I've recently been reading Nicholson Baker's essay "Discards" about the discarding of library card catalogs in the late 1980s into the 90s. There he describes portions of cataloging data which was likely lost in the digitization process and it makes me wonder what sorts of contemporaneous data would have been included in collections that might give us a view into Hard Histories based on the cataloger's perspectives of these materials. Does Hopkins still have their original paper card catalog cards for potential study?
From a historical methods perspective, it also makes me wonder what libraries and archives are doing to maintain some of this historical data in the digital era. Are librarians using version control programs (like git or sgv) to timestamp and log changes in records over time (to note changing perspectives or changes with respect to language or categorizations with respect to their archives?)
I've recently been reading Nicholson Baker's essay "Discards" about the discarding of library card catalogs in the late 1980s into the 90s. There he describes portions of cataloging data which was likely lost in the digitization process and it makes me wonder what sorts of contemporaneous data would have been included in collections that might give us a view into Hard Histories based on the cataloger's perspectives of these materials. Does Hopkins still have their original paper card catalog cards for potential study?
From a historical methods perspective, it also makes me wonder what libraries and archives are doing to maintain some of this historical data in the digital era. Are librarians using version control programs (like git or sgv) to timestamp and log changes in records over time (to note changing perspectives or changes with respect to language or categorizations with respect to their archives?)
Baker, Nicholson. “Discards.” In The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber. 1st ed. Vintage Contemporaries. 1994. Reprint, Vintage, 1997. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7554/the-size-of-thoughts-by-nicholson-baker/. (Originally published in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/04/04/discards)