SCRIPTUM:
Newsletter
for Bahá'í Librarians & Information Professionals
No. 8 (July 1999 - December 2001 =
Rahmat 156 - Sharaf 158 B.E.)
A paper written by staff at the Bahá'í World
Centre Library and approved for
publication
Abstract:
The Bahá’í World Centre has moved into a graphics computer environment based
on Microsoft products. This has allowed the Library to experiment with methods
of fulfilling its mandate of being “the central depository of all literature
published on the Faith…” with regards to collecting electronic or digital
materials. These are items received by email, saved from the Internet, or
copied from other formats. The Library attempts to work as much as possible
with the tools provided as part of the Microsoft suite so as to lessen problems
of incompatibility for its users. While strict archiving of the original with
no changes would logically seem the goal, in reality some changes have to be
made to many of the documents archived to ensure that the “experience” is
emulated correctly. Potential problems of access caused by future changes of
software and technology are not being addressed at this time.
Introduction:
In its letter of 31 August 1987, the Universal House of Justice spoke of the
Bahá’í World Centre Library, saying that it is "the central depository of
all literature published on the Faith…”
Since its creation as a professionally run entity in 1977, the Library has
been assiduously fulfilling its mandate to be an international depository
library by actively encouraging all Bahá’í publishers to send the required
number of published items to the World Centre. It increasingly included sound
and video recordings in electronic format such as magnetic tape or disks, and
computer programs on magnetic disks. As new digital publishing formats became
available, such as Compact Discs (CD’s), these were also collected.
During the 1980s the World Centre gained access to email, and Library items
started to arrive in the form of emails, either as attachments or ASCII text.
Such items were printed if possible, and added to the collection, or simply
saved to the hard drive for future attention.
A direct, full-time connection to the Internet was established by 1994, and
access to remote locations on the World Wide Web became available through such programs
as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher and Lynx. Lynx rapidly became the
program of choice, and Web server software was added to the World Centre’s
computing environment allowing departments and individuals to create internal
Web pages. At the same time, the first networked Graphical monitors in the form
of X-terminals and a few networked PC’s started to make an appearance at the
World Centre.
The Library’s first Web pages were created in July of 1995, primarily with
Lynx access in mind. These Web pages were pages of links to external sites.
During 1998, the Bahá’í World Centre commenced the transition from a
character-based system to a Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment. The
infrastructure and hardware was installed during late 1998 and early 1999,
putting PC’s on each workstation in place of the Visual Display Units (VDUs’)
previously used. At first these were simply used to access the Unix environment
through terminal emulation software.
The next stage of the Computer Technology Transition (CTT) was the roll-out
of the basic Microsoft Suite - Word for word processing, Excel for spread
sheets, Outlook for mail, Internet Explorer (IE) for Internet browsing,
PowerPoint for presentation, and the like. By late 1999, Microsoft FrontPage
for Web page editing was released to “Webmasters” in each Department so that
the Intranet could be further developed.
The Library’s existing Web was moved into the new environment and its new
potential quickly exploited. However, the limitations were also quickly
realised - one being the propensity for Microsoft FrontPage “themes” to
suddenly run rampant over all archived Web pages, thus truly destroying their
original look and feel. This was solved by creating a second Library web called
"Libarchive", in which no “themes” would be used. Once this was in
place, the experimental archiving of electronic or digital items began in
earnest.
Methodology
A sub-directory of the Library web has been created called “Electronic
Collections”. This is available from the Library’s home page (fig 1.).
This contains a number of sub-directories to the differing types of the
collection (fig. 2.).
Documents are saved temporarily to the C: drive of the staff member’s work
station, (fig. 3.) then copied to the “Libarchive” Web server, and later
deleted from the temporary location. Links to the items are placed in the
Library Web pages pointing to the actual location of the item in the Libarchive
Web.
The items are collected in four major ways.
1.
Received as emails and attachments
2.
Saved individually from the Web
3.
Saved as an entire web site or sub-site from the
Web.
4.
Copied from other formats.
1. Email or email attachments.
Many Bahá'í newsletters are being received by email. The actual formats vary
from simple ASCII text, to HTML, to attached Word Processing document in Word,
WordPerfect or similar programs, to Portable Document Format (PDF) files and
Microsoft Publisher files . Working within the Microsoft Suite has allowed
ASCII newsletter and HTML newsletters containing images, to be opened in
through Microsoft Outlook Web access and saved as HTML files. When copied to
the "Libarchive" Web server, and linked to from the Library Web, the
user clicks on the link, and the document is seen as though viewed through the
Outlook Web access mail system.
Attached word-processed documents are saved in their native format to the
temporary sub-directory on the C: drive. If their native format is not Word, an
attempt is made to open them, convert them to the current version of Word and
re-save them. The converted format is then copied to the Web server so that the
local user will have easy access as Microsoft’s Internet Explore will simply
open Microsoft Word documents. The original format is lost unless it cannot be
converted in which case it is saved to the Web Server “as-is” awaiting future
developments.
A number of back issues of newsletters saved in the years prior to the
advent of the GUI environment remain. These need to be copied to the Web server
and linked appropriately.
2. Saved individually from the Web.
Many Web-based items, such as online versions of newspapers, are saved using
IE’s inbuilt “Save file as” function. This function saves the web page in one
file, and any images visible on the page (which exist on the same server as the
page being saved) in a subdirectory with the same name plus the addition of
“*_files” (see fig.4).
The links to images imbedded within the main file being saved are all
re-written during the “save as” procedure to point to the images located in the
sub-directory. Both the files and the sub-directory are then copied to the
“Libarchive” web server, and linked to from the Library web page. Users then
see the web page largely as it was seen on the day it was saved, except for any
advertising windows that point to locations outside of the original server.
These continue to work within the archived environment, but point to whatever
advertisement is being shown there on the day the user is viewing the archived
document. If the company or server offering the advertiser disappears or
changes, these links degrade and are replaced with blank boxes. Similarly,
links within the main page that point to other locations continue to point to
the external location and degrade over time.
Files are organised by date within a subdirectory for each online resource,
by virtue of a naming convention such as:
Africa_Online/
2000/
08_27_files
09_15_files
01_07_files
2001/
01-16_files
01-19_files
02-12_files
Etc.
If an item is withdrawn from the collection, it and its associated
“*_files”, are deleted from the “Libarchive”, as are the link from the
Library’s web page.
3. Entire Web sites or sub-sites saved from the Web.
One desirable outcome is to save “snapshots” of Web pages produced by
Bahá’ís, especially those produced by institutions of the Faith, on a regular
basis. To this end a free program called WebStripper was downloaded. This
program allows the user to enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the
desired web site, set some desired parameters, then “strip” the entire site
(within the pre-set parameters) to a pre-determined sub-directory onto a local
or networked hard-drive. The saving procedure can take a number of hours
depending on the speed of the connection.
The architecture of the original Web site is maintained but not all items
are saved correctly, e.g. Java applets cause some problems.
Saving snapshots of web-sites on an ongoing basis will provide future
researchers with information about the level of expertise of communities, and
the technology at their disposal, in much the same way that the quality of
paper, binding, inks and printing methods speak volumes about the capacity and
ingenuity of publishers in the traditional media.
This will naturally take large amounts of computer memory, just as saving
items published in physical formats take large volumes of shelving space.
4. Materials digitised from other formats.
When computer diskettes are received containing published items, the
diskette is copied to the network drive as a form of long-term conservation.
The diskettes or CD’s themselves degrade over time, and are likely to be
“orphaned” as the technology required to read them are abandoned. When saved to
the network drive they then become part of the current system which needs to be
migrated forward with each update in computing software. There is no guarantee
that this will succeed, but it is felt that there is a greater chance of future
access being possible by following this path than by attempting to remember to
retrieve and migrate the documents on diskettes.
Programs on diskettes such as early versions of Multiple Author Refer System
(MARS), which rely on certain hardware and software configurations, have not
yet been copied to the network. Even if they are copied, it is highly unlikely
that they will work, so all that will remain for future historians are
“fingerprints” of that earlier publishing endeavour.
No systematic process is in place to digitise existing published items, but
if a copy of a printed item is scanned during the course of daily work, a copy
is placed on the Web server so that it will be available to all. The Library
will initiate such action when particular topics are “hot” (such as that of
“Epochs” in January 2001). By providing access to items in digital form, the
Library hopes to head off multiple requests for photocopies.
Web radio broadcasts are a particular challenge. Due to constrained
resources it is necessary to block access to streaming audio and video sites
during World Centre work hours. Software capable of saving such files has not
yet been brought into the institutional environment. To date, three BBC
programs mentioning the Faith have been saved by individuals by taping it from
the air, or from the BBC web site on home PCs. These tapes have then been
digitised by an individual using free software and saved on the “Libarchive”
web. “Screen Shots” of the BBC pages on the days were taken and saved as image
files on the web. FrontPage’s picture editing function was then used to create
a “hot-spot” on the image that would link to the digital sound file.
In this way the experience of users listening to the BBC Web-broadcast has
been emulated to a certain extent.
Access
Access to the electronic collection is currently limited to users at the
World Centre. However if the experiment becomes standard Library procedure, a
decision will be made as to whether or not to open the collection (or parts of
it) to the world through the Library’s existing public web page1.
Other National Library experiments
According to a session given at the 66th Annual General Conference of the
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (Jerusalem,
August 2000), there are two major ways that other National Libraries are
attempting to save Web based publications.
1. Download and archive all
web pages ending with the National county code [e.g. *.se for Sweden] thus
saving a "snapshot" of the Country's Web at stated intervals for
future researchers to "mine". This entails the hope that future
software will still be able to read it when it is needed. [Cf. Sweden - The
Kulturarw3 Project - The Royal Swedish Web Archiw3e - An example of "complete"
collection of web pages2 ]
2. Use standard library
collection development guidelines to analyse the Web and selectively collect
items deemed to be of lasting value. This entails both the commitment of future
resources to migrate items through future software generations so that they are
always available to researchers [c.f. Australia - the Pandora Project3
], and the commitment to continue to analyse the collection and weed those
items whose value has diminished, per standard library practice.
Deposit Libraries (e.g. Library of Congress, the British Library,
Bibliothèque nationale de France) require huge amounts of shelving [LC - 850 km4
] and will continue to do so. Now in addition, they are requiring huge amounts
of computer space to fulfil their mandates
"To retain in perpetuity a copy of all
material published ... in order to ensure that [the people] will have access to
the accumulated knowledge, activities and achievements ... in all forms of
human endeavour" [c.f. Pandora Project]
This conference session was both a source of hope and despair. Hope, that
the pressure of researchers using the world's major libraries will ensure that
backwards compatibility in software will be a demand supplied by commercial
interests. Despair, that every day published items about the Faith are being
lost because the limited resources of the world's only Bahá'í deposit library
curtails our ability to search, find, analyse, save and catalogue Web based
publications.
Conclusion:
The future International Bahá'í Library will be the world's leading Library
institution. In order to build the electronic collection for that future
library, the Bahá'í World Centre Library needs to move towards a combination of
these two philosophies:
1. All domains including
the word "bahai" to be downloaded at stated intervals.
2. All Web pages mentioning
the Bahá'í Faith or individual Bahá'í to be analysed and those deemed of
lasting value to be saved.
Achieving these ends will require increased resources in the years to come -
technical, financial, and especially human - in the form of intelligent,
imaginative, experienced and devoted graduates of Library and Information
Schools from around the world.
--------------------------------
Notes:
[1][1] See: http://library.bahai.org
[1][2]
See: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/154-157e.htm
[1][3] See: http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/174-157e.htm
[1][4]
See: http://www.loc.gov/today/fascinate.html
THE LIFE'S WORK OF MARIAN LIPPITT CONTINUES
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States appointed a National Reference Library Committee in 1951. Among its duties was the creation of a master index of the Bahá'í writings for the National Spiritual Assembly's use. Marian C. Lippitt was the prime mover in creating an indexing-classification system for verses from the Bahá'í writings . She used a system outlined to her a decade earlier by Emogene Hoagg . Hoagg had studied directly with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl-i-Gulpáygání, and served Shoghi Effendi.
Lippitt's proposed indexing method was approved by the National Spiritual Assembly. Lippitt herself performed most of the indexing until her death in 1984, creating a very large card index of verses from the Bahá'í writings. Half a decade later, a group of interested Bahá'ís discovered the index stored in a basement at Green Acre Bahá'í School. Several Bahá'ís formed a non-profit foundation – The Foundation for the Investigation of Reality – to preserve the paper files as an archival resource of the National Spiritual Assembly, to develop a computer database of the entire idnex, and to continue the work of bringing the indexing forward to include new editions and volumes of sacred text.
The Worlds of God Index (WOGI) is a four-tiered hierarchy of organizing the verities in the writings, so that their description of “reality” can be made clear.
All existence or reality is made up of three worlds: the World of Deity or God, the World of Prophethood or Command, and the World of Servitude or Creation. These three worlds are symbolized in the Greatest Name ringstone symbol. This is the first tier.
Each world has “subjects” which comprise it. For instance, the World of God branch has only one subject, which is Deity itself. The World of Command contains several subjects, such as: Will of God, Cause of God, Holy Spirit, and Manifestations of God while not incarnate. The World of Creation is made up of many subjects, such as: mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms, time and numbers, and all the places the soul can traverse after separation from the physical body. This is the second tier.
Each subject has characteristics, the total of which describe that subject's entire reality. Examples of characteristics of a given subject: its names, its objectives or purposes, its powers (which can be used to achieve its purposes), its attributes (nouns which describe it), its actions (verbs which describe what it does). This is the third tier.
Each characteristic contains specific examples of that subject/characteristic combination. A specific example of the subject/characteristic combination “Deity:name” is “The All-Knowing. ” A specific example of the subject/characteristic “human soul:objective” is “to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.” This is the fourth tier.
The indexed characteristics of each verse in the Bahá''í writings are noted in an abbreviation for the hierarchical relationship of various levels of the “reality” explained in the verse. In its computerized form, each part of the hierarchy is searchable at any level, and can be sorted at the level the user wishes to search.
Readers will say, “But we already have MARS and Immerse. Why create this index?” MARS and Immerse search text. If you wish to search for names of God, you can search on (“NAME?” AND “GOD”). You will then retrieve every instance where the words “name” or “names” and “God” are near each other in the texts. How do you find all of the names of God? How do you find those verses where God's names are referred to as “divine appellations”? An index uses standard language and abbreviations to make all of this information accessible in a way that text searching cannot do. Every verse that refers to the names/appellations/titles of God/divinity/deity/Universal King/Creator etc., including every specific name attributed to God, will be indexed in the WOGI under D:name (where D=Deity).
Indexing of the Bahá'í Writings came to an abrupt halt with the death of Marian Lippitt in 1984. Additional works by Bahá'u'lláh remain to be indexed. All of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's and Shoghi Effendi's works still need indexing. On books which have already been indexed, the citations frequently refer to out-of-date editions. These need to be updated.
Some of the index cards are unfiled. Some of the indexing is still on worksheets. Of these indexing worksheets, done by other indexers, some were checked by Lippitt. The Foundation for the Investigation of Reality, which has possession of the Index, knows that some index cards and indexing are not yet in its possession.
The Foundation has in its possession numerous indexing instructions which can be used to teach the indexing process, to complete the Index.
The other major aspect of this project is computerization of the Index. This is currently happening, but is a slow process, given that there are approximately 300,000 index cards to be computerized.
For more information about this project or the work of the Foundation for the Investigation of Reality, or to express your interest or support, you may contact the coordinator of the computerization process, J. Michael Kafes, at justme@writeme.com, or The Foundation for the Investigation of Reality, 195 Main Street, Eliot, Maine 03903, U.S.A. Tel. (207) 439-8532
The
Worlds of God Index: An Introduction, by J. Michael Kafes, is a detailed
description of the index.
A Private Research Library on the Bábí & Bahá'í Religions
30 Miramar Avenue
East Patchogue, NY 11772
Tel. 631-289-6619
E-mail. HOL92@aol.com
FACT SHEET
June 2000
Mission
Harvest of Light is a library dedicated to research and education. It seeks to make available a wide range of
materials on the Bábí and Bahá'í religions.
It promotes independent investigation, insight into constructive
patterns of moral and ethical behavior, and dialogue and fellowship among
peoples of diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
A resource for the scholar, student, and speaker, Harvest of Light is
actively involved in obtaining and preserving books, pamphlets, periodicals,
journals, papers, dissertations, manuscripts, audio visual materials, and Bahá'í
relics and memorabilia. It is sponsoring
the Long Island Bahá'í History Project, an ongoing attempt to collect materials
and oral histories about the Bahá'í Faith on Long Island, NY.
Organizational Structure
Harvest of Light is a private library.
Solely independent in character and spirit, it is not affiliated with
any governmental, commercial, civic, educational or religious
organization. Management is the task of
the director, John McNair. Assistance is
also received from Bahá'í librarians, archivists, educators, family, and
friends. All staff work as volunteers,
including the director. Funding is
provided primarily by the library's founders, John and Marie McNair, as well as
by the support of friends.
Facilities
Harvest of Light is located in a small, one-room cottage. The library has approximately 6,000 items,
among which are hundreds of rare and out-of-print books and pamphlets. In addition to the materials on the Bábí and
Bahá'í religions, it houses a collection of basic books on the world's
religions, contemporary spiritual/religious movements, beliefs of primitive
societies, and general reference materials.
Of Special Note
1) Harvest of Light has a substantial collection of books and photocopies of works by Professor E.G. Browne, Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, as well as books by A.L.M. Nicolas, Comte de Gobineau, and A.G. Tumanski.
2) The collection of 19th-century books which refer to the Bábí and Bahá'í religions is becoming a unique source of materials. Foremost in this collection is Persia and the Persian Question by George N. Curzon.
3) The Long Island Bahá'í History Project encompasses materials specific to the history of Bahá'í presence on Long Island (1914- ). This collection is particularly rich, including originals, photocopies, and photographs revealing the earliest traces of Bahá'í activity on LI.
4) Among some other treasures is a voice recording of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, several books signed by prominent Bahá'ís, and original letters from such Bahá'ís as Louis Gregory, Madame Khan, Lua Getsinger, and Arthur Pillsbury Dodge.
A copy machine, fax, computer with internet services, and audiovisual equipment are available to patrons on a limited basis. The facility is humidity controlled. It has various security precautions in place, and there is a program of pest control.
All
materials in Harvest of Light are for REFERENCE ONLY and are not permitted off
premises. The Library is free and open
to all. At present there are no public
hours of operation. Access is by APPOINTMENT
ONLY. Patrons are expected to follow the
rules posted while using the facility.
History
Harvest of Light was founded in 1992 by John (retired photographer) and
Marie McNair (elementary school teacher), long-time residents of Long Island,
New York. It represents thirty years of
diligent work towards the fulfillment of their vision of establishing a
learning center. The impetus for their
vision stems, in large part, from their personal beliefs. Both are members of the Bahá'í Faith which
stresses the independent investigation of truth and the oneness of religion and
humanity. In the spring of 2000, Harvest of Light narrowed its focus from
"A Research Center on Religion and Philosophy" to a more manageable
library on the Bábí and Bahá'í religions.
Donations
If you wish to support Harvest of Light with donations of materials,
financial aid, or to volunteer your time and talents, your help would be
greatly appreciated. Make checks payable
to Harvest of Light.
The Future
Harvest of Light has taken steps to ensure that the library will remain intact and be available for research into the future. Efforts will be made to heighten awareness of this research facility outside the Bahá'í community, and steps will be taken to promote its use by the public, educators, and the media.
Plans
to continue acquiring research materials will ensure that Harvest of Light will
remain one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of its kind in the
area.
News
Harvest of Light has been acquiring materials on 19th-century Persia. These reference materials are a valuable source for the cultural context of the Bábí and Bahá'í religions.
Efforts are underway to increase the Persian and Arabic writings from the Central Figures. Donations and/or advice would be deeply appreciated.
At recent visits to Yale, Princeton, and the University of Virginia, rare Bahá'í related materials were located and copied.
Recently, an alarm system was installed, adding additional security for the collection.
Donations
of materials and funds reflect the growing awareness of the importance of the
library.
The Long Island Bahá'í History Project is an effort to collect and organize materials related to the history of the Bahá'í community in the Long Island, NY area. To date, Harvest of Light has sponsored the following activities: 1) Extensive research at the US National Bahá'í Archives 2) Continuing collection and identification of published and non-published materials which refer to the history of the Long Island Bahá'ís 3) A series of oral interviews with long-time Bahá'í residents of Long Island 4) Tracing of personal archives materials, when possible, of prominent early Bahá'ís of the area, most notably A. P. Dodge.
Any
information or materials related to the following individuals would be much appreciated: Arthur Pillsbury Dodge, William Copeland
Dodge, Wendell Phillips Dodge, Elizabeth Ann Dodge, Irene C. Holmes, Josephine
Clark, Frank Clark, Mrs. Otis T. Hathon, Frank E. Osborne, G. Herbert Rich,
Alma Krueger, Marion C. Hotchkiss, Mary Hotchkiss, Helen Hotchkiss Lielnors,
Mr. & Mrs. T.H. Vaughan.
A TALE OF TWO CLASSIFICATIONS
By Peter Wise, Shannon, Ireland. (Email: wise@iol.ie).
What are classifications for? Why does a Bahá'í Bookshop need one? Which one?
How sophisticated should it be?
If we take the reason for a book classification at its simplest, it is to so that
a reader can find the right book, the right 'sort' of book. We call this
"browsing" and nowhere would this be more in evidence that in a
bookshop - in particular a Bahá'í bookshop.
Equally, Bahá'í bookshops have one feature that most others don't - they move
around - to Summer Schools, to National Teaching Conference; in fact to
wherever Bahá'ís gather in numbers. It is essential that the display tables be
laid out quickly and easily, yet in a manner that "like is with like"
and the browser is not hindered from seeking the (possibly vaguely conceived)
object of his or her search.
This problem calls for a simple, shallow classification and because it is
mainly for Bahá'í books, the Writings must be first (in the order Bahá'u'lláh,
The Báb, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice).
One such classification is that inherent in Eunice Braun's book "A
Reader's guide: the development of Bahá'í literature in English" (GR,
1986) and, indeed, it was a variant of this that the Bahá'í Bookshop in the
Mid-West of Ireland used initially. One reason for modifying the classification
is that it had a separate section (near the end) for "Art Editions"
of the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, so that, for example, an illustrated or
illuminated "Seven Valleys" would not be found with other copies of
the Seven Valleys. Another reason was that the Association of Bahá'í Studies
section did not appear to take account of Associations of Bahá'í Studies in
parts of the world other than North America (e.g. The Association of Bahá'í
Studies - English Speaking Europe).
However, the attraction of this classification was that it is not too complex
and we already had a database with most of the Bahá'í books in the English
language on it.
This database had been developed (by March 1990) in order to classify all books
in the library at the Belgian Bahá'í Centre. The database contained all books
shown in Braun's book, plus any others in the English language found in
Brussels and provided a basis to classify the books there in all four main
languages: French, Dutch, English and German. Translations of the same book
would each share a "generic edition code" based on the first three
significant initials and with derived variants (e.g. extracts) having a related
code, so that a full version of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era" in any
of the languages might be BNEaa, a booklet based on it BNEab, whereas BNEba
might be just be another book whose title abbreviated to BNE. The database
contained the quantities of each book in the library and the books were shelved
according to the classification. However, I never got to actually printing
cards for the books before leaving for a new pioneering post in Ireland and it
seems that lack of computer expertise in those that took over the project
ensured that the database was never actually used. (If anyone could still use
this 1990 four-language database as a basis, please let me know and I'll look
it up).
The Irish Mid-West Bahá'í Bookshop is run by my wife, Anny, and myself (with
the assistance of a local Bahá'í youth) from our home in Shannon, Co. Clare,
Ireland. All the books are taken to large regional and national events of two
days or more duration on the western side of Ireland whereas we use the stock
from the National Bahá'í Centre in Dublin for events on the eastern side of
Ireland and a selection may be taken to shorter events.
The "Braun Classification" could be useful when books were on the
shelf (in our house), but was time-consuming to lay out on tables at an event
and its complexity went "over the heads" of most readers in the
bookshop environment who were just looking for something
"interesting" to buy, without much clarity as to the sort of book
they required.
So, Anny and I put our heads together with members of the National Book
Committee and tried "reinventing the wheel". The result (what we call
a "Browser's Classification") gains in ease of use (for both sellers
and buyers) what it looses in academic rigour. It is shallow, but intuitive and
so it is a good pragmatic solution to the problem of the bookshop on the move.
Certainly, we get fewer questions from Bahá'ís at Summer School as to where a
particular sort of book might be found.
A selection of the bookshop's books (and a few selected "AV" items)
using the classification can be viewed on the Web at
Bahá'í Mid-West Bookshop Catalogue
http://www.iol.ie/~wise/bahai/books/index.htm
Comments from professional librarians, booksellers and others would be most
welcome.
Peter Wise,
Shannon, Ireland.
Includes Collins Bibliography
William P. Collins is the author of Bibliography
of English-Language Works on the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths, 1844-1985 (Oxford:
George Ronald, 1990). He has a database,
in ProCite 5.0 format, of over 22,000 bibliographic records, which includes all
the entries in the printed volume, plus several thousand additional items,
almost all in English. These include records for:
|
|
All works cited in Bibliography of English Language
Works on the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths, 1844-1985, including many revised
entries |
|
|
Additional books, pamphlets and periodicals about the
Bahá'í Faith, 1844 to the present |
|
|
Additional books and articles from non-Bahá'í journals that
refer to the Faith from 1844 to the present |
|
|
Entries for individual articles in most major Bahá'í
periodicals (World Order, Journal of Bahá'í Studies, Bahá'í Studies Review,
Herald of the South, etc.) |
|
|
Selected internet resources in electronic online journals |
|
|
Selected audiovisual materials, compact Disks, etc. |
|
|
Selected materials in European languages. |
The database is available on CD-ROM for a license fee of US$75, plus $12 for annual updates.
The
licensee will also need to purchase ProCite 5.0, which is available from
http://www.risinc.com at retail, or from
other software vendors at a reduced price. Prices at university bookstores are
lower for those with student IDs. This is a powerful bibliographic database software
for creating records, managing bibliographic citations, and creating
bibliographies. It costs about $350
retail, but it can be obtained from academic software sellers for about $110 if
you are student or faculty in an educational institution. Buy.com sells it for about $175. EndNote, another popular bibliographic
software package by the same company, can import a comma or tab delimited file
exported from ProCite. EndNote costs
about the same as ProCite.
The CD-ROM of the database is available from the editor via the contact address at the end of this issue.
The
database was previewed and described in a session of the Association for Bahá'í
Studies annual conference in Seattle, Washington on 1 September 2001.
William Collins
6819 Stoneybrooke Lane
Alexandria, VA 22306 USA
Scriptum
on the Web:
http://www.bcca.org/librarians/Scriptum/
Email:
wpc09@hotmail.com
Permission
is granted to reprint or excerpt, provided that proper credit is given.