At 03:29 PM 7/23/2007, Andrew Nagy wrote:
>I struggle to understand why someone would want
>to "browse" by author. Viewing a list of names
>won't help you find what you are looking for
>unless you know the exact, or close to, the name
>of the author. In which case you would just do
>an author search for that person and then in the
>results you can narrow down to the exact author you want.
You are assuming that this is a search for one
specific name. But instead it's a *browse* - a
survey of the territory. There are all kinds of
interesting things to be learned. Maybe relevant
now, maybe more relevant later. If I approach the
task with a prepared mind, the multitude of
information that enters my field of vision gets
processed and connections start being made.
Using my local OPAC, I find that browsing an
author list around the name "Bach" brings up much
wonderful information that I hadn't thought of
when starting the search. I learn that there is a
Bach-Institut in Göttingen (it shows a see
reference to Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institute
Göttingen - and a follow-up search on that allows
me to further browse around that area of the
alphabet); I am reminded of the Bach-Gesellschaft
(which has a see also reference to Neue
Bachgesellschaft); I learn that there are several
different Bach Festivals. A search that steered
me directly to "Bach, Johann Sebastian,
1685-1750" would not give me the opportunity for
the serendipitous learning that is vital to research.
The problem that I encounter in my case is that
my results are cut off at 10,000 - so as soon as
the screen hits good old J.S. Bach, that's it. No
scrolling forward. I suspect this limitation is
only present in the public version of the catalog.
Your example of Whitman allows me to discover
that there is a Walt Whitman Foundation - I
browsed from the start of the Whitman names and
saw "Whitman Foundation" with a see reference to
"Walt Whitman Foundation". There is NO such
mention when you arrive on the fourth page of
Whitmans and look at "Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892".
Ditto for the entry for "Whitman Collection
(Library of Congress)" and "Whitman House
Foundation" both of which have similar see
references. I also learn that there was a "Thomas
Jefferson Whitman, 1833-1890" responsible for a
collection of letters titled "Dear Brother Walt".
Also "Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor, 1795-1873" who
was Walt's mother and who also collected
correspondence (Wikipedia describes her as
"barely literate" but Britannica instead says
"little formal education" and there's much more
to be learned here:
<http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_94>).
I was quite unaware that these relatives existed
and that their names would be listed as *authors*
in a library catalog. All of this could be *very* relevant and *very* useful.
Browse is good.
Mike
mike at jazzdiscography.com
www.jazzdiscography.com
Received on Mon Jul 23 2007 - 19:38:59 EDT