Thomas' Wednesday Post (Library)

     So, when we were at the library on Wednesday May 23rd I inquired about the nature of as to how books were organized in the libraries in the Netherlands. To which I was given this response... The books are organized by size. The larger books go on the bottom shelves and are given a size of "A" and then slightly smaller books are given "B"and so on up to shelf "F"and at which point the book sizes are slightly larger than pamphlets. Then with regards to how books are sorted by subject, in short I was told that they are NOT sorted in that regard. The reason I was given for this manner of sorting is that the library of Leiden was increased in size by the acquisition of new collections of books from various professors, wealthy people with books, and from estate sales and it was not feasible to sort by subject. As to which shelves the books go back on, the shelves are labled 1,2,3... 2007... etc. and the books are given two stickers, one with the shelf number on it, and the other with the book size letter and a number corresponding to which book from left to right it is on the shelf. The University of Leiden was the first to publish a "Book Catalog" and now their online catalog is sortable by author, book title, and year of publication. There is no opportunity to sort by subject as they were not taken down in the beginning and as we know people are loathe to deviate from tradition.