Sometimes, at a used book store, I’ll find a library cast-off with the pocket and card still there. I treasure them.

For those in the Los Angeles downtown area, LAPL’s Central Library has two elevators shafts (and cars)lined with old card-catalog cards. When you move between floors, you can see the cards through a glass in the car.

I found one on Craigslist for 450.00 here in Oklahoma. It has legs and three pull-out writing sections along with 60 drawers, 50 of which I’ve filled.

Incense, tealight candles, miscellaneous keys and locks, winter gloves and hats, cable ties, garden seeds, handkerchiefs, sewing supplies, you name it.

I’m currently in the market for another one, this time for my bedroom. Perhaps odd, I would love to have one instead of a dresser. Dark socks, white socks, nylon stockings, scarves, shoes, etc. What a fabulous way to organize!

Karen

http://www.cityliquidators.com/

At least one candy shop in my town has repurposed these cabinets to hold their collection of dozens of flavors gum and mints.

I also have a mini-catalog, just two drawers, and plan to type up cards for all my books (using a typewriter I bought at a rummage sale for $2). So geeky.

If anyone is in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are a few card catalogs that pop up on Craigslist from time to time, including a monster catalog from the UC Berkeley library, but they’re not cheap. Card catalogs do not last long in any of the salvage or antique stores in this area, either.

Of course, I had to go search for one after class. Found it on the third or fourth try, looking up the Argonautica by Appolonius Rhodius. It’s one of my most vivid sensory memories from college: I can recall the card itself, written in black copperplate, but also the golden wood of the card catalog drawer, and even the particular shade of olive green of my T-shirt sleeves.

(And now? Now I work in a company that makes library search software. The sensual pleasure of physical cards may be less, but the magic of discovery is still there for me.)

(This might be the geekiest thing I have ever done.)

“Obsolete cards embedded in artisans’ plaster cover the principal diagonal wall on three levels of the building. Each card is annotated with a quote from its corresponding book or from another book associated with the title by subject matter. nearly 200 individuals annotated the cards in a dozen different languages. The cards not only represent a process of research unique to the person who created them but also express the diverse meanings derived from reading. Moreover, the annotations on the cards expose the interior of books-the text at the heart of a library’s holdings. The wall represents a window into a world of books that can be browsed by those who enjoy the library and its collection.”

from: http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/artmain.htm

But I remember some of my earliest library jobs were pulling, editing, and refiling catalog cards. Every time a subject heading changed, or a book was reclassified to another call number, or a new copy or volume was added, you had to pull the whole set and update them — with whiteout and a typewriter! — and refile them. Now updating a record is done with a few taps on the keyboard.

Yes, I too would be delighted to rescue one of those cabinets.

Here are pictures and words.