Winter 2014

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An intrepid librarian uses a Trolley Chair Truck with Swivel Chair to update the card catalog at Deering Library in the 1930s. These handy and ergonomic vehicles were needed to service the many feet of file drawers in the public card catalogs that lined the area around the circulation desk on the third floor of the library. Chicago Architectural Photographing Co.

Then: Calling Card

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The architects who planned the Charles Deering Library, constructed in 1932, aimed to include the most state-of-the-art library technology of the time — including an extensive card catalog system. The 2,160-drawer public card catalog, housed in the third-floor circulation area, contained information on the books, pamphlets and periodicals of the library.

Each item was cataloged by title, subject and author. Once a patron selected a card, he or she would write down the call number and bring the information to the circulation desk. The stacks were closed to under-graduates, so the librarian would send the information via pneumatic tubing to a student assistant who located the book and sent it back to the circulation desk using a system of conveyor belts. This process lasted until 1951, when the stacks were opened to the public.

Deering’s card catalogs, including the massive Union Card Catalog that housed cards issued by the Library of Congress and other libraries, would hold 2 million cards, based on the library’s capacity for 500,000 books. (By 1950 the number of books had already reached 1 million.)

With the opening of University Library in 1970, the University launched Northwestern On-Line Total Integrated System, a cutting-edge computer program that helped librarians track books from checkout through the reshelving process, putting Northwestern at the forefront of digitized library organization. Still, a modern and imposing set of card catalogs was installed in the new library, and it wasn’t until 1980 that library users could look up resource information on a computer. The last card catalog was removed from Main Library in 1997.

All that remains of the card catalog system in Deering is the original decoratively framed alcoves, now used as display cases. Many of the old cards can be found in scratch paper bins throughout the libraries.