(no subject)
Thanks for all the card catalog replies. You all pretty much confirmed my experience, which was that the switch happened sometime around the mid-90s, around the time my class was in junior high, depending on the needs of the individual library.
The reason I ask is this quote from the Voice, Carleton's alumni magazine. President Oden says:
"About 10 years ago, when I was president of Kenyon College, I entered Kenyon's library during new student week. Hearing laughter coming from the second floor, I walked up the steps and discovered a group of new students standing near an old card catalog that the library kept on display to demonstrate how past library users located books. The students were staring at the card catalog in disbelief and laughing in amazement. Not only had these students never used a card catalog, they had never seen a card catalog. Their laughter wasn't mean-spirited; they simply couldn't restrain themselves in the presence of something so quaint, so antique, so primitive."
If the incident really did happen about 10 years ago, and if Kenyon students were not significantly more urbane than the majority of my friends list, then I think he must have misinterpreted their laughter. My initial thought was that they were laughing out of nostalgia ("I haven't seen one of these in years!"), but it sounds like at least some students entering college 10 years ago probably had to use a card catalog into high school. Stephen suggests that the students were laughing because something they had used only a few years before was on display as a historical curiosity.
The reason I ask is this quote from the Voice, Carleton's alumni magazine. President Oden says:
"About 10 years ago, when I was president of Kenyon College, I entered Kenyon's library during new student week. Hearing laughter coming from the second floor, I walked up the steps and discovered a group of new students standing near an old card catalog that the library kept on display to demonstrate how past library users located books. The students were staring at the card catalog in disbelief and laughing in amazement. Not only had these students never used a card catalog, they had never seen a card catalog. Their laughter wasn't mean-spirited; they simply couldn't restrain themselves in the presence of something so quaint, so antique, so primitive."
If the incident really did happen about 10 years ago, and if Kenyon students were not significantly more urbane than the majority of my friends list, then I think he must have misinterpreted their laughter. My initial thought was that they were laughing out of nostalgia ("I haven't seen one of these in years!"), but it sounds like at least some students entering college 10 years ago probably had to use a card catalog into high school. Stephen suggests that the students were laughing because something they had used only a few years before was on display as a historical curiosity.