The Washington Post: 4 million cards. 4,000 drawers. And a whole lot of paper cuts. A coalition of book lovers rushes to save U-Va.’s card catalogue.. “They’d just finished setting up projectors to create a replica of the planetarium Thomas Jefferson had envisioned spanning the University of Virginia’s Rotunda dome when Neal Curtis and Sam Lemley stopped. They looked at each other. And they decided they had to come up with a plan — immediately They walked into the school’s Alderman Library and promised they wouldn’t leave that night until they had found a way to save the old card catalogue.”
Tag Archives: card catalogs
Library of Congress: Virtual Card Catalog Available Online
A big thanks to Paul J who sent me a heads-up on this. From the Library of Congress: Virtual Card Catalog Available Online . “As a child growing up in the 1970s, one of my most prized possessions was a Luke Skywalker action figure. He was the hero of my youth, and I was surprised to learn recently that Luke wasn’t always a Skywalker. He was originally a Starkiller. I found this shocking (to me) information while browsing the card catalog in the Copyright Reading Room that’s located in a large room in Washington, DC. Starting today, though, I can see that card from anywhere in the world. With the public release of the Virtual Card Catalog proof of concept, I can browse full-color scans of the cards in indexes from 1955–1970 and 1971–1977. That’s almost 18 million images.”
Atlas Obscura: Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs
I love this article from Atlas Obscura: Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs. “In September 1885, a bunch of librarians spent four days holed up in scenic Lake George, just over 200 miles north of New York City. In the presence of such library-world luminaries as Melvil Dewey—the well-organized chap whose Dewey Decimal System keeps shelves orderly to this day—they discussed a range of issues, from the significance of the term ‘bookworm’ to the question of whether libraries ought to have a separate reference-room for ladies. They then turned their attention to another crucial issue: handwriting.”