This article looks at marginalia that people leave in an academic library's book. In other words, it looks at writing that readers may leave in the books, books they are not supposed to be writing on by the way. The author offers this definition of marginalia:
"Marginalia is defined as '. . .unique records of the reader's experience offering insights into how and why a reader reads. . .'" (1).
I will admit that I am not one to do much marginalia in my books, even though when I was an undergraduate it was encouraged that I write in my textbooks, especially in the literature classes. Still, it was not a habit that stuck with me. I either make reading notes in my journals, or if I am using an e-reader, I use the note functions to do my marginalia. I should also note that when I read articles like this, I print them out, and I do write notes on the margins of the text. Some of those notes help me recall things or add questions and comments I may integrate in these article note blog posts. Still, the topic of this article caught my eye.
The author states that there is very little on the subject of marginalia written by common people. We usually think of marginalia when it comes to famous authors and other famous people writing in the margins of their books. Often those books sell for astronomical value after those famous people pass on and their books hit the auction blocks. The author then in his literature review looks a bit at the history of marginalia and some authors who have written about it.
The author's study takes place at the library of Queensborough Community College, City University of New York. He points out that the common response to marginalia from patrons in library books is to view it as aberrant behavior, and such marginalia is often erased or removed. For this study, the author focused on the literature section of his library (LOC call number ranges: PR, PS, and PT), and ten books were chosen for the study. The article includes the list of the ten books selected. A capture tool was created in order to capture data including specific types of marginalia such as underlining, highlighting, use of brackets and/or parenthesis, and symbols. The data was then put into an EXCEL spreadsheet. The author then provides abbreviated data in the article from the large spreadsheet. Rest of the article then discusses specific marginalia found in the 10 books.
Some findings:
The assumption was that various authors wrote the marginalia, "but of the 10 books sample, the analysis shows that, with few exceptions, a single marginalia writer wrote throughout the book" (7).
What marginalia does: "Anecdotally and from personal experience we know that marginalia is a technique used to help the reader more fully engage in the subject matter. It is used to enhance concentration and focus, thereby improving memory and learning. It reminds us to dig deeper, stimulates questions and helps to draw conclusions" (19).
As he gets to the conclusion, the author notes that with print diminishing due to the rise of electronic reading options that readers may not have as accessible means to make notations in books (24). I would say such options are not totally lost. E-readers often feature options for making notes about texts as well as highlighting parts of texts. When available, I make use of those features, which I find helpful later when I am reviewing a book or other text.
Naturally I would say to many librarians people writing in books may be more of a horror than something to be studies. In that sense, this article is different than so many other LIS articles. Overall, this was an interesting read.
Items from the references list I found of interest, possible adds to my TBR list:
Author cites this site on "How to Leave Masterful Marginalia" from the Levenger stationery company. It does include a printer friendly version of their chart.
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