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What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

washingtonpost.com

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Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#31

Post by anigbrowl »

galonk wrote: post #8

What an incredibly stupid article. The author is supposed to be talking about card catalogues, but then keeps talking about books and libraries. We're not getting rid of those, we're getting rid of card catalogues. Somehow I don't think we should force librarians to keep hand-writing or typing cards for every book, or deprive users of search functions, just for this idiot's BS Wes Anderson aesthetic.

You're really missed the point that was being made. It's not a paean to the superiority of card catalogs, but regret for the loss of a time when they delineated the scope of information storage relative to the scope of service provision (the library itself).

Librarians are rarely seen as custodians of knowledge, and their job has been downgraded to mere cataloguing. More troublingly, while the the physicality of a card catalog, and typewritten documents before that, imposed limits and therefore selectivity on what degree of information the government could store about a book (and by extension about you), that limit no longer exists so the amount of information stored has exploded while the amount of service provided has remained the same or even diminished, to the general detriment of society.

That erstwhile necessity to consult or at least cooperate with librarians also fostered a degree of politeness in social relations.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#32

Post by nkrisc »

randomf1fan wrote: post #5
nkrisc wrote: post #3

Remember, technology is only good after it's old and been around for a while. When it's new, it's scary and bad. I look forward to being 90 and reading about people wistfully remembering the simpler and more cultured bygone days of smartphones and Facebook.

While I agree with your basic point, there's something to be said about anonymously searching for information in a non-dynamic fashion (that is, the catalogue is exactly the same for everyone - it doesn't rearrange itself based on your profile) I love technology and all it brings us, but I find browsing in a good bookstore often more helpful than Amazon's recommendations or GoodReads or what have you. And the best pa…

That's a good point. Though there's no reason a computerized system couldn't do that, most of them just don't. Also I don't think electronic catalogs replace human recommendations, just the card system.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#33

Post by Millennium »

sharkjacobs wrote: post #10

> A national card catalogue system was the original “search engine” — one that ... was truly democratic. I don't think I get how a digital library catalogue is less democratic than an analogue one? Is this just a poorly thought out and tossed off claim or is there something I'm missing.

The article isn't very clear on this point, but I think that at this particular juncture, the author isn't so much lamenting "analog versus digital" so much as "public versus private". It's an awkward fit in an article like this.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#34

Post by davchana »

aqsalose wrote: post #28

One problem with digital databases: What if the electricity goes out for a very long time? Or a nefarious hacker manages to destroy the database? (Or all librarians' terminals are locked by NotPetya...) Library without catalog is, while not totally worthless, much more difficult to use. The physical card catalog, like other paper-based archives, is more resistant to attacks. For it to be destroyed, you need to cause…

Samr can happen to physical cards too. Wear and tear, flood, fire, theft, vandalism. Also, its difficult to create copies of physical as compared to digital. The upside of digital is also that you can and should have multiple backups, same as any other digital data.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#35

Post by scottLobster »

aqsalose wrote: post #28

One problem with digital databases: What if the electricity goes out for a very long time? Or a nefarious hacker manages to destroy the database? (Or all librarians' terminals are locked by NotPetya...) Library without catalog is, while not totally worthless, much more difficult to use. The physical card catalog, like other paper-based archives, is more resistant to attacks. For it to be destroyed, you need to cause…

If the electricity is out for a very long time I imagine that's not isolated to the library and people will have much larger problems to worry about.

If a hacker manages to destroy the database, well it's a good thing backups are cheap these days and it doesn't take a trained IT person to implement them. Even Crashplan or Carbonite, or just periodically copying files to an external drive and then disconnecting it would probably do the job. If libraries have the money for hundreds of pounds of paper cards and the cabinets to store them in, plus labor to maintain all of that, they surely have the money for functional-if-basic backup infrastructure.

I'm all for securing critical infrastructure with analog systems/subsystems, but the only argument I could see for doing so with libraries is if said library is in the developing world where electricity is intermittent.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#36

Post by jmull »

"A national card catalogue system was the original “search engine” — one that needed no electricity, no service providers or broadband or smartphones, and that was truly democratic."

Oh come on. You needed a building to house it, cases to hold it, people to clean & repair it (physically), and to maintain it. That's plenty of infrastructure. Not to mention, card catalogs require electricity to work, just like electronics. You have to be able to read the cards, and I don't think you would have a library for long if people were constantly holding candles close to large sets of cards.

And libraries provide local terminals, so service providers, broadband and smartphones aren't required.

As far as "democratic", card catalogs aren't bad -- if you can get to the library during operating hours and are physically able to use one, then you are good to go. But electronically searchable indexes are better. E.g., they allow for remote searching, can support accessibility interfaces, etc.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#37

Post by aqsalose »

davchana wrote: post #34
aqsalose wrote: post #28

One problem with digital databases: What if the electricity goes out for a very long time? Or a nefarious hacker manages to destroy the database? (Or all librarians' terminals are locked by NotPetya...) Library without catalog is, while not totally worthless, much more difficult to use. The physical card catalog, like other paper-based archives, is more resistant to attacks. For it to be destroyed, you need to cause…

Samr can happen to physical cards too. Wear and tear, flood, fire, theft, vandalism. Also, its difficult to create copies of physical as compared to digital. The upside of digital is also that you can and should have multiple backups, same as any other digital data.

>For it to be destroyed, you need to cause physical damage

However, I'd like to have redundancy. Backups. Library catalogs are quite critical when it comes to using the combined amount of information the humankind has amassed: It's critical infrastructure. We maintain also backups for things like seeds [1].

You would need just an automated machinery to create printout backups once in a while. It does not necessarily have to be exactly the same system as the old catalogs, just enough that something exists and is ready to use after the rare catastrophic failure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#38

Post by in_the_sticks »

anigbrowl wrote: post #31
galonk wrote: post #8

What an incredibly stupid article. The author is supposed to be talking about card catalogues, but then keeps talking about books and libraries. We're not getting rid of those, we're getting rid of card catalogues. Somehow I don't think we should force librarians to keep hand-writing or typing cards for every book, or deprive users of search functions, just for this idiot's BS Wes Anderson aesthetic.

You're really missed the point that was being made. It's not a paean to the superiority of card catalogs, but regret for the loss of a time when they delineated the scope of information storage relative to the scope of service provision (the library itself). Librarians are rarely seen as custodians of knowledge, and their job has been downgraded to mere cataloguing. More troublingly, while the the physicality of a ca…

Bigger words don't validate whatever point is being made.

Re: What libraries lost when they threw out the card catalog

#39

Post by gozur88 »

nkrisc wrote: post #3

Remember, technology is only good after it's old and been around for a while. When it's new, it's scary and bad. I look forward to being 90 and reading about people wistfully remembering the simpler and more cultured bygone days of smartphones and Facebook.

>Remember, technology is only good after it's old and been around for a while.

The funny thing about that is Facebook was good when it was new and has been getting steadily worse.

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