![The Whole Earth Catalog… is now online.
So, you know how you spend hours in the library, feeling gross and cold and full of ulcers, but you have to stay there even though you’re on the verge of complete self-destruction via mucus overload because that’s where your primary resources are?
Well, so long, hours I spent in the Berkeley Public Library, looking at the Whole Earth Catalogs, and getting allegies (I feel like that lady in the Claritin commercial, who smiles and says, “I have allergies indoors and outside!”). I imagine that I can somewhat relate to how some academics must have felt when electronic library databases went into use— only after they researched their books by using card catalogs. [Damn you, technology!! And you, the forward movement of time!!]
I’m only kidding, of course. I like archival research! Yeah, I’m groaning a bit inside too, but I actually do. Maybe it’s because I really like the sensory world - feeling the old pages in your hand is an awesome jolt, even if that is tempered by the realization that if you turn the page at a normal speed, the binding will melt in your fingers. Racing through libraries, tearing books off the shelves, and poring over primary texts with wide eyes is the spice of life, homes. Or at least, it’s on the spice rack.
Oh, give the Whole Earth Catalog a click-through, if you have a minute. There are a number of good reasons to know what it is and check it out, not the least, or most, of which being that I am writing my thesis about its founder, Stewart Brand.](http://27.media.tumblr.com/HjMXdvwoog23qqnpNPOlYENro1_400.png)
The Whole Earth Catalog… is now online.
So, you know how you spend hours in the library, feeling gross and cold and full of ulcers, but you have to stay there even though you’re on the verge of complete self-destruction via mucus overload because that’s where your primary resources are?
Well, so long, hours I spent in the Berkeley Public Library, looking at the Whole Earth Catalogs, and getting allegies (I feel like that lady in the Claritin commercial, who smiles and says, “I have allergies indoors and outside!”). I imagine that I can somewhat relate to how some academics must have felt when electronic library databases went into use— only after they researched their books by using card catalogs. [Damn you, technology!! And you, the forward movement of time!!]
I’m only kidding, of course. I like archival research! Yeah, I’m groaning a bit inside too, but I actually do. Maybe it’s because I really like the sensory world - feeling the old pages in your hand is an awesome jolt, even if that is tempered by the realization that if you turn the page at a normal speed, the binding will melt in your fingers. Racing through libraries, tearing books off the shelves, and poring over primary texts with wide eyes is the spice of life, homes. Or at least, it’s on the spice rack.
Oh, give the Whole Earth Catalog a click-through, if you have a minute. There are a number of good reasons to know what it is and check it out, not the least, or most, of which being that I am writing my thesis about its founder, Stewart Brand.
