In the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives at Cambridge University Library, one man’s papers take up a staggering 110 meters of shelving. In a new article from Isis: the Journal of the History of Science Society, “George Biddell Airy and Information Management at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich: Library, Archive, and Uses of the Historical Past,” author Yuto Ishibashi narrates the efforts of the nineteenth-century director of the observatory to organize its library records. Ultimately, the article argues, Airy’s emphasis on standardization played a major part in forging the observatory’s institutional identity.
A football field of shelving: Recordkeeping and standardization at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
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