A gift of design

Many, many thanks to the family of SJSU alum Karl Kromer for donating a very good collection of design books to King Library. Reviewing this gift of 200+ titles has given me the opportunity to learn more about how graphic design is classified as well as learning what our collection holds. Besides adding to our collection, many of the donated titles are able to fill gaps where a title or two has gone missing.

In reviewing the titles, I have pondered the difference in subject headings:

Typography
Illustration
Printing

I add evidence to my argument that understanding that book records only represent ownership rather than fully illustrating (pardon the pun) the actual content of the text makes a significant difference in how people search for information. Consider this title:

Author Pretzer, Mary.
Title Creative low-budget publication design / Mary Pretzer.
Imprint Cincinnati, Ohio : North Light Books, c1999.

The subject headings are:

Graphic design (Typography)
Newsletters -- Design.
Pamphlets -- Design.

Ho hum. What do those words even mean? Do they capture the fact that examples of printing are displayed in color and the book gives discussions of the prize winning designs? Until I handled these books and spent some time looking at them, I had not made the connection between the subject headings and the lushness of the illustrations and depth of explication on the designs.

I quote for you here a comment on a Calendar of Events designed by M. Christopher Jones:

"A square is actually an odd shape in American culture. Most publications rely on more familiar rectangles....'The original concept sprang from a logo composed of four squares. The logo no lnger exists, but the grid stayed.'" (page 50).

Would you expect that useful exposition of square vs. rectangle from the above subject headings? Even the Bookcharmer would not have anticipated that, much as she loves to learn and anticipate the meanings of headings.

Clearly, I have a lot of LC Subject Headings to truly grasp in order to anticipate their meanings, but for now, I'm trying to absorb them by handling this wonderful gift collection. Thank you to the Kromer family for donating these books!