Dear Ken,
Thank you for describing Union Catalogues. I had never heard of them until your message. It's a totally missing part of my learning. They sound impressive - not least physically.
.
When I started research, my focus was mainly technical and the references were typically a small number of technical texts or very specific journal papers. By the time I became involved in non-technical research, many library catalogues were available via telnet (Z39.50 protocol) and later with gopher. You could easily search multiple library catalogues using simple scripts so the idea of using union catalogues was not so obvious. Also it was about that time for those of us using Z39.50 to access library databases that the idea of library catalogues being meta-data about the 'data' contained in libraries was already coming into vogue, at least in information systems fields.
On splitting hairs, I suggest sometimes it is useful. The next hair to split is whether the 1920s references to graphic design are really the start of Graphic Design or just relatively irrelevant incidence of two words. This is bearing in mind that (according to Shaw) the term was rarely used in the literature and it wasn't until the 1960s that a significant number of courses started with the title Graphic Design. Without the hair splitting it appears Graphic Design started in the 1920s. With hair splitting, and more careful critique of the literature discourse, it appears Graphic Design started much later. In research terms, you could ask whether hair splitting is worthwhile or not. I suggest it is. The best from hair splitting is new innovative ways of seeing. The worst that can happen is the work of hair splitting leads nowhere. In many cases, it is not possible to see which outcome results until afterwards.
Regardless, thank you again for bringing attention to the use of union catalogues and for me a completely overlooked area of research methods and skills.
Best regards,
terry
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken Friedman
Sent: Sunday, 19 April 2015 2:18 PM
To: PhD-Design
Subject: Re: Design Studies and Design History
Dear Terry,
It seems that many research skills have vanished in recent years. When I earned my PhD in the pre-web era (1976), every North American university accredited for doctoral education had copies of specific research tools. PhD students learned what these tools were, what they meant, and how to use them.
One such tool was the Union Catalogue, a massive reference work that contained a printed copy of every catalogue card in the Library of Congress. A similar tool existed for the British Library. These books were massive. The full set weighed a couple of tons. There were so many volumes and the cost was so great that nearly no North American university would purchase both the LoC and the BL union catalogues. For that matter, nearly no college or university would invest in one unless it was a significant research university.
Nearly everyone in a serious PhD program learned about these tools and what they meant. Along with research methods — specific ways of asking questions and answering them — doctoral education involved research skills. Research methods are specific to fields and disciplines. Research skills are broader and more generic. These include information and skills required to do research in many fields.
If you want to be fussy, it is possible to describe bibliographic entries as “meta-data.” In my view, this neglects the actual role and bibliographic quality of the Library of Congress Union Catalogue and the British Library Union Catalogue. The online catalogues use meta-data protocols to communicate information. The underlying paper catalogue — the Union Catalogue — is something else. Call a catalogue entry “meta-data” if you wish. If you really insist on seeing the physical book rather than trusting the Union Catalogue, buy the book.
Please be clear: I do not assert anything about the content of W. G. Raffe’s book. I assert that the book exists, published in 1927 with the title Graphic Design.
You are being a wise guy. Once someone shows you as much evidence as we have provided about Raffe’s book and Dwiggins’s essay, you are splitting hairs. You questioned that these documents actually exist “in view of the evidence.” I gave you the evidence. You have enough evidence now to decide that the book and the essay do, indeed, exist.
But let’s say you really are a skeptic, rather than merely being what the old folks used to call “a weisenheimer.”
If so, get the Allworth reprint and read the Dwiggins essay for yourself. If you want to hold the Raffe book in your hands, Amazon.com has a used copy. It is available for USD 75.00 as of 19 April 2015 at 06:00 GMT. If you order it right away, you can get it before Gunnar or Gavin snap it up. Then you can see for yourself whether the librarians at the LoC or the BL are mistaken.
Back in 2013, you were involved in one of many debates on design history. Victor Margolin grew annoyed with your hairsplitting. He withdrew from the debate saying, “I have no inclination to indulge in a jesuitical wrangle ... so I will leave you to your enterprise.”
If you want to be a weisenheimer masquerading as a sober skeptic, the stage is yours.
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
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