« The Idiot's Guide To KAL DILI
Main
On Why It Is So Important »
June 23, 2009
Library Adventures
Today I made one of my occasional pilgrimages to UCLA. And quite an adventure it was. I was looking for three titles,
- Ebeling, Erich, Quellen zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion I, Leipzig: Hinrich 1918
- Maul, Stefan M., Zukunftsbewältigung: eine Untersuchung altorientalischen Denkens anhand der babylonisch-assyrischen Löserituale (Namburbi), Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1994
- Köcher, Franz, Die babylonische-assyrische Medizin in Texten and Untersuchungen, Berlin: Gruyter, 1963-
All three of these titles contain collections of Akkadian texts with or without transliteration and/or translation and little else. And a different on campus library houses each title. The Young Research Library houses the Ebeling's work. When I say I'm going to the library at UCLA, this is the library I generally mean. I know where it is, I know the best place to park and I know my way around the library. So I had little trouble finding this volume and extracting what I needed from it.
But after that, the trouble began. The Arts Library houses Mual's work. I have no idea why. I knew that this library was in the same general neighborhood as the Research Library. I asked the student helper at the Research Library for directions. He was kind enough to provide them, "Turn left at the walk and when to get to the sculpture garden the Arts Library will be on the opposite side in front of you." In its own way, this was accurate enough, particularly if you knew the whereabouts of the Arts Library. The entrance (and exit) to the Research Library is about 200 feet from one corner of the sculpture garden and at the closest point to that entrance in the sculpture garden the paths to "the opposite side" head in three different directions across the garden. I took the diagonal. When I reached the other side, I asked for further directions. Someone told me that he thought it was in the new Board Arts Building. That made sense to me both because of name of the building and the fact that it too was across the sculpture garden from the Research Library but in a somewhat different direction. So I headed in that direction. With a sample of only four people, two things became apparent. First, everyone in the Board Arts Building knew it was not in that building. Second, they had no idea where it was. So I wondered back in the general direction from which I came and asked someone else for directions. That person, correctly it turns out, sent me to the Public Affairs building. That would be in the third possible way to cross the sculptural garden from the Research Library. I hadn't gone that way in the first place because I could see the name on that building from the sculpture garden and was completely certain that the Arts Library could not in the Public Affairs building. It shows you how wrong one can be. After this adventure, I found both the library and the book with little further ado. I must say that wondering around the sculpture garden for half an hour or so was a good experience but I would have enjoyed it more if I were looking for sculpture rather than books.
Well, it was now off to the BioMedical Library for Köcher's six-volume work. By this time, I had acquired a campus library map which, as you will see, failed me at the most crucial point. Notice that the title of Köcher's work has the word Medizin in it. These six volumes contain a sizable collection of transcriptions of cuneiform tablets. Let's be clear, these volumes contain transcriptions of the cuneiform not transliterations and certainly not translations. This library is associated with the medical school and biology research facility and is of the order of a mile from the other two libraries having collections of Akkadian texts in transcription or transliteration. At first, I was surprised that medical students would want to read Akkadian medical texts in their original language and script. But it turns out that two things were wrong in my surprise. First, this library has a rather massive collection of works related to the history of medicine. Second, no one on the street in this part of campus knew where the library was and several had never heard of it. I stood at a point on the street that turned out to be directly in front of the library stacks and not a single person I asked has the slightest idea where the library was. At least some of those I asked will makeup the next generation of doctors and medical researchers. One person in a lab coat suggested that perhaps someone, anyone, in an adjacent, connected, building might know about the BioMedical Library. So I walked about 50 yards further down the street to the entrance of this adjacent building and wondered around the halls looking for as much as one living soul. I eventually found someone else wondering around who had, to my great surprise, 1) heard of this library and 2), even more surprising, knew where it was. She was also able to give me very good, detailed, directions that turned out to be correct. The library didn't seem well used. Finding the correct volume was something else but with the help of a reference assistant, I finally completed my day's work and my day's adventure.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 23, 2009 8:51 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2915
Comments
Post a comment
Please read Abnormal Interest's Comments Policy.