Getting rid of card catalogs (and shelf lists)

[Barbara Allen <BSAllen@AOL.COM>]

I was gone for a couple of days and missing the beginning of this but I just
had to put in my 2 cents.  I'm in a district with both old and new schools.
Some of the old schools have these wonderful solid oak card catalog cabinets
that everyone wants for something.  However, some of the new schools got stuck
with these fiberboard monstrosities that nobody wants!  They probably even
produce toxic byproducts if burned!   In terms of the cards themselves, most
of our automated libraries have dumped (or recycled as note cards) the
contents of the card catalogs.
We've also thought a lot about the shelflist question because our automation
vendor did originally recommend keeping the shelflist as an ultimate backup.
With many libraries now automated five years we have decided that we don't
need the shelf list as an ultimate backup.  However, we did decide that if the
ultimate disaster happened, (i.e. large fire in the library, most or all books
destroyed), the librarian could use a record of what was in the library to get
started on the reordering process and we decided that a printed list would
work as well or better than shelflist cards, so that's what we're working
toward now.

Barbara Allen
Program Analyst / Library Services
Tucson Unified School District
Tucson, AZ
bsallen@aol.com

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
To quit LM_NET (or set NOMAIL or DIGEST), Send an email message to
    listserv@listserv.syr.edu    In the message write EITHER:
 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
  * NOTE: Please allow time for confirmation from Listserv.
For LM_NET Help & Archives see:  http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=