NavBar

Friday, May 8, 2009

Musings on old catalog cards

It's been a seriously long time since we closed the card catalog here at the State Library. However, in Tech Services, we still have a box of old catalog cards that we use for scratch paper. (After all, "re-use" is one of the 3 Rs!). I've become a little obsessed with looking at the cards before I scribble my notes on the back. It's partly to see what books the library had way back when. But it also causes me to muse about the people who did the cataloging, typed the cards, etc., in the pre-computer era. For instance, there's one in which the typist almost couldn't fit the title on the one line, so the period at the end of the title isn't all there. Was she relieved that it fit? Frustrated that it almost didn't? Then there are those neatly hand-written notes on the back; cryptic things like "t.c." Actually, I've been around long enough to know that was an instruction from the cataloger to the typist to make a title card. But what in the world, if anything, did "MMM", typed on the back of the card, mean?

I like thinking about the previous staff at my library, and how they worked with different tools, but were still doing what we're all doing today; providing access to information for their patrons.

6 comments:

  1. I'll admit when I first came to the Oregon State Library and saw we used old cards for scratch paper I thought that's terrible - little pieces of library history are being thrown away. I am glad that someone is getting some enjoyment out of them before they are tossed : ) I'm sure that as we become more and more digital card catalogs are disappearing....do they all just get thrown away? Anyone else have a card catalog story to share?

    ReplyDelete
  2. How about when you filed in new cards, got that long steel rod threaded through, screwed into place....and then discovered a card you forgot?
    AAAAACK!

    And who hasn't dropped one of those drawers with the steel rod out of it and all the cards went flying?!

    But I admit to nowadays reading the cards before using them for scratch...it's so appealing, although I prefer using the computer to do my searching now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel very fortunate that when my old library got rid of the card catalogs, I was able to bring one home! It's a monster and I can tell you, I hope I don't have to move anytime soon! It's a heavy sucker!
    I even inherited some old cards! I've flipped them over to "catalog" my own books and music!

    And on another note: I think it was the San Francisco Public Library that created wall collages out of their old cards. And here at the Eugene Public Library, some of our old cards are scattered thorughout the library with quotes from the book they represented. Old cards moved to art!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feel very fortunate that when my old library got rid of the card catalogs, I was able to bring one home! It's a monster and I can tell you, I hope I don't have to move anytime soon! It's a heavy sucker!
    I even inherited some old cards! I've flipped them over to "catalog" my own books and music!

    And on another note: I think it was the San Francisco Public Library that created wall collages out of their old cards. And here at the Eugene Public Library, some of our old cards are scattered thorughout the library with quotes from the book they represented. Old cards moved to art!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry guys...I must have registered wrong and it took my email (stonescrow)...the post is from Maresa Kirk.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Speaking of the long steel rods: I used to work with a librarian who had started her career at a public library in Brooklyn in the 1960s. She said that, if they new there was going to be a gang fight, they would remove the rods from the catalog drawers. Otherwise, gang members would come in, steel them, and use them for weapons.

    ReplyDelete