my way through a bit of a latin arithmetic textbook. Definitely need to brush up on my latin.

Palaeography Day

Today I got into reading some manuscripts. In a bizarre coincidence, the two manuscripts I wanted out of the entire UIUC were Post-1650 MS 0159 and Pre-1650 MS 0159. The poor staff at the issue desk were completely convinced I'd asked for the same thing twice, for at least about an hour (while I had run off to lunch so they couldn't double-check with me).

So in honor of the continued ruination of my eyesight, I hereby declare today:

PALAEOGRAPHY DAY.

What does that mean? I'm going to give you links to some palaeography websites so you can see exactly what I'm trying to read. And understand that, when I complain about having to use palaeography techniques to read a student's handwriting, said student has really bad handwriting.

http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/index.html

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/

And, because it can't all be in English:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latinpalaeography/