Atlas Shrugged

Having levered 1300 leased copies, mostly bestsellers, out of the library and back to Baker & Taylor, (UPS showed up on Wednesday as I was leaving), I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my attention to clearing my desk.

Digging down through layers of sediment, I found articles on Port Leon and St. Marks from The Florida Historical Quarterly, which I had retrieved for SE's husband, who led an expedition last spring on the coast. I gave them to SE for our vertical files.

There were problem volumes from two sets of collected works, one by Washington Irving and one by Henry James, both sets dating from the 1920's, and with title records so rudimentary that titles within them could not be found. A search for The Golden Bowl, for example, would not reveal that The Novels and Works of Henry James included that work. Our head of acquisitions, LB, had directed my attention to these two sets.

Irving is a cheap edition, with several volumes in poor condition. We have every title in the set in newer editions with the exception of The Life of Oliver Goldsmith. The only title by Irving I ever get requests for is Tales of the Alhambra. So I discarded it.

James, on the other hand, is a nice edition, on rag paper, though the spines are faded. Spoke to C. in Collection Management, and he will see about overlaying the record with more complete information, so that patrons can find titles in the set.

There are other sets of collected works in the 800's that merit similar treatment, Thackery and The Great Books come to mind, Harvard Classics too.

Will I actually clear my desk, down to the wood? Stay tuned.