Card catalogs had their own elegant standardized handwriting

Andrea James 8:09 am Fri Feb 17, 2017

Behold Library Hand, a font designed specifically for librarians without typewriters who created cards for card catalogs. What's cool is the variation within the guidelines:

Via Ella Morton :

Since the aim was legibility, not haste, library hand wasn't so speedy to execute—but the pace depended on the scribe. Dewey conducted a test in which four cataloguers wrote the Lord's Prayer in both "catalog hand" and their standard note-taking hand. One cataloguer took three-and-a-half minutes in note-taking hand and almost 12 minutes in catalog hand. But another took three-and-a-half minutes in note-taking hand and four-and-a-half minutes in catalog hand. And the time saved among librarians who had previously mistaken 3s for 5s was priceless.

It came in disjoined (print) and joined (cursive).

• Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs (Atlas Obscura)

Literary history of the text message conversations in Apple ads

Max Read offers a history of fake Apple texts, 2011-2023—the chats to be found in the company's ads and marketing materials. Anodyne yet featureful, this "rigidly orthographically correct banter" mirrors… READ THE REST
Judge blocks Arkansas law that made it a crime to let kids access "harmful materials" in libraries or bookstores

A Federal judge has blocked Arkansas's new law that makes it a crime for a librarian or a bookstore worker to allow children to read vaguely-defined "harmful material." The law,… READ THE REST
Overdue book returned to library 119 years late

New Bedford Public Library Director Olivia Melo reports that a copy of "An Elementary Treatise on Electricity" by James Clerk Maxwell, returned 119 years after it was taken out by… READ THE REST
Here's how to get Rosetta Stone and Microsoft Office for $199.99

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. TL;DR: Want to learn something cool and… READ THE REST
Lighting fast charging, file uploads — this 6-in-1 cable does it all for just $16.97

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. TL;DR: Always on the go? Then you… READ THE REST
This refurbished Lenovo Tab 4 is great tech for under $80

We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. TL;DR: This refurbished Lenovo Tab 4 has everything you… READ THE REST