Knowledge organization systems that made me go ๐ (pt. 2)
And my last day as non-Canadian ๐
By the time you read this, I would have taken an Oath of Citizenship to Canada, the place Iโve called home since 2008.
I am now officially part of a very small group of Norwegians with dual citizenship ๐ณ๐ด๐จ๐ฆ๐
I recorded a video marking the start of my citizenship journey. I will (with 70% certainty) also make a video marking the finale.
What a journey itโs been. While I am not one to shy away from international adventures, itโs a different type of satisfaction to establish roots in one place.
Iโm very happy and grateful to have that opportunity in Canada, surrounded by so many great people that Iโve met over the years. It truly feels like coming home, finally.
Last week I wrote about the intake form for my Naturopathy Doctor. This week itโs about books. And not just any type of books.
A short walk from my home is Acadia Books. Itโs a store for used, out-of-print, antiquarian books. Their books include a great selection of art books, including monographs, photography, architecture and original graphics. When you walk in, you feel youโre transported to a different age altogether and it. is. marvellous.
So it turns out, I have a strange obsession with reference books. And one such book caught my eye during my visit at Acadia Books. It was this book:
Every reference book is a work of art; this one especially so. The typesetting is exquisite. The graphic style is understated (just a green colour for highlights), perhaps to not distract from the sheer amount of raw information being conveyed on each page. The backbone of a reference book is its information organization and wayfinding implementation. In this sense, this book is not a disappointment.
Even a complete noob (like me) could be wandering around somewhere, randomly come across a tree, and successfully identify it using only the book at hand, within minutes. How, you ask?
Let me tell you first how itโs NOT organized.
No, the information is not listed alphabetically. Most people canโt name the top ten trees in their neighbourhood, so names would be useless.
No, the information is not listed by geography. The prevalence of a tree species is very diffuse. Any point of the map could potentially be the home of many dozens of tree and shrub species.
The way it is organized is first by leaf type identification.
Did you know that all tress and shrubs ever could be subdivided into major five leaf arrangements? I did not. I knew about deciduous and evergreen trees. Why no-one has told me about this before, I donโt know. It feels like outrageously basic information to come across as an adult, but ok.
After identifying which one of the five leaf arrangements youโre dealing with, you learn a bit more about leaf anatomy like leaf shape, twig and bud terminology, and leaf and twig terminology. Youโre basically learning a new language that helps you identify trees just by looking at them and reading their body language.
Once you generally know what type of tree/shrub it is (oak, birch, maple etc) the next challenge is to figure out which sub-genus your specimen falls under. For this, there are several ways to get to the answer. One way is to use a very elaborate nested list to assist with this. Hereโs the one for Willows:
Dear lord. There are over 50(!) types of Willows in these parts of the world. Turns out willows are basically impossible to correctly identify, unless you have this book of course.
The Maple section shows another way to identify the particular type of Maple that is in front of you:
Notice the amount of detail and nuance the illustrations communicate to the reader. They could have easily taken pictures and been done with it. Instead, they opted for a uniform illustration style that put the focus on the right differences to pay attention to.
And then thereโs the case of identifying trees from afar. Because sometimes you simply arenโt close enough to look at the twigs of a tree. For this, they have a section on tree silhouettes for most common trees in the hood:
Not only are the silhouettes exquisitely drawn, the small descriptions beneath each are power-packed with pertinent information about that tree species AND they are shorter than your average tweet. The amount of high quality info offered here is wild.
Hold on. Thereโs one issue with all of this. What ifโฆ youโre identifying trees during the winter when there are no leaves? Does tree-identification fall by the wayside after autumn, and come back again for spring?
Nah, the tree book got an answer for this.
Yes, no kidding. You can learn how to identify a tree in winter by generally studying its silhouette. Drawn out like this, itโs fascinating how you can easily spot the differences versus seeing them in the wild. Compliment this with the whole chapter on how to read the leaf scars left on a twig after their leaves have fallen, and you are now capable of a 80% success rate in identifying trees during winterโฆ ๐
Final thoughts: This book is one of the most elaborate arrangements of โif X, then Yโ kind of adventures, specifically meant to lead you down a path towards successful identification. Itโs brilliant in how, through each step along the way, you are orders of magnitude closer to identifying the mystery tree in front of you.
Ultimately, the design of this book proved to me that information can mean nothing without gateways, maps, and wayfinding devices to approach the information with.
Up until I bought this book, I truly believed that tree identification was a dying art because it seemed so difficult to get into. This reference book proves that it can be super easy and that anyone can do it with this book at hand. I wouldnโt have believed it had I not come across this book randomly in an antiquarian bookstore.
Gotta love serendipity.
Hey again friend! Thanks for coming through and reading what essentially became a love letter to a reference book on trees. Is there a book in your life that falls under the category of remarkable book that belongs on paper? Let me know in the comments.
Give this letter a โค๏ธ if you enjoyed it (and pls share the letter with a friend who may appreciate it too!)
As always, stay safe and stay curious.
โFei๐ชข
PS. Thanks to Michael who did some superb hand modelling for me for all the book images in this letter ๐ ๐
Beautiful article! And about that book...Did you know that...
George Petrides (the author) was, among other things, a UN and World Bank representative on the environment, wrote a ton of books in the field guide series, and died in 2011? He has a daughter, Olivia, who's a brilliant artist who lives in Chicago and teaches at Art Institute. I sent her your post through IG. Don't know if she'll get it, but I'm sure it will move her if she does.
Your eye is so inspiring!
Congratulations on your Canadian citizenship! I just watched your YouTube video. Such a beautiful, heartfelt dedication to your parents and to the countries that have welcomed you. Enjoyed reading about your discovery of this great reference book on trees. I love trees although I am so ignorant of the various types growing in our midst.