Friday 31 December 2010

2010 review

It's been a rather quiet year for shelfobsessed, at least on the blog - elsewhere we've seen cross-country moves and several national and international trips, which have used up quite a bit of time! One result of the cross-country move has been the combining of two collections housed on different coasts, and while we're far from current with our DVD and book cataloguing our CDs are nearly up-to-date. After a few days of categorisation, the CDs all have Dewey Decimal call numbers, and while they might not be labelled or physically sorted yet, it's good to have the preparation done.

Over the course of coming up with new call numbers for the CDs, we've been able to go over our 2010 acquisitions, the distribution of which can be seen below. Of the 63 new titles, 17 were from 2010 itself, while 2009 was also well-represented as we caught up with some releases we'd missed last year. Some of the more memorable call numbers are featured in this retrospective visualisation:

shelfobsessed in 2010

One particularly pleasing aspect of the Dewey decimalisation process, as referred to in previous posts, has been the thematic clustering of albums that under alphabetical or chronological ordering would not be anywhere near each other. Thanks to new acquisitions this year, a few sequences of three albums have been completed that are especially impressive (well, to me at least):

133.334 - Occultism - symbolic divination - omens

The Warning (2006) - Hot Chip
The Reminder (2007) - Feist
This is Happening (2010) - LCD Soundsystem

701.85 - haven't put in the subject headings in the listing yet, but it's basically colours within art

Kind of Blue (1957) - Miles Davis
Almost Blue (1981) - Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Blue is the Colour (1996) - the Beautiful South

In 2011 we're aiming to get further into cataloguing the DVDs and books, and physically ordering all the collection. This will require more storage space in some cases than we currently have (cue Ikea trip), but will be accompanied by some pruning of the collections. While there was still a large number of new acquisitions in 2010, the final total was a lot smaller than in 2009 or 2008, and with similar levels of restraint we will hopefully be more in control of our library than at the mercy of whichever shelves have a bit of room left...

Monday 5 April 2010

variations on a theme

More archival numbers - I've just finished reorganising all the currently-labelled CDs, which just about fit into the Ikea drawers housing the initial collection (well, not including periodicals - we're gonna need a bigger storage solution very soon). One of the most pleasing aspects of this whole ridiculous activity is putting items labelled at very different times/years apart in order, and finding that there is thematic consistency. For example:

384.5ish - radio:

The Golden Age of Wireless (Thomas Dolby)

PL 384.509044 1982

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Wilco)

HL 384.53 2002

Mellow Gold (Beck)

OL 384.54530565 1994
plus

London Calling (the Clash)

HL 384.649421 1979

[Most of these were labelled before we wrote down all the headings, but 'Mellow Gold' is under Communications - Radio - Stations - for old people]

629.45ish - space travel (engineering):

Liam Finn in Spaceland (Liam Finn)

OL 629.4507 2008
in Engineering - Astronautics - Piloted space flight - Selection and training of astronauts

Apollo 18 (They Might Be Giants)

PL 529.454 1992
in Engineering and allied operations - Astronautics - Space flight - Apollo project

Around the World (Senor Coconut)

OL 629.4544 2008
in Space flights - orbiting flights

Dark Days/Light Years (Super Furry Animals)

OL 629.455 2009
in Engineering - Astronautics - Piloted space flight - Planetary flights

*      *     *     *


And here are some other individual call numbers from recent-ish acquisitions:

These Foolish Things (Bryan Ferry)

HL 598.65 1973 - Dodos
Zoological sciences - Birds - Dodos

Alive 1997/2007 (Daft Punk)

OL 304.602106298920944 1997/2007 - French robot census
Social sciences - populations - stats - census - robots - France

Demons at the Helm (the Whomping Willows)

PL 133.42603875 2009 - Ghost ships (kind of)
Paranormal phenomena - demonology - Demoniac possession - of sailors

Eat My Shadow (Angie Hart)

OL Q 394.90363252 2009
Customs - Cannibalism - Secret agents

Black Market Music (Placebo)

OL 285.9032242 2000
Religion - Puritanism - Resistance and subversive movements

Saturday 13 February 2010

Old ideas, new labels

Almost three years ago today, we first had this ridiculous idea to dewey decimalise our cds. In those three years, we've catalogued about 820 items. And although our fervor has abated somewhat (real life taking up far too much time and effort), we're still totally into it.

We've been slack about labelling the actual items lately, so we're going through a bunch of "recent" acquisitions. Some of our favourites:



Satanic Panic in the Attic (of Montreal)

PL 236.9 2004 - the fall of heaven
Christian theology -- Eschatology -- Last Judgement and related events -- Fall of Heaven


The King of America (Elvis Costello)

HL Q338.470053092 1986 - Bill Gates
(we couldn't be bothered writing out our subject headings for this one, but working backwards we think it's 330s Economics, 005.3 something involving computers, 092 Biography)

Human After All (Daft Punk)

HL 573.3 2005
Physical Anthropology -- Pre-historic humankind -- Piltdown Man hoax

I Told You I Was Freaky (Flight of the Conchords)

OL 347.052 2009 - legal defense
Law -- Legal proceedings and courts -- Defendants

Voldemort Can't Stop The Rock (Harry & the Potters)

PL 551.307 2004 - landslides and rockfalls
(again, couldn't be bothered writing out the subject headings, but it's something like 550s Earth Sciences)

LCD Soundsystem (LCD Soundsystem)

OL Q784.4 2005 - because LCDs, y'know
Music -- Orchestras -- Light orchestras

Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do (Sigur Ros)

HL 401.93 2004 - babbling
Language -- Psycholinguistics -- Language acquisition

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Arctic Monkeys)

PL 133.43 2006 - witch hunts
Paranormal phenomena -- Demonology and witchcraft -- Magic and witchcraft -- Witch hunting

Give Blood (Brakes)

PL 133.4230361763 2005 - charities for vampires
Paranormal phenomena -- Demonology and witchcraft -- evil spirits -- vampires -- non-profit organisations and charities