The Language of the Public


The Language of the Public

"The thing is I decided that the classes of the John Cotton Dana classification

just could not serve an artist public, or a general public... so the thing is that I became convinced that an A-to-Z file would not serve the public. That a simple alphabetic arrangement, such as Newark had, did not group the material logically from its visual contents. 


I decided then that the only thing to do would be to begin recording the language

of the public in asking for the pictures, and that was begun as soon as I took over.

Since there was no catalog of subject headings available, there was no catalog of

subject headings at all by the way, since there was no catalog when the borrower

came in he used his own language, and that language could be analyzed and

those (became) headings. 


At first it was used to show the trends and needs to guide the buying. Then it

became obvious to me that unless we set up a subject heading scheme based on

the language used by the public, we would never achieve a file that reflected its

needs. It could reflect a beautiful bibliographical standard of classification, but it

would not in any way bring the headings in the way the pictures would file would

never reach their deepest use until the heading itself had pictorial qualities and

that became a challenge which was greatly met by a study of the language of the

public."


From an interview with Robert Yampolsky, c. 1964.  Words on Pictures. Chapter 8, p. 184. 



Yampolsky Collection. photo: Michaelson



First published in: 

Worth Beyond Words: Romana Javitz
and The New York Public Library's Picture Collection

By Anthony T. Troncale,  Biblion: The Bulletin of The New York Public Library. Volume 4, Number 1, Fall 1995. ©1995; Anthony T. Troncale.

 Words on Pictures: Romana and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. edited by Anthony T. Troncale. New York: Photo | Verso Publications, LLC, 2020.   ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)  Identifiers ISBN  978-1-7346409-1-5 (ebook)

#photography, #visual arts, #photographers, #visualresources, #librarians, #documentation, art libraries, art history, theater, #NewYorkCity, #FarmSecurityAdministration, #LibraryofCongress, #visualliteracy, Sol Libsohn, #illustration, #advertising, #Troncale, publishing, children's, art, photo, #WPA, #FederalArtProject, #circulation, #NewYorkPublicLibrary
#wordsonpictures, #RomanaJavitz #newyorkpubliclibrary, picture collection, #photography, #visual arts, #fphototgraphs, visual resources, #branchlibraries, #librarians, #documentaryphotography, art libraries, circulating pictures, theater, performing arts, television, New York Public Library, New York City, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress, visual literacy, American Model: Origins of the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project, Ruth Reeves, Holger Cahill, WPAWords on Pictures, #wordsonpictures, Romana Javitz, picture collection, #photography, #visual arts, #photographers, visual resources, #librarians, #documentation, art libraries, art history, theater, New York City, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress, visual literacy, Sol Libsohn, illustration, advertising, Anthony Troncale, publishing, children's, art, photo, WPA, Federal Art Project, #archives, #specialcollections, #subjectsmatter, #subjective, #photohistory, #historyofphotography, #images, #visual, #visualresources, #WorthBeyondWords, #graphicarts, #posters



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