In the early years of the twentieth century, Catholic libraries in Germany adopted modernized methods of organization to simplify their use: the arrangement of books by subject, alpha-numeric classifying systems, and card catalogs. The adoption may not seem like much, but in the structure and practice of Catholic knowledge the change was fundamental. How did this revolution come about and what did it betoken?
Author: Jeffrey T. Zalar
Associate Professor of History and Ruth J. and Robert A. Conway Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies, University of Cincinnati