Extra Credit – Exploring the San Diego Central Library

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For this extra credit blog post, I will be documenting and analyzing my experience exploring the San Diego Central Library with my partner. I did not go into the library with the intention to find a book. Rather, I had gone in the past and wanted to show my partner what it was like. To connect this to the concept of bookishness, our exploration of the library was dissimilar from the experience of exploring other places in a fundamental way. While exploring the library, there is a feeling of immersion into a sacred place. Everything felt valuable–like a relic.

Catalog Cabinets

One of the first things we saw were card catalog cabinets. These contained cards which could point you to something which was of interest to you. I would imagine the experience of finding something through this catalog differs from looking it up online because you come across significantly more information “accidentally” as you look for the card which is of interest to you.

The cards looked as if they had been typed on a typewriter which is in line with the vintage feel of the cabinet. Presumably, if the cabinet were for a functional purpose, the cards would be printed. The decision to keep typewriter cards demonstrates a desire to preserve the ambiance created by the card catalog, the ambiance being that of from a time before the digital age.

What was especially interesting were card cabinets which explicitly encouraged exploration, such as the “curio card catalog.” This catalog was on the penultimate floor of the library–right under the rooftop floor. The placard for it defines a curio cabinet as a “specialized type of display case for presenting collections of curios, interesting objects that invoke curiosity, and perhaps share a common theme” from Merriam Webster.

This Wikipedia summary from a DuckDuckGo search shows a typical curio cabinet and a slightly more descriptive definition than provided above.

I forgot to take a picture of the Curio Card Catalog, however, you can see a portion of it in the picture to the bottom right. Evidently, it is designed to emulate the experience of looking through a physical library catalog. There is implicit message that while, yes, online catalogs may be more efficient and easier to use for many people, the experience of browsing a physical catalog is completely different. The curio card catalog serves to encourage the observer to view catalogs not as a means to and end, but a “display case for presenting… interesting objects that invoke curiosity” (Merriam Webster).

Special Collections

The Special Collections section of the library was like a museum. Many books were out for display with placards providing a brief description. Given that I had come here before, I was familiar with some of the material. To my surprise, however, I was much more familiar with the material than I once had been.

Thanks to this course, I am no stranger to approaching the book as an object. However, it was surprising to me seeing it outside of class–almost like running into a classmate outside of school for the first time. This book was the sole book on the table with a single light illuminating it, demonstrating its importance.
Similar to seeing the book through 5000 years, I surprised myself when I already knew what “fore-edge paintings” were.
The woodcut lettering on this music piece is not something I would have been able to identify by name a few months ago. Nor would I have been analyzing the importance this music peace must have had given its’ extravagance for its time.
Moby Dick special mention!
An Ethiopian scroll similar to the one we saw in Special Collections. Additionally, a book written on bark which demonstrates the resources available in Sumatra. Thanks to Borsuk, I wonder how the bark influenced Sumatran writing style.
The Ethiopian scroll pictured above was opened to this section. The drawing is something which could have easily been drawn today. It may have been opened to this section to make the observer feel a sense of comradery or familiarity with the artist of this piece.
An engraved stone from Kermanshah, Iran–the region where my grandfather was born and raised. I suspect the spelling “Kermansh” is a typo. It was an initially exciting and then dissonant feeling seeing something emotionally close to me from a far away place somewhere which is very familiar. I feel similarly in museums, which this experience made me realize are closer to Special Collections than I once thought.

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