looking at these expressive dirt bands
dirt bands in library card catalogs, similar to dirt and wear marks on the fore edges of books gives some evidence of use
this can be useful research, but it has silently disappeared over time due to lack of archiving materials like card catalogs
some of these issues also pop up with digitizing physical books and throwing them away... we lose the information about how they were bound, how they might have been used, all the physicality is gone
Fifty drawers compose it. They are made of blond wood. Pull out one of the C drawers, the one labelled “Catalogs.” Here are several guide cards: one for “Catalogs,” one for “Censorship,” one for “Children’s Literature.” Before you have read or touched a single card, you have learned something important about the library-school library, and even possibly about librarianship in general: the edges of the cards following the guide cards for “Censorship” and “Children’s Literature” are dark with handling, whereas the ones following “Catalogs” are not. Thus “Censorship” and “Children’s Literature” have over the years been of more interest to library-school students than “Catalogs” has. This is a surprise—at least, it was a surprise to me. Maybe it’s one reason we’re in this pickle.
wear on library card catalog cards as an indicator of use
a similar thing can be found in one's personal note cards and has been noticed in Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten
he very degree of wornness ofcertain cards that you once ipped to daily but now perhaps do not—since that author is drunk and forgotten or that magazine editorhas been red and now makes high-end apple chutneys inBinghamton—constitutes signi cant information about what partsof the Rolodex were of importance to you over the years.
The wear of cards can be an important part of your history with the information you handle.
Luhmann’s slips show some of this sort of wear as well, though his show it to extreme as he used thinner paper than the standard index card so some of his slips have incredibly worn/ripped/torn tops more than any grime. Many of my own books show that grime layer on the fore-edge in sections which I’ve read and re-read.
One of my favorite examples of this sort of wear through use occurs in early manuscripts (usually only religious ones) where readers literally kissed off portions of illuminations when venerating the images in their books. Later illuminators included osculation targets to help prevent these problems. (Cross reference: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370119878_Touching_Parchment_How_Medieval_Users_Rubbed_Handled_and_Kissed_Their_Manuscripts_Volume_1_Officials_and_Their_Books)
(syndication link: https://boffosocko.com/2024/02/04/55821315/#comment-430267)
West Country Bylines. ‘Covid-19: 2 Months since “Freedom Day”, but Where Are We Now?’, 1 October 2021. https://westcountrybylines.co.uk/covid-19-2-months-since-freedom-day-but-where-are-we-now/.
“Follow your blisters” implies something that you come back to so many times that you eventually move past the blister stage, into toughened skin. Eventually, the activity “marks you” through use and practice, and you develop a special competence. When you practice an activity a bit more obsessively than other people, you build unique character – you earn some wear and some healing that makes you idiosyncratic, and a little unbalanced.It is something that you don’t need to put on your to-do list, something you care enough about to return to repeatedly, even though it causes discomfort. Over time, you develop a layer of protection that enables you to do that something more easily.
Unfortunately, this simple, lifesaving practice has become part of a political debate that says: If you’re for Trump, you don’t wear a mask; if you’re against Trump, you do... The stakes are much too high for that.”
Honestly it is upsetting the debate about wether you wear a mask or you don’t because it is not political. You should be wearing a mask and taking precautions because it is literal human lives in danger. And if you don’t want to wear a mask then stay at home.
This dynamic is playing out during the pandemic among the many people who refuse to wear masks or practice social distancing.
people who are refusing not to wear a mask are not helping reduce transmission of coronavirus
Because it is so important to be seen as competent and productive members of society, people naturally attempt to present themselves to others in a positive light. We attempt to convince others that we are good and worthy people by appearing attractive, strong, intelligent, and likable and by saying positive things to others (Jones & Pittman, 1982; Schlenker, 2003). The tendency to present a positive self-image to others, with the goal of increasing our social status, is known as self-presentation, and it is a basic and natural part of everyday life.
A short film captures how social interactions influence our complex relationships between self-presentation, self-esteem and self concept in a unique way.