TAMS TOKEN & MEDAL ARTICLES INDEX Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 7, February 16, 2003, Article 6
TAMS TOKEN & MEDAL ARTICLES INDEX
Dick Johnson writes: "With the arrival of the February 2003
issue of TAMS Journal came a delightful surprise: "Exonumia
Journal Articles." Compiled by Gregory G. Brunk, the 71-
page bibliography lists articles only -- over 2,700 articles, no
books -- from world journals that touch on, or illustrate tokens
and medals.Obviously most of the journal sources are numismatic. For
some of these journals compiler Brunk make a page-by-page
inspection. For others we assume he captured these from
citations in the literature. He also included a few citations from
journals outside our field as well. He has performed a
herculean task for the benefit of collectors and writers in the
field. We always welcome Finding Aids, both on the internet
and hardcopy.The arrangement is essentially geographical among 101
token-and-medal-issuing countries. His methodology of
indexing -- and this has been discussed in E-Sylum before
-- was a folder within a folder within a folder, somewhat like
the arrangement in Elvira Clain-Stefanelli's massive
"Numismatic Bibliography." As the number of entries grow
under a country when compiling, how can they be broken
out?By bringing related items together and giving them a new
headline, a group subject title. Boy, the computer sure helps
when doing this arranging. But assigning each headline its
position in the hierarchy becomes important. (Elvira's
differing headline type styles was somewhat annoying,
Gregory's isn't.)For each entry the author's last name is listed in full, but
only the initials for any given names. There is a subject index
but no author index. Also, no item is repeated. And that is
somewhat of a problem in using the directory when an article
cuts across two or more subjects. You have to search
extensively for a specific interest of your choice, and you
have to rely on the article title alone.Assigning proper subject heads is critical. I found only two
of my articles listed, both are under an incorrect heading. An
article on the medals of the American Numismatic SOCIETY
is listed under American Numismatic ASSOCIATION. (The
proper head should have been: American Numismatic
Organizations.) Also an article of mine, and one by G.
Sanfilippo, on half-dollar size medals, both titled "So-Called
Half Dollars" is listed under So-Called Dollars, which has a
very specific meaning in the numismatic field and incorrect for
our two articles.A point I have made previously in E-Sylum: Before anyone
starts indexing journal articles, check out the 2-volume
reference work "Index to 19th Century American Art
Periodicals" by Mary Morris Schmidt. It was published by
my publisher, Sound View Press, in 1999. It is an expensive
set ($200), but study the methodology of her indexing. Here
any number of citations can be made to a single article, its all
in one alphabet and it contains authors and all possible subjects
in that single alphabet. Plus it gives detail on content of the
article! (She could, and did!, pinpoint a single fact among a
200-page article.)Having said all that, do get Gregory Brunk's useful work for
your library. It's available from TAMS, Box 76192, Ocala,
FL 34481 (that's David Sklow's address). Or, better yet,
join TAMS for twenty-five bucks.- 2003-02-16
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