Cataloguing Culture

Hannah Turner is an information and museum studies scholar, and is an assistant professor in the School of Information at the University of British Columbia. She has published in journals such as Museum Anthropology, Knowledge Organization, and Cataloging and Classification Quarterly. From 2018 to 2019 she was a lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester.

• Preface Introduction: "The Making of Specimens Eloquent"1 Writing Desiderata: Defining Evidence in the Field2 On the Margins: Paper Systems of Classification3 Ordering Devices and Indian Files: Cataloguing Ethnographic Specimens4 Pragmatic Classification: The Routine Work of Description after 19505 Object, Specimen, Data: Computerization and the Legacy of Dirty DataConclusion: A Museum Data Legacy for the FutureNotes; Bibliography; Index

"Turner's work highlights important historical and contemporary considerations about a specific area of museological practice which has often been neglected in the field of museum studies and material culture."- Heather George, University of Waterloo (Ontario Historical Society Review) Turner has made an important contribution in reminding museum professionals and museum enthusiasts alike that institutional memory in all its physical forms can shape collective memory in unexpected ways: museum collections document not only the lives and cultures of their "subjects," but also those of museum staff, whose interests and biases underlie even the most mundane of museological practices. - Forrest Pass, Curator, Exhibitions and Online Content at Library and Archives Canada (The Ormsby Review)