Description
Book SynopsisCruising the Library examines the ways in which library classifications have organized sexuality and sexual perversion. The author studies the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Classification, as well as the Library of Congress’s Delta Collection, a restricted collection of obscenity until 1964.
Trade Review"An original study on an old institution- the U.S. Library of Congress. Adler's reading of crucial and cultural theory are accurate and insightful. She presents a practical example of the philosophical power of library documentation as a tool of metaphysics and political economy." -- -Ronald E. Day author of Indexing It All: The Subject in the Age of Documentation, Information, and Data "Tailor-made for the critlib movement, this demonstration that the Library of Congress is not a neutral space begs one critical question: where should it be shelved?" -Kirkus Reviews "This compelling book should be read by everyone who cares about the complex politics of knowledge production and dissemination. Melissa Adler's highly readable account of the fate of queer, non-normative sexual knowledge within the Library of Congress is both startling and important. It speaks to the very real importance of libraries and librarians to contemporary intellectual life." -- -Janice Radway Northwestern University "In this rewarding study, Melissa Adler shows how systems used to classify and catalogue information for libraries operate as mechanisms of control. In particular, she focuses on the ways sexual identities are constructed and disciplined through library practices. Using Eve Sedgwick's work as a paradigmatic test case, and the Library of Congress as a site, including its infamous Delta Collection, she produces a study that is as compelling as it is far-reaching in its implications. A must-read for present and future professionals, but also, a useful text for anyone concerned with official instruments for the production of knowledge." -- -Johanna Drucker Breslauer Professor, Information Studies, UCLA
