Too much information

posted 12/23/2009
A recent blog comment stated "Any additional information is never too much." This statement was made in response to a blog post about a new bit of information Amazon is adding to print book records. Amazon is noting in the title line if a book has a deckle edge ("the irregular, untrimmed edge of handmade paper, often used for ornamental effect in fine books and stationery, now often produced artificially on machine-made paper"). For an example of this, check out The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. The blogger posed in his self-described rant, "is this information actually necessary?"

I wondered the same thing. Noting if a book is Large Print or a Kindle Book is obviously important to know. But is it really important for a buyer of current popular fiction to know if a book has a deckle edge? Another person who commented on the blog post said as a former bookstore employee many people did not like the deckle edge worrying that the book had been improperly cut. So, maybe by providing this information Amazon is preventing a glut of returned books. Maybe.

But I also wonder if library records contain information that isn’t really helpful to the patron and maybe even a bit confusing. How frequently does a library patron care what the ISBN number is for a particular book? Even if the rare patron searches by ISBN, do we need to display that number? Searches are done on information that is in a record but not displayed all the time. And why display the size of the book in centimeters? Sure, this can be helpful if a book is misshelved and knowing the size lets you do a quick visual scan of the area. But do patrons really ever use this bit of information to find a book, or even think in centimeters?

I actually love cataloging and know that the information in library records is in there for important reasons, but displaying that to the public? Is it useful? Do we provide too much information, or is our blog commenter right that any additional information is never too much?

Laura Tretter
Director
San Juan Island Library
360.378.2798
ltretter@sjlib.org

editor@sanjuanislander.com

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