This is how research was done when I started university in 1975. Oh, the hours I spent going through the card catalogue -- and then reading actual books!
And remember those first computers? Key-punching those endless cards containing the computer codes -- making sure the cards were in precise order so the program would run correctly -- and gawd help you if you dropped your stack of cards, you poor unlucky bastard!
You young whippersnappers have it so easy today, what with your internet and laptops and google! *shakes fist* And do you appreciate it? NO!
48 comments:
This boomer remembers...
Haha! I feel so old. When I was in college the internet was only available in the library through a boring search thing called Lexus Nexus. There was fun stuff online! I did a lot of old fashioned research then.
No, they don't Deb, they don't know a world any different to this which is sad, but on a different note, at a meeting with The Sisters Grimm tonight your video about Norman the cat got rave reviews. Still laughing !
I used to be a page in the library and little shits would mix the cards up in the card catalogue... I remember having to type those cards in library school, too!
those were the good old days,
Oh, goodness ... what a travel back in time ... . I loved the card catalog and the library and I still don't have an e-reader ... give me the book! Punching the cards still gives me nightmares! :D
Ah yes.....back in the ol' days when we played played pac-man by candlelight.
I do remember the dark ages.... that wasn't so long ago.... actually.....
Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end!!! So happy we have moved on.
Even I had to google in the library during my study at the University (4 yeasra go):)It gives an immense feeling of mystery - you are searching for something then find it then open it and read it...And by the way not all the books were available in the internet, so we HAD to use library! Sweet moments...
This boomer laughed and then remembered....oh yeah. Not as easy as today....and maybe that is why I kinda long for the interaction in a very tactile way. When I tell my grands of "used to be", they look at me like I looked at my folks...yes??? and????? crickets!!!!!
Oh, how I remember. I also remember the first time I used a computer. I had to go into DOS to get on, and then there was nothing really to get on for.
Mary
I remember our librarian spending a good deal of time trying to teach us all how to use the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System.
I also remember the rubber date stamp on the card in the back of the book and looking to see who had taken it out before I did.
Been so long since I've been in a library, I don't even know if they do that anymore either?
And the library was quiet and the libraians had the autohority to shut people up or kick them out... A beautiful place to be... A refuge a retreat.. Now the library has kids lloking at horrible porn with no one telling them no... No one watchong over snything... Everyone is afraid.
I miss that world... Ii am glad i was a part of the 50s 60s 70s.. I love the internet.. I love almost everything about it and as a kid it would have been a fabulous tool so very very helpful.. But the dangers are there and we see the results of that ...glad i am the age i am... I feel sorry for kids and the parents who can't control them... Spoiled to the core...sad.
oh boy do i remember those days!
Hahaha...love this! I'm in the same boat...feeling rather ancient...LOL...
I do remember those days and with horror. One forgets how bad is was until reminded.
I AM a boomer.....and I DO remember this!
Jo
times sure have changed
I spent my fair share of time going through those card catalogues before my local library finally went high-tech in the early 90's. My god, kids today have no idea how easy they have it!
How I miss those little cards ....although I do almost all of my research on a computer now. I can tell you that the library in my high-school in used solely for the Internet by the students. Those poor books just look forgotten and forlorn !...
I remember as a small child trying to learn the library was so difficult! I do love and appreciate Google!
**happy smiles**
Deb
Dewey decimals & stamped library cards... loved the library :)
Love me some Google too, but sometimes there's nothing better than holding a book in your hands.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
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(¸.•´ (¸.•`¤... Jennifer
Jenn's Random Scraps
And hey! Did you get a face lift?? Things are looking pretty spiffy around here!
I remember those days. The world has surely gotten smaller and faster.
I am not a boomer and still remember researching books instead of the net... I almost feel a sense of loss because things have become so easy to access or attain.
Isn't that something.
I LOVE the library! I was just there last night as a matter of fact. So many, many books in one building; I had to limit myself to three, but I was tempted, indeed I was. I love the friendliness of folks in a library, too. You don't get that online. And my library has a loooooooong 3-step-down water feature outside surrounded with jasmine that scents the night air. Can't get that online either. Hey, remember those big dot-matrix print-outs with the holes on the sides, folded accordian-style?
Yes Rose, I remember that computer print-out paper very well and how if you didn't get the holes lined up just exactly right, it would jam up and ruin the entire print job. Good riddance! I don't miss it at all!
I am not a boomer, but I remember the time when we were doing research like this in a library, using these sort of cards. And I also remember when the secretary typing course NOW ON COMPUTERS was the big optional course to take so you could learn to use a keyboard.
Oh yes, how I remember. My 2nd job out of school was as a key punch operator for IBM. I did a post once about the time I worked all day and got a message the following day that it had to be reworked because of some error. It was like working with a blindfold on.
BUT I always loved the card catalogues. The Dewey Decimal system and I were great pals.
Hi Debra!
OMG! I remember card catalogues and punch cards!
The summer after my first year at Acadia, I worked in the Reference Department of the Acadia University Library (1968). Oh do I remember the card catalogue! I felt like it was the key to the world! And now we have Google!
Ron (.fromsophiesview) worked in the library too! Although we didn't cross paths much then!
Key punching ~ arrggghhh! Brings back bad memories of entering Chemistry Lab data at Cal State Fullerton (California) in 1978!
I thought we had it made then! And now ~ wow! I wish I could live another hundred years to see where we'll be then!
Have a good one!
I ruled the card catalogue. I could find anything.
crap... did all that, and wrote on a standard typewriter, no electrics existed! ;)
I didn't use email until I was 21, and I did use the libraries quite a bit ;) Does that make you feel better?
I must have grown up in the transition phase because our librarian never once even mentioned the card catalogue in school; instead, she just pointed vaguely at the shelf and said pick a book. Either that or my librarian was drunk most of the time which is a definite possibility too.
Trust me, I appreciate it a lot. I'm pretty sure I have withdrawal symptoms if I'm away from my computer and good internet for too long.
I remember the card catalogues, but I'm a bit young for the huge, scary computers.
I remember the first time I walked into a library that had done away with the card catalogue...it was in the late 90's or early 00's (when I'd been out of school long enough not to be too cool to enter a library again) and it freaked me out a little bit.
At the U. of Waterloo in the early 70s the Math building was designed around one big computer. It is so hard to believe now, It was so massive. I've often wondered what that building looks like now.
Hey watch all that "Boomer" jazz! I'm a GenX/GenY overlap and while I was still two years away from an eye glimmer in your research days of '75, I still spent most of my primary and secondary education clawing through card catalogs and encyclopedias for entire afternoons :)
Oh my God, remember microfilm? I spent hours scrolling through microfilm until the moving text combined with the smell to make me nauseous. But I kinda miss it.
Yes, things sure have changed! And, sadly, I truly think the kids of today, don't appreciate how easy they do have it! This was a little bit before my time, but I still remember card catalogues! LOL! We worked!!!
I think there was a much greater sense of achievement in completing a term paper using library research than there would be now using Google. I always felt like a bit of detective when combing through the card catalogue.
remember it well.
I remember it well. As a student I worked at our University library. Do they still use microfiche? Or is that ancient too... I feel very prehistoric right now!
Still my favorite way to look up stuff, the Dewey Decimal System rules!
Bravo for Boomers . Oh we had hootspa didn't we :)
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