Contents Magazine har en intervju – “The Library as a Map” – med föreståndarna för The Prelinger Library i San Francisco, omnämnt här åtskilliga gånger. Bland annat pratar de om sin organisationsprincip för serendipitet:
[T]he process of research is inseparable from the physical process of exploration of the world. In my experience, creative and intellectual work flows from physical engagement with the landscape. There are literal manifestations of this, such as the discovery of forgotten places and the collection of forgotten literature from the shelves of a rural shop. More intangibly, the processes of walking, hiking, or taking a road trip are useful activities for developing new ideas or thinking through puzzles.
The result is a landscape-based, geospatial arrangement system. This system, in outline, “starts” where the library is, in San Francisco, and “ends” in outer space. Its rough structure moves from place-based subjects to the made worlds of art, media, and culture, to abstracts like society and philosophy, to space exploration.
Läs också “On the Virtues of Preexisting Material“.