Those Were The Days...

3745. (September 2003) I remember when the index file was in drawers.
We answered: We remember when the card catalog was in drawers, too. All those cards were great for browsing. While we’ve had to bid farewell to those lovely wooden drawers, the computer version of the Library catalog allows for additional ways to search (for example, you can now find out if we have a book if you only remember the author’s first name and a word or two of the title) and also allows people to search the collections of the other 5 campus libraries, to search from off-campus, and to tell if books are checked in or not! The computerized Library catalog may be able to do more than for more people, but I think it will never feel the same as the old card catalog in drawers. We still have a few cards around from the Alexandria Campus Library’s old shelf list (back when we were called the Eastern campus!).
[old card catalog drawers are very desirable at auctions nowadays. We know a librarian who keeps candles in an old card catalog at home!]


That concludes our tour through the archives of the Library Suggestion Book. We hope you've enjoyed this historical look back at this 30-year conversation between Library users and Library staff. The conversation continues! Visit the Library today to leave a comment in the Suggestion Book, or click on the comment feature in this blog!