It is not commonly known that I once was the Assistant Librarian in charge of creating the Journal and Magazine collection of the School of Management and Labor Studies at Rutgers University. Without any real knowledge of how libraries catalog, I went about cataloging the SM&LS collection and I believe that system is still in use to this day.  I am talking about fifty-four years ago when I was employed by the Rutgers Library full time after graduating and attending graduate school for my Masters. I was a Library ASSISTANT, as an undergraduate.

Not knowing how to do the job is a powerful incentive to learn quickly so, having been a part-time worker in the main library for three years I picked up information about Mr. Dewey and his decimal system.  I went on from there. It was a good job and I think I did more good than harm. It also increased my interest in books and reinforced my desire to collect them. I must admit that I had been zealous in never throwing away a book or discarding one that was of little value to those who know such things.  I just liked to collect and own books and there was a time in High School that I could claim that I owned just short of a thousand books for I was a constant searcher through the stacks of used books in a store on South Orange Avenue where the gnome-like proprietor helped me find science-fiction which at that time overwhelmed my interests in reading.

Wherever I moved I hauled along my boxes of books whose contents I had forgotten for I never used a system of listing the books alphabetically by name or by authors.  I did this while working for Rutgers Library but not for my own collection.  In the houses I have owned, I built shelves to show off my wealth in the form of the books I owned.  You might be put off by my eclectic sense of ownership for I did not have first editions or signed copies and books in unused and perfect condition. It was just the knowledge that I OWNED these books that caused me a great deal of comfort and pleasure.

There is talk about GOOGLE trying to do what the Library of Alexandria in Egypt tried to do.  That was to collect all the knowledge contained in books about everything from everywhere in the world.  I salute that worthy and very difficult task for where in the world can all such books and information be stored?  GOOGLE can do it on the internet and I have a hazy idea of where that is and how that is done. I am just glad it is there for it solves my need for access to libraries.

I wish GOOGLE well. At this time I am doing the reverse of the process by divesting myself of my collection that has dwindled each time I have moved.  Anyone want a used book about a subject that is of interest only to me?