Cataloguing Quotes

“It is a beautiful impulse to contain the infinite in the finite, to rest order from the chaos, to construct a foothold so we may climb towards higher truth. It is also a limiting one, for in naming things we often come to mistake the names for the things themselves.”
― Maria Popova, Figuring

“Cataloguing is an ancient profession; there are examples of such “ordainers of the universe” (as they were called by the Sumerians) among the oldest vestiges of libraries.”
― Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading

“Remind me to tell you about the Cataloging Rebellion of 2159. That came about through a combination of incompetent Board members and a Head Librarian on a power trip....”
― Jim C. Hine

“Description may require the study of individual documents which thereby stimulates examination of informational value: those actors, factors, or features populating the documentary landscape.


R. E. Stansfield-Cudworth, ‘Archivists and Historians: Perspectives on the Place of Historical Research in Archival Practice’ (2015), pp. 30–1.”
― Robert E. Stansfield-Cudworth