Catalogued This card · acc. 2024-0124 CL · 020.7 / M · Drawer IV · Card 0124
Compliments of the Cataloguer Reference · Do Not Circulate
Class · Author · Year
020.7 · MEH
M / Aya
2019
Cat'd
Jul · 2024

Aya Mehta.

A working library at the corner of words, code, and quiet decisions — catalogued by hand, stamped by hand, returned to circulation on time.

Listing TitleEditor · Researcher · Builder
ProvenanceBangalore, IN
Holdings38 catalogued items
Open HoursTue – Fri · 10–6 · IST
Read on — turn to front matter Drawer IV of XII
§ 01 · Front Matter
A foreword filed by the cataloguer

The foreword.

Filed under CL · 020.7 / M Cross-ref: Editorial · 808.02 Cross-ref: Archives · 026.4 See also: Software · 005.74
38Holdings catalogued
12Issues line-edited
14kQuietkit readers / mo
5Years at the desk
Aya runs Catalogue House, a one-room studio in Indiranagar that operates as a small lending library of her own work. Five years of editorial, research, software, and short documentary, all filed under one card system because nothing else made sense. Day to day: writing, reading, line-editing other people's sentences, and writing software that keeps the writing legible. Pays the rent through the editorial commissions; pays for the studio cat through the licensing fees on a small open-source utility that, by accident, works very well. Standing rule of the house: every artefact gets a call number and a card before it leaves the room. Returns to circulation are the rule, not the exception. The desk is open Tuesday to Friday, ten to six, and the kettle is always on.
§ 02 · Holdings
Selected items in the working catalog

Selected holdings.

Note from the deskEach item is filed by class, format, and year. Where a holding crosses two subjects, see the cross-reference card.
Call 824.6 · M / Pa
Book · 2024

The Patient Index

Anthology · 224 pp. · Edition of 1,800 · 224 pp.

A book of fourteen essays about waiting — at counters, at desks, in queues, at hospital reception. Edited and self-published by the studio. Long-listed for the Crossword Award (Non-Fiction). Reprinted twice, the second run with a corrected colophon.

EssayEditorialSelf-Published
Filed Jul 2024
Call 005.74 · Q
Tool · 2023

Quietkit · a calmer reader

Open-source · TypeScript / Rust · v2.3 · MIT-licensed

A reading utility that strips clutter from the modern web and reflows long-form articles into a fixed-width, paginated reader. Used quietly by ~14,000 readers a month. The studio maintains the binary; the web version is community-run.

SoftwareReadingOpen Source
Filed Mar 2023
Call 791.43 · C
Film · 2023

Counter Service

Documentary · 22 min · 22 min · 4K

A short film about the women who run the small-parcel counter at the Bangalore Central post office. Shot on a single Canon C70 over fourteen mornings. Premiered at MAMI 2023. Subtitled in Kannada, Tamil, and English; held in the BFI viewing library.

DocumentaryField-shotShort
Filed Oct 2023
Call 026.5 · I / B
Exhibition · 2023

Indexicals · Bangalore Bienniale

Exhibition · curatorial · 61 days · 4,200 visitors

A two-room exhibition of working catalogues, finding aids, and accession registers from twelve South Indian institutions. Curated with the BBL team; ran for sixty-one days; printed catalogue available on the back-issue shelf.

CurationArchivePublic
Filed Aug 2023
Call 026.4 · R
Paper · 2022

Refusal as Method

Paper · peer-reviewed · 28 pp.

Co-authored research paper on community refusal as an editorial protocol in small-language digital archives. Published in the Journal of Cultural Informatics, vol. 9, issue 2. Runner-up for the JCI Best Paper, 2022.

ResearchArchiveMethod
Filed Apr 2022
Call 808.027 · H
Manual · 2024

House Style · vol. 1

Internal manual · house-printed · Edition of 80 · 64 pp.

The studio's house style guide. Three sections (typography, captions, captions-of-captions), one appendix (notes on errata). Sold quietly to seven other small studios at cost; the eighth printed copy lives at the desk.

EditorialStyleInternal
Filed Feb 2024
§ 03 · Reading Room
A bound register of postings, residencies, and roles

The register.

Loan ledgerEarliest entry sits at the bottom. Discharged entries remain on file and are open to inspection on request.
No.PeriodPostingNoteStatus
00
Period2022 – Now
Bangalore
Director of the Studio · principal · cataloguer-in-chief
Catalogue House
Founded a one-room editorial-and-engineering studio that ships books, tools, and short documentary work for cultural clients. Three full-time, two long-term residents, one cat. Average project length: eleven weeks. Standing rule: every artefact gets a call number and a card before it leaves the room.
Holds the studio key. Files everything by Friday.
Open · On Call 38projects shipped
01
Period2019 – 2022
Bombay
Senior Editor · commissioning · line-edit
Marg Foundation Quarterly
Commissioning and line-edit on the quarterly arts journal. Twelve issues, fifty-eight long-form essays line-edited end to end, two redesigns of the back-of-book index. Worked the standing brief: nothing leaves the desk until the captions are right.
On reserve copies held in the Bandra reading room.
Discharged 12issues to press
02
Period2017 – 2019
Bangalore
Research Fellow · fieldwork · prototype
Centre for Internet & Society
Two-year fellowship on small-language digital archives. Built a reading-tool prototype, ran four community workshops in Mysore and Mangalore, and co-authored the policy memo that became the basis for the 2020 archive grants programme.
Field notes catalogued under 026.4 / Sm.
Returned 4workshops conducted
03
Period2016
Bangalore
Apprentice Bookbinder · binding · gluework
Press of the Old Madras Road
A summer at a hand-binding press. Learned to fold a signature without crying, sew a coptic stitch one-handed, and how to know — by eye — when a glue line is going to fail in three years instead of thirty.
Recommended for the long-stitch refresher.
Returned 3months at the bench
§ 04 · Subject Headings
Cross-reference index of working subjects

Cross- references.

Index cardSubjects are listed by classification number. Where a subject is held under another heading, the see-also line points to the parent card.
Editorial · long-form
Archival research
Software · TS / Rust
Documentary direction
Curation
Hand bookbinding
Information architecture
Public speaking
Workshop facilitation
§ 05 · Acquisitions
Provenance and prior holdings

Where acquired.

ProvenanceSource institutions, residencies, and certifications, in the order they entered the collection.
Acc. 2017 · 020.7 · M

M.A. · Cultural Informatics

Jadavpur University

First Class · thesis on small-language archives

Acc. 2014 · 820.7 · S

B.A. (Hons.) · English Literature

St. Stephen's College, Delhi

Distinction · editor, college quarterly

Acc. 2021 · Res. 2021 · A

Residency · Editorial Practice

Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart

Six-month fellowship · DAAD-supported

Acc. 2016 · Cert. 686 · P

Cert. · Hand Bookbinding

Press of the Old Madras Road

Master-binder mark, July 2016

Reference Desk Patron services · Tue – Fri · 10–6 · IST
Bangalore, IN
Compliments of Aya Mehta

Compliments
of the cataloguer.

For commissioning, residencies, talks, and quiet collaborations — the desk is open. Letters answered within five working days. Shorter notes are read first.

Languages on file English · Hindi · Kannada · German (B2) · Tamil (read) ·
Due back
21 Days
Late returns charged at the desk