Cotgreave Indicator

The Kilkenny Library Indicator
The City or Carnegie Library as it is known locally opened in 1910. The service acquired a Cotgreave Library Indicator that has survived to the present day. The indicator follows the conventional design, measures 180 cm X 120 cm. It contains a 100 slots vertically and 50 across. It thus can account for 5,000 book issues. The indicator seems to have being used from the opening of the library in 1910 up to the early 1940’s.
By the late 1930’s, Kilkenny County Library maintained over 103 centres around the County. These were deposits of books manned by volunteers. Issues for these are recorded but not for the City Library which would suggest that the indicator was still in use then. This was another disadvantage of the indicator system that usage figures were not readily available.

Thus Kilkenny differed from the trend in the United Kingdom in that the indicator remained in use for a long period. This was probably due to a variety of factors. The collection in the library was comparatively small; the library service had few resources so the Indicator probably represented a considerable investment and it also implied very limited access to the books by the public that was seen as desirable at the time.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/heritage-towns/the-kilkenny-library-indi/the-kilkenny-library-indi/index.xml

Beautiful Website!

http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeowulf/guide.htm

Information Infrastructure

http://www.rogerclarke.com/
What a guy!

Callimachus

Callimachus (c. 305 - c. 240 BC) was a Greek poet and grammarian, a native of Cyrene and a descendant of the illustrious house of the Battiadae.

He opened a school in the suburbs of Alexandria, and some of the most distinguished grammarians and poets were his pupils, among them Apollonius of Rhodes He was subsequently appointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus chief librarian of the Alexandrian library, which office he held till his death (about 240). His Pinakes (tablets), in 120 books, a critical and chronologically arranged catalogue of the library, laid the foundation of a history of Greek literature.

According to the Suda, he wrote about 800 works, in verse and prose; of these only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams and some fragments are extant; a considerable fragment of the Hecale, an idyllic epic, has also been discovered in the Rainer papyri.

His Coma Berenices is only known from the celebrated imitation of Catullus. His Aitia (causes) was a collection of elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the foundation of cities, religious ceremonies and other customs. According to Quintilian (Inst it. x. 1. 58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans, and imitated by Ovid, Catullus and especially Propertius. The extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a laboured and artificial style. The epigrams, some of the best specimens of their kind, have been incorporated in the Greek Anthology.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callimachus

After a class mate of mine, Maria de Alaiza, said "When I'm stumped, I'll ask myself, what would Callimachus do?", I had to find out just who Callimachus was!! And am I happy I did :-)