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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

#81

Post by Noos »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #59

First comment on the article is extremely relevant: > It's almost always non-working-librarians who evince such passionate nostalgia for antiquated technology such as card catalogs, just as I'm sure it's usually non-working-engineers and non-working-mathematicians who passionately yearn for the days of slide rules and good old pencil and paper, rather than these dang new-fangled computers. (Oh, and yes, just for the…

I don't know why they are, they are increasingly becoming the equivalent to a free net cafe. It's a ridiculously underpaid profession, partly because computers cost so much to maintain and service for them.

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

#82

Post by jfoutz »

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…

The big win from ai won't be self driving cars, it will be scaleable curation. Google search was amazing, but it's kind of fast food information. Getting high quality information and the halo of related concepts, like you find in a cool library will be another information revolution. Current search raises the lower bound, future search raises the upper bound.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by cooper12 »

huntersbellend wrote: post #65
in_the_sticks wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Nothing like the feeling of looking up words in a physical thesaurus. Digital ones don't give you that same sense of inflated intelligence.

Lo, the scourge of anti-intellectualism reaches HN! Looking through their comment, the only word that one would consider "big" might be "erstwhile". Even if they used big words, why use that to attack them instead of considering what they actually wrote (or taking a second to look them up)? This smug piling on is just toxic. People shouldn't revel in ignorance.

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

#85

Post by inimino »

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 original "search engine"'.

What you're missing is what "search engine" means to the general English-speaking population. Google is a search engine. There's nothing about a digital library catalogue anywhere in that sentence.

The comparison being made is between looking up information in a card catalog in an institution created to serve the public interest, or asking your query of the world's largest advertising company.

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

#86

Post by ktRolster »

anigbrowl wrote: post #47
randomf1fan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I concur with this - Amazon or other mainstream retailers are great if you know what you're after, and Amazon's recommendation engine is not bad. But many of my most valuable literary or intellectual discoveries have come from aimless browsing, where I was in search of something interesting to read but with little advance conception of what. I bought Godel, Escher, Bach with no awareness of what it was about because…

A huge advantage of libraries in general is that they are a curated collection of books on every topic. Typically the quality you get on any topic will be higher than the average new book.

Sometimes you can just walk through the library looking for something to read.

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

#87

Post by colordrops »

I saw a two man play at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood years ago called "Defiled" about a librarian played by Jason Alexander dealing with the loss of card catalogs to the computer. There were long soliloquies about niceness of the physicality of the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal classification and what not. I enjoyed the acting but could not empathize at all with the premise of the play or the weeping and gnashing of teeth by the main character.

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

#88

Post by Aloha »

philipkglass wrote: post #22

I remember card catalogs. Modern electronic search is far superior. If searching the card catalog at the public library is "truly democratic," so is searching an electronic index at the public library. You can even perform full-text searches for words that the card-preparer might not have noted -- a huge advantage when researching niche topics that don't get their own books. https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/searchAdvanc…

The Card Catalog in my opinion had one benefit - Discoverability.

In the libraries I grew up using, often the books had library bindings with no dust jacket. There was very little discoverability when you wanted to find something to read.. to explore. The card catalog filled that, and was all in one place, so I could sit there and thumb thru the cards and maybe find a couple-three books to go thumb thru to find something that looked interesting.

Yes, for research and for targeted searched of knowledge the electronic search is far superior - but for the discovery of things you don't know anything about yet, its a poor substitute.

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

#89

Post by nl »

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.

This is so true.

On HN a few months ago I came across someone claiming that web search was fine before Google and the only reason Google got popular was superior marketing.

I found that so completely shocking to me that someone didn't remember how bad it was. Then I realised that was nearly 20 years ago, and it was really only 7 years or so when search was bad.

I'd never felt so old before.

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

#90

Post by rahimnathwani »

Aloha wrote: post #88
philipkglass wrote: post #22

I remember card catalogs. Modern electronic search is far superior. If searching the card catalog at the public library is "truly democratic," so is searching an electronic index at the public library. You can even perform full-text searches for words that the card-preparer might not have noted -- a huge advantage when researching niche topics that don't get their own books. https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/searchAdvanc…

The Card Catalog in my opinion had one benefit - Discoverability. In the libraries I grew up using, often the books had library bindings with no dust jacket. There was very little discoverability when you wanted to find something to read.. to explore. The card catalog filled that, and was all in one place, so I could sit there and thumb thru the cards and maybe find a couple-three books to go thumb thru to find somet…

How is a card catalogue better than Amazon or Goodreads, for discoverability?
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