Many people are surprised (and delighted) to learn that the library has held on to our old card catalogue and cabinets (unmaintained, of course). While some of our library regulars will be familiar with the cabinet kept in the Reference Office of the library, a better kept secret is the second cabinet housed in closed stacks. I’m particularly partial to the latter because, unlike the cards held in the Reference Office cabinet, its cards are hand-written.
Rifling through the many cards in this cabinet of mysteries, I begin to notice the differences in the handwriting, which, of course, makes sense for a library in existence since 1827; we’ve had quite a few staff members come and go in our almost 200 years. I also begin to wonder if I would see any evidence of “library hand”…
Continue reading “Library Hand(s)”
Know How, the blog of the Great Library 