CATALOGING FOOD
Organization of Knowledge
Food is life.
HELLO AND WELCOME
My name is Pang and I am an MLIS student at St. Catherine University. As a part of our Organization of Knowledge class, we are asked to select an aspect of cataloging and discuss various implications of current systems.
Originally, I had selected multilingual cataloging in public libraries. Through my research, I recommend all library systems catalog the translation, transliteration and the original text of the material being cataloged. Why? For accuracy, access, representation and preservation. You can find the short 5 minute slide I put together here with two examples.
After calling two library systems and hearing the same excuse of “inability” I was very discouraged and decided to change my topic to food.
Food provides energy and nourishment which is what I felt I needed after finding such negative work practices around cataloging materials in a language that is not English.
Throughout the world, food brings families and communities together. It is a form of capital, a symbol of trust and is the sustainer of life. Because of this, there should be high regards held for this sustenance.
I love food. I know that ahead of my lies tastes and flavors beyond my imagination. And I know before me, there existed so many flavors that can no longer be captured due to extinction or inability to recreate it. So the question leads to, how do we capture these flavors?
BRIEF HISTORY
about spice and food
For centuries, spices and food has fueled and influenced political tensions.
Food has been in existence since animals has been in existence. The consumption of plants and meat has different based on geography and availability of sources but remains the same.
The earliest evidence of spices being used dates back to 5000BC, in the Middle East. Once spices were introduced to European countries, it stimulated the need for trade. Spice trades became common, and the need for control over spices grew. By the 1500s, European countries such as Spain, England and France began to colonize countries such as South East Asia and Americas to gain control over this capital.
EXISTING FOOD LIBRARIES
current consumable libraries
Cataloging food or consumable products is a very new concept that is just starting to take place. Food flavors deteriorate over time so capturing the depth of flavors and organizing it can be quite complex.
Inland Island Yeast Laboratory
The Yeast Library started out with two good friends and a passion for beers. As they collected yeast for their beer-brewing hobby, they decided to also share it with others by commercializing it. There are over 80 yeast strands that are available for purchase, with over 100 yeast strands cataloged.
The sole purpose of this library is for fermenting beers.
Catalogs:
Region - origin of derived yeast
Attenuation - percentage conversion of sugar to alcohol
Flocculation - clumping of yeast after fermentation
Temp range - ideal temperature during fermentation
Alcohol tolerance - alcohol level
The Quest for Sourdough
The Sourdough Library has been in business for 23 years, collecting sourdough samples from around the world to keep the sourdough story alive. There are two different libraries that Quest for Sourdough is a part of, one is an online database with recipes and information shared throughout the world, and another is Puratos Sourdough Library in Saint-Vith, Belgium.
There are 1113 sourdough variations cataloged and around the world, and the physical library has 84 active strands of yeast in their library.
Catalogs:
Taste
Flavor
Origin
Mixture - ratio of contents
Characteristics - liquid to solid
Age of dough
Initial recipe
The Sourdough Library's online database is specific and unique to the food, using pentagon and hexagon bar charts to describe tastes and flavors. The variations include saltiness, umami, sour, bitter, sweet and fermented, roasted, cereal, fruity, lactic sourness and acidic sourness.
SPICE LIBRARIES
spice catalogs
Spiceography's master list of spices catalogs 74 various spices, noting flavor, origin, health benefits and the various uses. The user friendly search bar allows all users to find spices that are "earthy" or fragrant, allowing users to perform keyword searches across all metadata fields.
Catalogs:
Flavor Profile
Origin
Cuisine
Health benefits
Uses
Flavor
Chemical properties
Use
SALT MUSEUM
Salt is actually not a spice, it is a mineral. It does not lose flavor over time, like herbs and spices.
There are a few salt museums in existsence that share the history of salt mining.
Strataca Kansas Underground Salt Museum
Hawaiian Red Alaea Salt
Himalayan Coarse Pink Salt
Vulcan fire salt
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Sourdough Library's online database has the most complex and descriptive form of cataloging food. Adopting a similar format and combining it with the microscopic complexity of flavor catalogs and user-friendly format of Spiceology will allow for an ultimate catalog in the future. Someone just needs to build it.
REFERENCES
Inland Island Yeast Laboratory (2016). About Inland Island Yeast Laboratory: Our story. Retrieved from https://inlandislandyeast.com/about-us/
Puratos (2016). The Quest for Sourdough. Retrieved from http://www.questforsourdough.com/quest-sourdough
Puratos (2018). Discover the story about Puratos. Retrieved from https://www.puratos.com/about-puratos
Spiceography (2018). Master list of herbs and spices. Retrieved from https://www.spiceography.com/list-of-herbs-and-spices/
University of California, Los Angeles (2002). History of spice trade. Retrieved from https://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm?spicefilename=TimelineHistorySpiceTrade.txt&itemsuppress=yes&displayswitch=0
OPENING HOURS
I don't have a library yet, but when I do, please come visit
