A Digital Outrigger

It’s been said that, for librarians, the joy is in the searching while it’s in the finding for patrons. This is what passes for a good time if you’re a librarian:

How I came across the idea of pattern libraries, as reconstructed from a Firefox history file:

1. Ran into Yahoo! Design Pattern Library a couple weeks ago for the first time
2. Came across the Wiki Pattern Library tonight and discovered the title “A Timeless Way of Building” in their “about us” page.
3. looked up “a timeless way of building” on wikipedia
4. Found and read this article by Christopher Alexander summarizing his struggle to reconcile scientific endeavor with subjectivity.
5. Found author’s seminal book “A Pattern Language” and forwarded the call number from my library to work email for later.
6. Looked up “Pattern Language” on Wikipedia and discovered this site which both gives a quick overview of the process while simultaneously verifying the influence of “A Pattern Language” title.
7. Returned to Wiki Pattern Library with a new appreciation for what’s going on.
8. Wondered if anyone was creating a pattern library for library website design and came across this post from 2006.
9. Gratified that others are looking into this as well, I called it a night.