The local library's old card catalog saved my research project

I was digging through a genealogy forum for a school paper on my town's 1920s fire stations, and every online source kept pointing me toward the same two articles. Last Tuesday I walked into the main branch downtown, and a reference librarian named Carol showed me the physical card catalog they still keep in the back room. She pulled out three drawers of index cards for local history pamphlets that never got digitized, including a 1947 map of all the old hydrant locations. That one map gave me more detail than 20 websites combined, and it only took about 40 minutes to flip through. Has anyone else found hidden gems in the non-digital sections of their library? What kind of stuff do you ask for when the online search hits a wall?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

christopher_coleman177d ago

Used to roll my eyes at the card catalog, figured it was just old junk taking up space. Then I spent two hours fighting a database that kept giving me the same five names for a project on my town's old rail depot. Carol pulled a drawer of index cards and there was a whole list of depot agents from 1902 with notes in the margins from some guy who worked there. That one drawer beat everything I found online, and now I always ask what they keep in the back that never made it to the computer.

2