The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) curates a specialist library on perspective, Leonardo da Vinci, projection methods, vision, optics, new media, spatial concepts, and related subjects; named the Library of Perspective.
The library was formed over 50 years; and consists of the amalgamation of several earlier collections from various sources including, the Perspective Unit at the University of Toronto; and the Maastricht McLuhan Institute. Today the library is known as the Library of Perspective [60 MB pdf], while large parts of this library formerly comprised the research library of Professor Kim Veltman.
The Library of Perspective consists of 5000 physical items: books, journals, papers, academic theses, treatise(s), and pamphlets; plus 10,000 digital items.
Library Catalogue
The first printed edition is published on Amazon: Library of Perspective.
This book is a meticulously assembled library catalogue of the contents of the Library of Perspective, whereby modern scholars can browse the contents of Kim Veltman’s library, and seek out interesting works for themselves.
Library of Kim Veltman (c. 2020).
The Perspective Research Centre (PRC) library was formed over a period of 50 years and consists of the amalgamation of several earlier collections from various sources, Professor Kim Veltman’s Perspective Unit and his Virtual Maastricht McLuhan Institute. The Library of Perspective consists of 5000 physical items: books, journals, papers, academic theses, treatise(s), and pamphlets, etc.
For over 30 years, Kim Veltman was the acknowledged world’s number one expert on perspective and also a top expert on Leonardo studies, being a ‘historian of the future’; a scholar who fervently studied the past, so that we might all learn how to shape the future conscientiously for the benefit of humanity. He did so whilst being cognisant that there are—in reality—no isolated topics or unbreachable boundaries between things/processes or people/organisations, because everything is connected to everything else (in one sense or another). PRC maintains the official archive of Professor Kim Veltman’s lifetime publications, and a comprehensive list of these works is given at the end of this volume.
PRC has also been fortunate to acquire the library of Dr Ingetraut Dahlberg (once again via Kim Veltman). She founded the Journal of International Classification (1974), which later became Knowledge Organisation (1993). She also founded the Gesellschaft für Klassification (1977) and subsequently the International Society of Knowledge Organisation (ISKO, 1989).
The main theme of the Dahlberg section of the library is knowledge organisation, including its philosophical and theoretical background, classification methodology, its universal and special systems, indexing and terminology. Correspondingly, there are sections on each of these areas. In addition, there are sections on linguistics, special glossaries, library and information science.
Kim’s library was a wonder to behold, spread across thousands of physical volumes and running to perhaps 50 bookcases in his Maastricht house; giving the impression of a magician’s cave or the library of a modern-day Aristotle or Leonardo da Vinci; indeed, many learned visitors to Kim’s house can attest to the fact that he – and his library – did not disappoint in this respect. Now, using this meticulously assembled library catalogue, today’s scholars can browse the contents of Kim’s library, seek out and read interesting works for themselves.
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