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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 31, July 29, 2001, Article 12 INDEXING Dick Johnson. writes: "Dave Bowers has mentioned this before, but repeats this again in his recent Rare Coin Review (July-August 2001, no 142) in This & That column (page 73, "Wanted:"). He calls for a uniform index which would include the most popular numismatic publications of the 19th and 20th century. He is right. Despite the fact The Numismatist has been indexed three times, the first by Frank G. Duffield and published on the 50th anniversary of the publication (1888-1938), again by Krause Publications which hired a woman do do a second index, and finally the index at the Harry Bass Foundation (which may have replicated some of these other indexes). They all leave something to be desired. None of these are satisfactory for penetrating numismatic research. They all are indexed BY TITLE and not BY CONTENT. The seven-man committee that did that first index of The Numismatist was a who's who of numismatics at the time. This project cannot be a committee effort. An index must be created by one person, but it requires a lot of TIME. The person who could do this is a rare bird -- he, or she -- must have an intimate knowledge of numismatics in all its segments, a professional knowledge of indexing, and a computer with tremendous capacity. It could be speeded up if all text was digitized, but still it would require the full time for one individual for years! A retired individual would be ideal. I found the best such index which could be used for a model on the shelf in my publisher's office. Title: "Index to Nineteenth Century American Art Periodicals." Author: Mary M. Schmidt (head art librarian, emeritus, Princeton University Marquand Library). Details: 2 volumes, 1,584 pages. Here is how he describes this monumental work in his current catalog: "Imagine this nightmare assignment: You must locate every art magazine published in 19th century America -- no matter how rare or how long it takes to find them. Then, you must read every single article in each magazine. And most important, you must take notes every time you come across an artist's name, geographical place, or any type of subject matter! "Well, it took more than 20 years, but this extraordinary feat was accomplished by noted art librarian, Mary M. Schmidt, and her team of graduate students. For the first time, every article in every issue of every art magazine that appeared in 19th century America was thoroughly indexed!" I certainly would not want this job for numismatic periodicals. Five and a half years ago I begin indexing American artists, diesinkers, engravers, medalists and sculptors. I was naive of the estimated size of this project. I have have 3,129 such artists in my databank. And have over 2,000 pages of text. And counting... Can you imagine the size of the numismatic index that Dave wants. Don't hold your breath, Dave. I don't think you can find that person!"

Wayne Homren, Editor

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