SOBERSCOVE PRESS

$20

The Dynamic Library:
Organizing Knowledge at the Sitterwerk—Precedents and Possibilities

Edited by Ariane Roth and Marina Schütz
Translated by Alta L. Price

The Dynamic Library presents essays in translation from an interdisciplinary symposium on the classification and organization of knowledge held at Sitterwerk, St.Gallen in Switzerland. Home to over 25,000 volumes on art, architecture, design, and photography, the Sitterwerk’s Kunstbibliothek (art library) began with the bequest of book collector and connoisseur Daniel Rohner (1948–2007). The question of how to systematically organize this idiosyncratic collection into a publicly accessible library was a fundamental concern, and a solution was found in a dynamic system of organization powered by RFID technology, which relies on digital tracking. The essays gathered in The Dynamic Library contextualize the Sitterwerk’s associative classification system amid artistic and historical systems of order while pointing to future methods for incorporating subjectivity and serendipity into the organization of knowledge.

Contributors: Anthon Astrom, Dorothée Bauerle-Willert, Susanne Bieri, Christian Kern, Felix Lehner, Claudia Mareis, Gerhard Matter, Philipp Messner, Paul Michel, Hans Petschar, Tobias Schelling, Fabian Wegmuller, Hans Witschi, Lukas Zimmer

Alta L. Price runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. She translates from Italian and German into English. If you’re concerned about what might be lost in translation, she’ll gladly speak with you about the many things this sometimes mysterious process can help you gain.