Sunday, April 11, 2010

found: library catalog cards

librarycatcards

i was up on the fifth floor of the San Francisco Main Library to do some research for a paper. from the corner of my eye, i saw a old library catalog card. it was handwritten in cursive and the paper was yellowed with age of course.

ive been known to raid the little boxes of scratch paper that are put out for people to write down call numbers and notes. sometimes the scratch paper has interesting images, i've found fragments of interesting maps, too. so i was thrilled when i saw a whole stack of library catalog cards! most of them were typewritten, but some also had little handwritten notes on them...

call me crazy, but in the future i will purposely go up to the fifth floor for more of those cards and since they are used for scratch paper, i figured they are free for the taking.. plus there's a typewriter there that anyone can use.

edit: if you are in the sf main library, be sure to check out the walls made up of library catalog cards. here's a photo on flickr & they have been written on by patrons with notes/drawings/etc that usually relate to the listing on the card. the walls are on the 3rd and 4th floors. in fact, i want to do a project sort of like that! except mine would be on a large canvas...

and really i think libraries are mysterious places. especially the big ones, you never know what you might discover.

7 comments:

Sherri said...

Ooh you are so lucky! I love, love, love old library cards. Since everything is electronic now these are definitely to be treasured--glad they fell into the right hands. Love your collages, too, by the way!

Melissa Hubbell said...

Hi Annie! You one of the the giveaways for entering my blog poll. I know I have your adress several places probably, but just to make sure will you email me at mmhubbell@earthlink.net

Really love some of the photos and things you have here on your blog!

Deb's Artful Journey said...

I am two blocks away and I am going there today! Thanks for the heads up... I love old library catalogue cards!!

Paula said...

What an absolutely delightful find! Enjoy your treasure!

Seth said...

What a great find. I love libraries too. They are magical to me!

Marti Schrock said...

Annie, I would grab those right up, too! My mom works in a college library, & she saves for me the check out cards with names & dates. I used those in card making & love them.

chel said...

so cool! And I love the idea of repurposing them in a way that will preserve them forever.