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Thursday, March 02, 2006
Hello. My name is Rachel and I'm a libraryoholic.
I just got a lump in my throat reading a blog post about library catalog cards. You know that sentimental, nostalgic feeling that people have for the schools they attended? I have that feeling about our local library (or any library will do, really, but ours is best). I spent whole days there more often than not in the summers for many years, and after school I could always find solace in the quiet, cool place filled with my beloved books, where nerdiness was an advantage, or at least a non-issue. I could entertain myself for free all day long, and I did. I read my way through entire shelves of the Youth section, and when I go there today just the sight of the same plastic-covered spines sitting there in a row can make me choke up and smile at the same time.
Part and parcel of the library experience when I was younger was the card catalog. It's definitely convenient to have library catalogs computerized now, but I confess that I miss the soft thump-thump sound of a search through the rows of cards, the precision of the alphabetization, and the smooth heavy slide of the drawers opening and shutting. I tell my children about card catalogs and it's like telling them about cash registers that went ching-ching instead of beep-beep, or about, say, Atari game systems, or the Revolutionary War. All are equally unreal for them.
It's been years since my library had a card catalog and I'm sure they disposed of the cards long ago. Which is a shame -- or, rather, it's a shame I didn't think of this before -- because if I could get them I'd love to have the cards from the books I loved to read twenty years ago, or from the classics I so enjoy in adulthood (not to mention the really old cards displayed on this site; our library was only constructed in the sixties and early seventies so I doubt there's much chance of its catalog having had anything handwritten in it). Bookmarks, wall decorations, greeting cards even. What a missed opportunity.
However, this makes up for it in some small degree. Believe it or not, a guy wrote a program (thank you thank you) that generates a graphic of an authentic-looking old-style catalog card for any book you've looked up at the website for the Ann Arbor District Library. I don't think a printed version would have the effect I'm looking for, but at least I can have these (and so many others -- oh dear, I must pull myself away or I'll get nothing at all done today) popping up in my screen saver now:
Comments
that is the one thing I did NOT like about the new library. No card catalog. When I was in High school, I used to look through them alot. I have very fond memeories of the old library in the summer. I also have very fond memories of the library when I was about 8 months pregnant with Toney and I realized that once he was born, that I could not just go in the library any time I wanted. so I spent alot of September-November of 97 in it. sigh
Posted by: debi at March 2, 2006 09:22 AM
Oh, nifty! Thanks for the link!
Posted by: Kat at March 2, 2006 09:39 AM
Rachel -- like minds, and all that. I'm happy you liked the link as much as I did.
Posted by: Rosina Lippi at March 2, 2006 10:00 AM
We didn't go to the library very often when I was a child (it wasn't near enough to be convenient, unfortunately), and by the time I was old enough to need to use the school library for research (rather than just looking over the shelves to pick something to read), they'd swtitched to the computer system, so I don't have many memories of using the card catalog. However, one thing I *do* recall is having to "sign out" books from the library. It took more time, for certain, but it was so much fun to be able to look back at when the book had been checked out, and by whom. I even found some that my father had checked out before, in our tiny elementary school library!
Posted by: Michael at March 2, 2006 11:30 AM
When I was at the library the other day I was totally wishing there was still a card catalong. There was something so romantic about fishing through them. I especially liked it if the books were down in the basement...Pierce College still has both.
Posted by: jenn at March 2, 2006 02:17 PM
You brought back many wonderful memories! Unfortunately, our local library was such a clinical place that one could not conceive of spending hours there....so I used to borrow the books and read at home. I also think I read every fiction book in our primary school library. I ploughed through hundreds of them! I used to walk through the door after school, grab a green apple and plop on my bed to read for many glorius hours. Aaah, the memories....
Posted by: Valerie at March 2, 2006 07:03 PM
Hey! That's my school whose library cards you've linked to. The funny thing is that Van Pelt, the main library at Penn which stretches along Walnut most of the way from 34th to 36th street itself only dates back to the 1960s or 1970s, judging by the architecture. (Probably 1970s, if the statues outside were put in at the same time. They include a giant peace symbol (incoming freshman girl: "Why is there a giant Mercedes symbol outside the library?" and a giant broken button by Claes Oldenburg.)
But the school dates back to 1740, and of course the library is the successor to older ones. (Van Pelt opened in 1962 - I just looked it up. But it's not even the first library on the current campus, which is the third the university has occupied. And considering it was founded by the man who also founded the whole concept of the free public library...)
Posted by: paula at March 3, 2006 10:37 AM
Oh, I just smiled from ear to ear when I read the title of this post. I love, love the library too. We have to devote entire days to the library, since we go to two at a time weekly, our county and city library.
I miss the old card catalogues as well...nothing like the smells either, ink on paper...*sighs* What sweet nostalgia, I'll have to go check out that link now.;)
thanks~
Posted by: beth at March 7, 2006 02:55 PM
I have 1000s of library catalog cards I'd be delighted to share. They're the stiff plain white ones made of rag paper to withstand all the handling.
Posted by: Barbara at July 17, 2006 09:15 PM
