1. Every time the library got a book, a librarian wrote down or typed the information about the book on a little card. You can see on the card above the author, the title, when the book was published, and what the book is about-- all the information that you would see if you looked up a book in an online catalog today.

2. Librarians had to make several cards for each book, so you could look up the book in different ways. Some of the cards were filed alphabetically by the author's last name, some were filed by alphabetically by subject, and some were filed alphabetically by title. It took a little longer to find a book using a card catalog. But some people liked the old way better, because it was easier to see very quickly all the books that the library had on a subject or by an author, even if the books were located in different sections in the library. Now, how come the card has a little hole in the bottom?

3. Well, libraries kept all of their catalog cards in huge cabinets with little drawers in them. Each drawer had a metal rod that went through the bottom of each card to keep it in place. This picture shows some students at Indiana University standing in front of a card catalog.

4. The bigger a library was, the more books it had, and the more card catalog cabinets it had. This picture is from the library at the Catholic University of America. You could use the little shelves that pulled out like a little desk to take notes about the books you were looking for.

5. This picture shows librarians at the University of Buffalo filing cards for new books into their card catalog.