Weird coincidence

The library at UNSW is currently in a bit of a mess. Previously, we've had three separate libraries - biomedical, social sciences and physical sciences - plus the law library, which is still separate. All the collections (books and journals) from the three libraries are being merged into one single sequence. As a result, things are a little crazy at the moment, and books can be hard to find.

While I was working on one of my conference papers last week, I began a list of books that I wanted to check something in - just a list of call numbers on a scrap of paper. Today I finally got a chance to go to the library. I was looking for a book with the call number S283.0942/1. The book I picked up had a title that didn't sound familiar, but it was relevant, so I figured I must have forgotten. And I was expecting to have a biography of John Wilkins in my list, but since I already had enough books to carry, I decided to leave that until later.

I just realised that I picked up the wrong book - S283.092242/1 instead of S283.0942/1. The latter was the biography of John Wilkins, so I was right about that. But how strange that the one I picked up by accident was so relevant - Science, Religion and Belief: The Clerical Virtuosi of the Royal Society of London, 1663-1687 - and my paper is on natural theology among the early members of the Royal Society of London, c. 1660-1690. Ok, ok, so the dewey decimal system means that related books are close to each other, but still, that's pretty cool!