If a picture is worth a thousand words…

Card Catalog at The Institute Library in New Haven, CT (WildmooBooks.com)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a photo taken inside of a library must be worth at least a million words.

This photo is my contribution to #WordlessWednesday. Or shall we say, Nearly Wordless Wednesday?

(I’m looking at you, Nearly Headless Nick.)

This is the card catalog at the Institute Library in New Haven, CT, which is still being updated using the Borden Classification System.

Electronic databases are convenient and have taken over for good reasons, but I do miss the tactile pleasure of a card catalog. Do you know of a library that is still using — and updating — their card catalog? 

7 comments

  1. Archives still use these but I haven’t seen any in libraries for years. I also miss those little cardboard tickets we used to have whenever we took a book out. Now its all electronic issue and bits of receipts

    • The Institute Library still hand-stamps the due date on the envelope that holds the “ticket” at the back of the book, which then gets filed in a card rack until the book is returned. Not sure how long that will last now that everything is getting cataloged and checkout out via Library Thing.

      • I’ve come over all nostalgic now remembering my many trips to the library with my little card in my hand … wish they had those still here.

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