The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures (Gifts for Book Lovers, Gifts for Librarians, Book Club Gift)

I love the hard copy card catalog. I loved thumbing through the cards searching and scanning for clues to my next "checked out book". I knew how to read Dewey decimal and thought it like a secret code. This took me back into my 100 year old library and my grandparent's grandparents library. I enjoyed it.

As a retired librarian, this is great fun for me. We had card catalogs for some years and they did the trick!

The book entitled The Card Catalog, published in 2017, is an illustrated history of the Library of Congress’s old-school database of the same name. The authorship of the book is credited to The Library of Congress in general, though it does include a brief introduction by the current Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. I purchased the ebook edition of this title when it came up as a Kindle deal, so that’s what I’m reviewing here. The book is probably more successful as a print volume, however, because even on a large screen the Kindle app doesn’t display the photos very large and doesn’t allow zooming.I am a recent library school graduate with a particular interest in cataloging and classification, so I’m about as close to the intended audience for this book as you can get, though it does make an attempt to appeal to a broader readership of general book lovers. This book succinctly explains, in terms accessible to the lay reader, the continuous struggle to make an ever-expanding inventory of library materials findable and accessible. It is essentially a historical overview of the development of pre-digital metadata used to catalog library collections, beginning with ancient and medieval libraries and then progressing to the modern American library. Along the way, the reader also gains a lot of insight into the broader history of the Library of Congress—its origins, its transformation from a legislators’ reference library to a national public treasure, and its initiation as the bestower of copyright in America. After developing its own card catalog, the Library of Congress instituted its Cataloging Distribution Service, which sent copies of its cards to libraries all across the country, thereby influencing the development of library operations nationwide.The entire book can be read in about two hours, so it is by no means a comprehensive, authoritative overview on its subject, yet it provides much more information than one would expect from a coffee-table illustrated volume. For those interested in this topic, it gives enough detailed information to make you want to do further research on some of these fascinating people and projects. Towards the end the text touches on the creation of MARC records and computerized catalogs, but that’s pretty much where the narrative ends. The book doesn’t go into detail about the Library of Congress’s digital methods of cataloging because the book is primarily a nostalgic love letter to the physical, many-drawered oak cabinets full of 3 x 5 inch index cards.This fondness for the tactile card catalog many of us grew up with is evident in the illustrations as well. The book features many historical photos of The Library of Congress—its building, its directors, and its operations. The majority of the illustrations, however, consist of cover images and title pages of classic books coupled with their corresponding cards plucked from the Library’s actual cabinets. Some are handwritten, some typed; some contain annotations and corrections. As a book lover, I could look at pictures of old books all day, and this book contains a lot of beautiful images, but the pictures of the cards really didn’t interest or surprise me much. The overall card catalog system is a monumental achievement, but I didn’t feel the fondness for each individual card that the compilers of this book hoped I would.Any librarian will definitely enjoy this book. For the general book lover, it’s hard to say, as the text is more about book cataloging than the books themselves. Though the ebook version is a great bargain, the printed volume no doubt provides a far superior reading and viewing experience.

I never thought I would use the word "intense" for a book about libraries and card catalogs, but the shoe fits. To read its history is amazing. Though taught about the destruction during the War of 1812, I never heard of the Christmas Eve fire of 1851. I loved reading about the politics and personalities that drove the Library of Congress. I do think too much of the book was taken up by illustrations; I would rather have read more about the contributions of the librarians themselves and more about the move away from card catalogs to technology.

Love this book. Reminds me of the early days of my library career. We typed up the cards and had to have them just so - those were the days. HAHHAHAA.....the coming of a computerized catalog depended on the accuracy of the cards kept up to date through the years, so our catalog was extremely accurate when we went digital through retrospective conversion and it was a happy day when computers became the norm! Thank you to the authors for a fun ride!

A beautifully constructed book, with an easy, readable history of cataloging and card catalogs, with interspersed images of library cards from the Library of Congress and images of the corresponding book. It is quite informative and interesting, if you like the history of books.I am just barely old enough to remember, in the late 1980s and early 1990s: being taught about the card catalogs by the ancient-looking, spinsterish librarians; the ponderous-looking drawers of wood with metal facings; thumbing through the subject cards, author cards, and title cards; the text on the differently colored cards in any number of typewriting and handwriting styles; jotting down call numbers on slips of paper with short pencils; finding the book.If you're nostalgic for the old cards, you'll find this a perfectly fun book. An excellent look at a lost form of information cataloging, indexing, and presentation.4.5 of 5 stars.

A very enjoyable read, but - I completed half the course work for a Masters in Library Science while completing a science advanced degree, and I was hoping for discussion of the Dewey vs. LC (Library of Congress) cataloging systems. Maybe that wasn't in the title of the book, but I was rather hoping for it. Having recently visited the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, where Dewey lives on with their own additions, I would have liked to see some coverage of this area. I recall Dewey as the most widely used system, and then the transition to LC, but that was not a covered topic.

Retired and living on a tropical island, I don't often have to think about spending hours searching through NUC (big green books) to verify entries. I started after quill pens, but still remember 2 x 5 cards hand written for some of the collections.I recall the angst over reconversion. Multiple catalogs. We let circulation drive the recon. Hailed the coming of Opacs, but rue the complete abandonment of thought in searching. Now just type anything in and you get a hit. The new front ends of catalog systems do a disservice.

Good memories but a joy to have modern databases!

すっかり目にしなくなったが，かつてはどこの図書館にもあった蔵書検索カードの歴史．米国国会図書館(Library of Congress)の歴史の中で，カードの歴史が語られる．フランス革命の時代，フランスの国立図書館を作ったときにトランプのカードの裏面を利用したのが検索カードの始まりだとか，米国国会図書館のもとになったのはJeffesronの著書で，その目録に端を発しているなど，意外な知識を得る事ができる．検索カードシステムの発展，全盛時代の苦労話，やがてコンピュータ化されてカードがその役割を終えるところまで語られる．最終章では，それでもまだ検索カードを捨てがたい著者のカードシステムへの愛着が感じられる．図版豊富，ページ数の約1/3が写真で，図書館の内部ややカード製作作業風景だけでなく，有名な本(たとえば Catcher in the Rye，Waldenなど)の検索カードの実物が多数掲載されている点は興味深い．カードの多くはタイプライターで刻字されているが，手書きのメモがあったり，訂正があったりと，確かにコンピューター時代にはない手作りの温もり，カードを利用した人の履歴を肌で感じることができる．古き良きアナログ時代への郷愁がにじむ．本好き，図書館好きにおすすめの手軽な読み物である．

図書館所蔵資料の検索システムとして1世紀以上にわたり世界中の図書館や類縁機関で活躍してきたカード目録自体を保存している図書館は米国議会図書館（Library of Congress: LC）である。現在LCで検索用にカード目録を維持しているのは、手稿部（Manuscripts Department）閲覧室や地域研究図書館のアジア部などごく限られた場所でのみ利用されている。それでも主要目録（main catalog）は、館内書庫の一部に全体が保存されている。以前は大閲覧室（Main Reading Room）の書庫に設置されていたが、館長カーラ・ハイデン女史が就任して、より使いやすい図書館に配置を変更する過程で場所を移した。しかしながら、カード目録自体の文化性の高さを認めるがゆえに保存され、その歴史とその実態をコンパクトな1冊の著作にまとめた意義は大きい。　カード目録が普及しだすのは19世後半からであり、LCが印刷カードの頒布を20世紀初頭に開始したことで一気に普及してゆく。それ以前にもカード目録は、どこの図書館でもペンで記述されて、カードケースに収められていた。そうした手書きカードと資料の標題紙を対照させて本文が構成されており、書籍文化を支えたカード目録の意義を端的に象徴した構成で、書物史、図書館史、学術資料の歴史を世界とアメリカの資料を中心に解題した書物でもあり、読者を楽しませる。　司書課程や図書館史の研究者には、教材として活用できる1冊でもある