
Matthew Haugen | From the Library Notes Newsletter, Thursday, December 1, 2011
Though the Library now uses an online catalog, many of us fondly remember flipping through drawer after drawer of typed catalog cards in the Reference Room on the first floor. But cards were not always the method of cataloging this or any library's collection. For the first century of its history, the Library issued its catalog as a printed book. This format was portable and accessible outside the Library, which was especially useful in these early years when hours of operation and access to the stacks were limited, and before transportation and communication technology made visiting the Library easier. However, because of the fixed form and the time it took to compile and print, it was impossible to update the catalog when the collection grew without printing an entirely new volume. To compensate, frequent supplements were issued, sometimes bound together with earlier issues. Many surviving copies bear heavy annotation from librarians and other users, noting corrections, additions, and lost books. Some copies were specially bound with extra blank pages between each printed page for this purpose. Editing, compiling, and distributing the catalog became increasingly difficult as the collection and the membership grew, eventually leading to the adoption of the card system in the nineteenth century.