Pamela Carswell was already into retirement when called upon
by the librarian of the Joint Theological Library (today the Dalton McCaughey
Library), Dr Lawrence McIntosh, to work there on rare books and cataloguing.
Pamela, Lawrence, and I were for many years editors of the Australasian
Religion Index (ARI), something we did inside library time over maybe two to
four days, depending on the load of indexing received, and its complexity.
Complexity of some kind or other appears to be at the forefront of Pam’s mind
when she typed this letter in December 1993. The letter itself surfaced during
a clean-out of old stuff at home over the weekend. Why she wrote rather than
just told me may be because I was on leave and she needed to unload her
troubles long distance. Those were the days when we still unloaded and before
we started uploading or downloading. ARI indexers and other readers are here given
a rare glimpse into the backroom thoughts of the ‘razor-sharp’ mind of Pamela
Carswell. ‘Razor-sharp’ was a term she herself used whenever referring to
someone of high intellect, usually with her tongue in her cheek. The context is
that Pamela has taken home the draft printout of Volume 5 for correction.
Footnotes follow the letter.
Saturday (11 Dec. 93)
Dear Philip –
Have done 900/971ths of ARI vol. 5, which I promised LDM (1) to bring up
on Thursday. I’m becoming increasingly exasperated with that CD-ROM thing. I
mentioned Missions – Directories, which is perfectly good LC but simply not
permitted by the Thesaurus (2), either by way of the standard subheadings or by
analogy with some other entry in the body of the text. The CD has it, many
times over. Similarly, while the Thesaurus has Christians – Relations – Jews see
Jews – Relations – Christians, the CD allows both – which again I imagine is LC
practice and probably an LC imperative. The Thesaurus seems so often to go out
of its way to differ from LCSH, and yet the RIO indexers are happily using
both, including LC subdivisions.
As for Wagga – it’s not just their computer, it’s them.
(3) Surely the computer can just as easily file Women’s Christian Temperance
Union after Women, Catholic as before it? Or Women, Catholic before Women
missionaries as after it? The Thesaurus follows the ALA filing rules – why
should Wagga set up a system of its own? Quite apart from the computer’s
inability to recognise articles, prepositions and conjunctions most of the time
– most of the time, not always – the filing is quite perversely
different from that in the Thesaurus (or in any card catalogue I’ve seen), e.g.
Freedom (Theology), Freedom of speech, Freedom, Religious, (an instance, note,
where the computer has decided to recognise the ‘of’ – you see, it can do it if
it wants to). Just noticed another: Women (Theology) – Biblical teaching
followed by Women – Bibliography.
Then of course there are the plain blues such as the one I
showed you, where Paul VI is weaving in and out of all the Paul the Apostles.
I thought that’s one of the things computers were
miraculously good at, putting things in whatever order they’re told to. Anyway,
I’ve rather changed my mind about those see refs., I don’t think Wagga
could cope with the interfiling of them.
I’m glad the entry-by-entry, descriptor-by-descriptor
checking and checking against the index is almost through. The first 4 vols.
weren’t so bad but with this one about a third of the things I queried were on
the CD, so it seems a waste of time to check the descriptors against anything
else. Tho’ I scored one or two – e.g. Depressions – 1929 – Australia
(Depressions, Economic … and that one didn’t stop at 1929), plus Mysticism -
Jewish [ - Judaism] and Cambodia [Kampuchea since 1976] and the odd misprint
and blind ref. Apart, that is, from the quick-flip-through list LDM asked for a
couple of weeks ago, which he checked against the wretched CD thing – seems
most were OK, including to my chagrin Christians – Relations – Jews, and
Missions – Directories.
Kay and Michael Cole (4) had lunch here yesterday – nice,
easy guests and never before have I had such success with a pud – a chocolate
mousse, one whose ease and foolproofness in making is entirely due to the
appalling richness of the ingredients, no beating, no separating of eggs, no
food-processing, just all casually stirred together. I managed to pile the
recipe for six into two individual dishes (naturally I couldn’t eat it)
and expected them to give up about a third of the way through. I watched
fascinated as they didn’t even slacken speed till they got to the dish-scraping
stage. I think had they been alone they would have gone on to the dish-licking
stage. I was gratified almost to the point of tears and when they fell to their
knees and pleaded for the recipe it was very nice to be able to produce a
photocopy on the spot. I see no reason now why I should go to the bother of
cooking anything else when I ask people for lunch.
Totally unexpected Xmas note from Janet yesterday, I’m glad
she hasn’t despaired of my lack of rapport with Esmeralda. (5) But she rather
suggested by delicate implication that by way of contrast with her
life-affirming paganism (pagan is the word she used) I’m to be classed with the
monkish flagellants of the Middle Ages, turning their flayed backs on the
delights of this world for the joys of the world to come. I suppose I’ve
brought it on myself – who could endure the Pritikin diet were it not for pie
in the sky? (6) But I’ll have something to say about that (delicately phrased)
as soon as I’ve finished that dratted ARI (only 71 entries to go). I’m really
glad she’s resumed contact.
Almost came to blows with my Croatian friend (the Einstein
of Rosanna) about the word ‘strive’. (7) Very alarming, she now thinks we
discuss these things on equal terms. She showed me a job application letter she
was particularly proud of, in which she expressed her admiration for the strive
displayed by the firm with whom she was seeking employment, the strive for good
employer-employee relations. ‘Striving’, I said. ‘Strive’ is not a noun. ‘But I
like the word ‘strive’,’ said Debbie. ‘It is a good strong word.’. ‘Yes,
it’s a good strong verb’, I said, ‘but tho’ you can admire someone’s drive or
dive you can’t admire their strive. It’s not good English.’ ‘But I have seen
this word used just like that, many times!’ ‘Look, Debbie, IT IS NOT GOOD
ENGLISH. You mustn’t use it in your job application!’ We fair glared at each
other. And do you know I woke in the night and almost convinced myself that
these days it’s quite acceptable to say things like ‘You know, the sheer strive
of the man is undeniable’ and ‘What would I do for a tenth of his strive?’ Next
day – when I knew she would have put this thing through their laser printer – I
said I hoped she’d amended strive to striving or thought of another word, and
she grinned and said she had. But next time - ?
Sunday
Since I last addressed you, the knob on the cold water tap
on the bathroom basin disintegrated in my hand so that I couldn’t turn it on or
off without savage use of the massive pair of pliers I picked up in the street
some years ago, and only then with very great difficulty. Brushing my teeth in
the kitchen sink didn’t appeal and anyway I felt as outraged as if one of my
legs had dropped off while out shopping so all
indexing/letter-writing/eating/calm thought ceased till things got back to
normal. It is now less than six hours since the crisis broke and there is now a
new and better knob on the cold water tap in the bathroom basin and – just as a
bonus – a new and better washer too. All for $10, which is about the price of
the knob and washer. It’s not that I have a friend who is a plumber, but a
plumber who is a friend – even on a Sunday. And I’ve finished ARI vol. 5. I’m sure that
Lawrence will see the point of this particular objection, nor even that you
will – but I don’t like these descriptors for one of the articles: 1. Religion,
Primitive - Mangaia (Cook Islands). 2. Mangaia (Cook Islands) – Religion. I mean, I don't like the first one, surely it's a value judgement? Why not just 1. Religion, Primitive. 2. Mangaia (Cook Islands) - Religion ...? I mention this in case it
comes up for discussion but I feel LDM is deciding all these things himself
with the help of Pope CD-ROM and the only thing we’ll perhaps be discussing is
the filing problem. Anyway, I’m sick of ARI and even sick of trying to sever
Timor Timur from Indonesia, it’s a lost cause. (8) The main thing is I can turn the cold water on in the bathroom and
turn it off again, whenever I like.
love – Pam
FOOTNOTES
(1)
Dr Lawrence McIntosh, librarian of the Joint Theological
Library (now Dalton McCaughey Library) in Parkville, Victoria, 1982-1996.
(2)
Religion Index Thesaurus, the subject list of descriptors of
Religion Index One (RIO) used for indexing ARI, loosely based on Library of
Congress Subject Headings (LC or LCSH) but with its own subject-specific
variations and subheading structure.
(3)
ARI was at that time published by the Library Studies
department of Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, where data input took
place. I hasten to say that Pamela is here engaging in ‘razor-sharp’ annoyance
and intends no harm of anyone living or dead. Her subsequent complaints are
directed at technology and not humans.
(4)
Kay Cole was librarian of Corpus Christi College Library in
Clayton, since shifted to Victoria Parade, East Melbourne and renamed The
Mannix Library.
(5)
A mutual friend who had, at the time, adopted the unusual name
of Esmeralda and expected her friends to call her by the same.
(6)
Janet seems to have assumed that Pamela was still a practising
Roman Catholic.
(7)
Pamela lived in the north-eastern suburb of Rosanna. Debbie
was one of her neighbours, recently arrived from the Balkans.
(8)
A major bone of contention inside editorial at the time was
the independent status of East Timor. Pamela argued for its independence while
consensus held that, whatever one’s political beliefs, Timor was part of
Indonesia. After self-determination at the turn of the century the country
became known as Timor-Leste.
No comments:
Post a Comment