It strikes me that these cards retained bibliographic information for years and now they’ll just hold some notes for a few days at most.
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At least some of the catalog cabinets are enjoying a longer afterlife – here’s a DCPL one now serving at the neighborhood hardware store in Mount Pleasant:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rock_creek/1406517511/
I like using catalog cards for scrap paper. It makes me feel like I’m doing something naughty.
True. We use old card catalog cards for student feedback from info lit sessions. Frankly, students LOVE seeing the old cards and I have to pull them away from reading the cards to actually answer the questions we pose about our sessions. Many of the students have never seen the cards, so it is a pretty eye-opening experience for them, especially in a session where we talk about finding information in more than one place.
Meanwhile, I do have two intact catalog drawers on my desk as art and artifact. It always draws a comment from visitors.
I’m working on an exhibit proposal called the Library of New Ideas where card catalogs are repurposed to hold wild ideas from visitors/users. Any idea whether any libraries are selling unused card catalog stock? Or should I just raid the scrap pile of my local branch and flip ‘em over?
Hey Nina!
I don’t think any libraries sell them, but one of the main library equipment supplier still does. Check out http://demco.com and search for catalog card. They’re cheap. Sadly their site won’t let me give you a direct link in to the cards.
Finding some used ones could certain bring a different and perhaps interesting aesthetic to the program tho.
@Nina
Try this link:
http://www.demco.com/goto?PNHM36
Hope this helps you out! :)