What a Dictionary of Modern Design can do for you.

The thoughtful foray into the 2nd floor reference collection needs to move at a less stately pace, lest deadlines creep into danger zones, but how can I hurry when I keep finding sources I want to page through from cover to cover?

I once commented to a person interested in librarianship, yes, if you want to read encyclopedias, you probably should be a librarian. Reference sources often trick me into the thinking the whole world can be an organized place. Let's take Johnathan Woodham's 2004 Dictionary of Modern Design as an example.

This is a very useful book for short but well written definitions of concepts and events and materials, as well as brief biographies of major designers. This is another example of the type of source I would advocate as a tool for choosing a topic. Before plunging into article databases, or even browsing the stacks, start with this one volume and let your mind wander through the entries on topics such as Fiskars, Fordism, Ikea, and mail order. Besides the entries specific to design, Woodham also includes entries on writers like Vance Packard and Betty Friedan.

In addition to the individual entries, Woodham also provides three things most librarians love: a bibliography (well, we all love those), an index, and a timeline. The bibliography is a helpful tool for collection development. The timeline is a useful tool, and I apply my typical approach in looking up a year I am interested in. 1900--the year of the Paris Salon, but also the year Bakelite was patented. For every decade, there is a section on Design Landmarks, Technology, Processes, and Materials, as well as Key Exhibitions and Publications.

Besides having this title available on the second floor of King Library, it can be accessed via the Library Catalog with an SJSU id and pin.