My Eulogy for the Library Card Catalog (Part I)

 card catalog: traditionally used to store index cards containing information about the location and other vital information about a book or periodical including title, author, call number, ISBN, etc..

Card catalogs were the primary way of organizing, finding, and keeping track of the contents of a library that were available for patrons to check out.

There was a time when one could not write a research paper without the use of a card catalog.

Card catalogs once filled multiple rooms in university libraries.

It has only been within the past ten years that they have been removed from libraries all together and are now considered entirely obsolete, replaced by the computer which is incidentally, much more likely to breakdown and falter.

Card catalogs come in many sizes but no matter what size, they all seem relatively large to an average human being.

To a bibliophile like myself, they are a beautiful piece of literary history, having held the information of timeless literary works. Some of which, for better or worse, have shaped the literary cannon we know today.

I personally own a card catalog whose original home was in the Yale University Art Library in New Haven. Its original purpose was to hold projector slides.

As you can see, the card catalog had versatile uses in its beginnings beyond that of housing the index card and now that it is being considered "obsolete" by the outside world, there are far more uses for it than ever before.

I have seen card catalogs used as wine storage.

Just as there are different designs in the drawer dimensions of the card catalog, there are different drawer pull styles. My personal preference is called the "elephant nose" however, for better or worse, one of the drawer pulls on my card catalog is called a "stub nose," a little less elegant, yet not lacking in personality.

I have named my card catalog, just as I named my vintage metal clarinet (Waldo-which I made into a lamp). The name of my card catalog is Elihu, named after Elihu Yale who was not the founder of the university, however deemed rich enough to have considerable influence.

Elihu sits proudly in the corner of my living room, an ever-present conversation piece.

There is certainly more to be discovered about the card catalog. I look forward to diving into research.

I would like to know who invented the card catalog and perhaps what people did in libraries before card catalogs.

I am curious as to whether or not there is a small subculture of bibliophiles like myself who find something attractive and alluring about the card catalog, its history, and its future.