Monday, October 23, 2006

Remember These?



Remember going to the library, and checking out a book?

First, you'd go to the card catalogue system, and thumb through thousands of index cards that were either handwritten, or typed with the title, author and other pertinent information. Then, you'd wander the stacks of musty smelling books until you found the one you were looking for - or the section that held your favorite author.

My favorite part of the old library system though, was the cards inside the book where you wrote your name and the librarian used a stamp to sternly imprint the date that this book was returned to the library.

I loved getting the older books that contained tons of names and different signatures. I'd try to imagine what the other people who had checked out the book were like. Sometimes I'd study the dates to see if I could tell if someone had NOT returned a book on time... or perhaps they returned it early because they hadn't like it. In this case, "Mamie" liked the book so much that she checked it out twice!

I just finished reading a book that contained an old receipt like this picture. The person I borrowed it from has but their name on the list.

The previous reader had borrowed it 31 years ago.

3 comments:

Stephen Heiner said...

Neato

Anonymous said...

I bought the used book 'The Making of a Priest' which was published in the late 50s. A year after I bought it I discovered that is was signed out by the principal of the school where I currently teach. Nice site!

Catherine dee Auvil said...

That's from my grandfather's book, I scanned it. It used to be a stock photo at iStock but they took it down, sending me a note that they didn't think it was right for their collection. 2012 Catherine dee Auvil