Old Library Tickets
July 17, 2018 2:14 PM   Subscribe

Library tickets, library cards and library pockets as historical or nostalgic objects: Is the Library Card Dying? by Sara Polski in The Atlantic.

The Library History Buff has posted about vintage library cards.
A 1925 ticket from the National Library of Scotland.
An 1824 ticket from Glasgow University's Divinity Hall Library.
An undated library pocket from E Lee Trinkle Library.
Rattling On blog shows a school library pocket from the 1970s.
East Sussex County Library 1939 date label and book plate.
1936 library ticket from Transylvania University, Texas.
Library card from the National Library, Singapore.
British Museum Library book order form from the early nineteenth century.
The Straight Dope describes library issuing before computerisation.
Sarah at A Sense of Place gets a new library card (end of article).
Rice Freeman-Zachary explains how to make paper pockets.
Miss Kristine describes her literary wedding.
Sara MacKillop has made art about the circulating history of books from the Poetry Library.
Marjorie Ingall reviews a book about card catalogues.
The Manual of Library Economy includes suggested layouts for book date labels and issue cards (figs. 65 and 129).
posted by paduasoy (33 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is anything lost for the library and its patrons if newer technology replaces the library card? At first, browsing online scans of library cards from around the world, I thought so. Each library card, after all, is a tangible representation of a borrower’s membership in a specific community.

I really enjoy that a lot of my nearby libraries (and if you live in Colorado, you can get borrowing privileges at any library in the state—gotta catch 'em all!) offer different designs to choose from for library cards and key fobs. How cool would it be to be the kid whose artwork is selected to adorn a library card?

That said, the physical cards aren't something I use all that often nowadays, so keeping them as an art piece while I've got the barcode numbers stored in a password manager is nearly the only reason I keep them at all.

Lots of fun photos and nostalgia here, thanks!
posted by asperity at 2:29 PM on July 17, 2018


My "current" library card was acquired 15-ish years ago, maybe? It was pretty basic design, and I memorized the number when self-check became an option. The Library system came out with a set of pretty cards - some photos, some art-by-kid style, and made a big deal about the updated designs. When I asked if I could get a new card with the old number, they said it was not possible, though I could just get a new patron number. I didn't want to lose my borrowing history or have to memorize a new number so I declined.

These days I don't even know where my card is, as self-scan is the primary check-out option at all branches. I still have that older patron number, and my borrowing history is intact.
posted by jazon at 2:35 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


Just today it was announced an NYC library card will get you into these museums for free:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Children's Museum
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Museum
Children's Museum of the Arts
Children's Museum of Manhattan
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
The Drawing Center
The Frick Collection
Historic Richmond Town
International Center of Photography
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
The Jewish Museum
Louis Armstrong House
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Morgan Library & Museum
Museum of the City of New York
Museum of Chinese in America
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Museum of Modern Art
New York Transit Museum
Noguchi Museum
Queens Historical Society
Queens Museum
Rubin Museum of Art
SculptureCenter
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Society of Illustrators
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling
Wave Hill
Whitney Museum of American Art
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 2:43 PM on July 17, 2018 [16 favorites]


It seems odd to me that the article counts the keychain library cards as "not" library cards. The cards on my keychain are a record of stages of my life in the same way the stack of old library cards and student ids in my drawer is. In fact, it probably clear it out less often than I do my wallet because fiddling with key rings is a pain in the butt.

That said, there is something joyful about someone looking through your stack of cards and going "What is the Graduate Theological Union and why on earth do you have their library card?"
posted by hoyland at 2:49 PM on July 17, 2018 [4 favorites]


My hometown was small enough that pre-digitization they didn't even give you your card; they just kept everyone's on file for them.

They digitized/gave people cards when I was in middle school or so--so, about when I was starting to have to be responsible for things, which I was (am?) really, really bad at. They had a copy of your card, with the bar code behind the desk, and I distinctly remember a slowly growing pile of bar code stickers on their copy as I inevitably lost my card again and had to get a new one with a new code.

All this is to say, I really like my key fob cards, since they stay on my giant hunking key chain/lanyard which I have yet to lose in the 12 years since I got it (a serious record for me, especially considering the number of school IDs etc. I've lost in the meantime).
posted by damayanti at 2:50 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love library cards! I’m proud to have 4 active cards at the moment: Oakland PL, SFPL, my university library, Library of Congress. I was going to visit the National Library of Medicine last summer, but I didn’t end up having the time. I was mostly disappointed not to add my fifth card.

I’m loving those historical examples!
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:58 PM on July 17, 2018


Neat! the three library cards in my pocket right now (Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties) are about as utilitarian as you can get. I had no idea of the wondrous variety out there.
posted by Dr. Twist at 3:21 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Where I work that horse left the barn years ago. But in the olden days there was an interesting situation where one usually got a sticker on one's photo ID that renewed periodically. But there were tenured types who refused the photo ID. ("I have tenure! How dare you ask me to prove I work here with your new-fangled 'photo' ID!") So those people got their own special paper library card with no picture on it.

The library pockets in my public library when I was a kid were fascinating. You could see who had read the books you were reading going back years and it was often my friends older brothers and sisters. You know, big kids! Total privacy violation, but it was the 70s.
posted by lagomorphius at 3:26 PM on July 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


I just got a new library card today! My county is offering a limited edition "Dark Side of the Moon"-esque card, and you just had to surrender your old one so they could tie the new number to your account. I love it. Our library system is pretty cool.
posted by candyland at 3:38 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think this one follow's Betteridge's Law of No.

I think there should be corollary about how for the utility of given technology there most be an equal opposite nostalgic mourning of of the old ways being replaced.

They talk about how losing the predecessor of library cards, the ticket, sucked because it cost everyone money and time. They don't even sell in what is so great about a cheap plastic card with a UPC on it and what we are losing by moving to apps. I know what I would lose, the cool art SFPL and OPL put on their cards. Well that and the card if I'm not careful, which costs everyone time and money to replace.

Now if you will excuse me, sea is calling and these whale oil lamps aren't going to fill themselves .
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 3:43 PM on July 17, 2018 [4 favorites]


Love libraries, and miss more than anything the happy accidents that helped me find new books in the card catalog (le sigh).
I also remember when I was in third grade (so 8-ish?) when I was old enough to check out more than three books at a time! My arms were really tired by the time I walked home from the library that first time.
posted by dbmcd at 3:51 PM on July 17, 2018 [5 favorites]


I was re-upping my NYPL card yesterday when the librarian asked me if I'd known about the Culture Pass thing, and I hadn't, so she gave me a brochure. Such a bonus! There are definitely museums on that list that I will go to now because of this. The new NYPL adult cards are orange. My old one is green. I think NYC'll have physical cards for a good long while yet.

I had my little blue kids' Milwaukee Public Library card in the 70s and upgraded to the adult card in the 80s, and now they're both gone. The library was a place of refuge and discovery for me in those days. I mean, look at the Central joint! Magnificent. Plus, they had Ready Reference, a hotline of sorts that you could call and a librarian would be on duty until 6:30 or 7:00 in the evenings to answer questions!

Had a card for Madison's public library during uni, and now it too is gone. Still have my older Queens, Brooklyn and NYPL cards, though I think only Brooklyn's is still good to use.

Libraries are awesome!
posted by droplet at 4:02 PM on July 17, 2018


Librarian basking in the library love, after a mild bout of grumbling at the premise of "are library cards dying?"

I sure hope not, because the idea of cardless app-only library records sounds like a privacy/digital security nightmare, not to mention pretty much standing at one side of the digital divide and mooning the other side...
A humble piece of barcoded plastic goes a long way.
posted by SaharaRose at 4:22 PM on July 17, 2018 [6 favorites]


My hometown was small enough that pre-digitization they didn't even give you your card; they just kept everyone's on file for them.

This was me too. Mom would just take me in and we'd walk to the counter with our books whereupon the librarian would do her thing and away we go.

The important question is that I now do this by default and have them look me up in our (admittedly never a line, and not poor) library when the kids and I go to the counter to checkout, is it an asshole move? They never seem to mind and have never taken more than a moment to look it up and scan me out but, whelp, I wanted to ask since the topic is at hand.
posted by RolandOfEld at 4:41 PM on July 17, 2018


There was a period of time when the public library in my home town switched from a plain paper card to a card with a little metal insert with a number on it. The library card went into a machine that stamped the book pocket card with a number and a date. So it effectively anonymized who had checked out a book.

When I was in junior high my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Borrowing privileges at the local college library. And that's what I got.

I mentioned this story on another library thread, but there was a small town near where my mom grew up that lost their local public library. So they built a new one in someone's living room, gave everybody in the town a house key, and left it on the honor system with a notebook sign books in and out. Eventually these people sold that house and the new owner didn't want the public library in their living room, so they moved it to a room over the fire hall.
posted by lagomorphius at 4:48 PM on July 17, 2018 [6 favorites]


My household has checkout cards to keep track of the books we lend our friends. In fact, it's time for me to send out the approximately decadal reminder email for people who have had their books long enough to forget them.
posted by clew at 4:59 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


My hometown library card still bears the evidence of the days that I thought the letter E was “fancier” the more horizontal lines you drew on it. It’s split a little on the side, and I memorized the number decades ago, but I’m delighted every time I happen upon it. I may not live there at the moment but I, ah, do use the number for ebooks now and again.
posted by mosst at 5:31 PM on July 17, 2018


Right there with you on the mild grumbling SaharaRose!

RolandOfEld, it's typically no big deal for us to look people up for a checkout. However, I would encourage you get a new card if you have misplaced yours because sometimes you will need the number to access online resources or to place holds on materials.

Fun tips for library card users:
-Some people take a picture of their card using their phone so they will have the barcode if their card is at home.

-Some people add their number as a contact in their phone so they can use self-check.

-If you lose your card and you know it is not at home, please tell your library so no one can find it and check things out on your account.

-Sign your card if there is a line to do so.

Thanks for all the library love!
posted by donut_princess at 5:36 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


-Some people add their number as a contact in their phone so they can use self-check.

So this interests me because multiple people have alluded to entering their number for self-checkout. Other than the Claremont branch of the Berkeley Public Library having self-checkout set up over (I think) telnet when I was in college, I've never encountered a self-checkout that doesn't have a barcode scanner. (NYPL requires a PIN for self-checkout, which seems like the most pointless security measure ever. Particularly given the number of people who probably use the same PIN as for their bank account.)

Completely unrelated, but since I mentioned telnet, I'm compelled to mention (as I probably have before) that it's entirely possible my completely non-technical best friend was the last person using UC Berkeley's telnet card catalog. I think the web catalog didn't support renewing books when I started college, so I used the telnet catalog (which was called Gladys, which was probably an acronym). My friend ran into the same problem and I taught her to use telnet. She stayed for a PhD and I eventually got a phone call saying "They're shutting down Gladys!"
posted by hoyland at 5:58 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I really hope they’re not dying, making them is what i do for a living.

What I am seeing is a progression in technology, from just a barcode to adding a mag stripe to now having RFID cards. We’ve done some nice ones over the years, definitely going to sit down and check out all of the links in the post.
posted by antipodes at 6:07 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm in a weird spot with library cards, because while I like having this physical library-object, I do wish I had one less thing to carry around with me.. which I can, because I've had the same library card for a couple decades. I know my 14-digit library card number because the system still requires the whole thing, and I've been accessing their digital system since before browsers remembered logins for you.

I'm okay with the library card (and most physical cards) going away, but when it does, I'm framing mine.
posted by curious nu at 6:12 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


.
posted by sfts2 at 6:14 PM on July 17, 2018


The library system where I grew up issued cards that were little pockets. You got up to five (if an adult; three otherwise), and you exchanged each one for every book you borrowed. The librarian would take the record slip out of the book, put it in your pocket-card, file it, and stamp the return page of the book.

They had that system until the 1990s.. The neighbouring city (which were were emphatically NOT part of) got electronic library cards in the late 1970s, but Eastwood (now East Ren) stuck with cardboard.
posted by scruss at 6:25 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


The library system I work for has gone through three or four card redesigns over the 15 years I’ve been an employee. A lot of our older patrons still have their original cards, and often bristle at any suggestion that they be replaced (usually due to condition; one card literally broke in half as it was handed to me).
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:53 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


reading about this stuff especially this straight dope link about how libraries kept track of this stuff before computers is, first of all, goddamn fascinating, and second of all, making me love databases and indexes even more than i already did if that is possible

i really like this comment on the straight dope post about how to order the filed cards.

There were several systems, which could involve cards in book pockets and/or library users having cards. One possibility was to have a card in each book, and to take it out, write the user name and/or number on it, together with the due date, and file it behind the circulation desk.

Then there was the problem of what order to file the cards. In order of the call number of the book makes a lot of sense, but what do you do when:
(1) a user calls to ask, "What books do I have out from the library?"
(2) you want to send out notices for the overdue books?
In each case, you need to go through all the book cards -- which takes a long time in a large library.


oh my god it's totally describing the difference between clustered indexes (the actual, physical order of the stuff in a file, or in the case of computerized relational databases, on a disk) and non-clustered indexes (some sort of additional ordering system that can keep track of an alternative order of the data, but requires more lookups and also needs to be maintained periodically if the underlying data changes which i imagine it would a lot and i wonder how people did that kind of stuff before computers and sorting algorithms and such.)

ok i'm off to go down a rabbit hole to learn about...pre computerized filing techniques, i guess. thanks for this post!

(N.B. my real-person job is being a database nerd on big science databases, i realize that i am using terminology that is specific to SQL Server here but the concepts exist in RDBMS's i am pretty sure)
posted by capnsue at 7:38 PM on July 17, 2018 [9 favorites]


Despite all efforts.
posted by sfts2 at 8:42 PM on July 17, 2018


Hamilton Public Library has a barcode scanner, but you can also enter your code manually.
posted by PinkMoose at 8:49 PM on July 17, 2018


scruss: The library system where I grew up issued cards that were little pockets. You got up to five (if an adult; three otherwise), and you exchanged each one for every book you borrowed.

We had that too! I've never, ever heard anyone else mention them, though I've read more than a few articles about library paraphernalia like these. I thought I was going mad...
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 9:36 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I sure hope not, because the idea of cardless app-only library records sounds like a privacy/digital security nightmare, not to mention pretty much standing at one side of the digital divide and mooning the other side...
A humble piece of barcoded plastic goes a long way.


At my public library in Sweden, I can just input my national ID number (I guess like an SSN) into the self-checkout machine. I haven't carried my physical card for ages. Everything in Sweden is connected to your ID number and it's great and convenient until it isn't. Like if you move, any official place like banks, universities etc. will get your new address automatically. But if you don't have an ID number, the system doesn't know how to handle you. It looks like a number of libraries now have systems in place to serve people without an ID number, like new immigrants and asylum seekers, but it's a new development and up to the specific library / municipality, not on a national level.
posted by Vesihiisi at 10:18 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


 it's totally describing the difference between clustered indexes

I know that my old home library (that used the same system as Harvey Kilobit's, though it's unlikely that HK was also a resident of Eastwood, just south of Glasgow) used to file cards by return date in a rotating file. The system had no writing names on anything, as the book slip fitted into the library card. All the librarian had to do was check the return date stamped in the book, check that day's file, and retrieve the slip and your library card.

I can't imagine what the answer to “How many books do I have out?” could be. Our librarians were polite but terse (and Scottish) so I can't imagine anything other than killingly sarcastic.
posted by scruss at 12:36 PM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


The Library Buff post has a picture of one of the early technical advances in library cards that I remember. The one on the bottom appears to have a metal plate in the upper right hand corner. I remember having one of those cards and having the librarian imprint my number on whatever so I could check out books.

I have my local library card number memorized so seldom use the card itself. I also have a Seattle Library card but the number has too many ones and zeros to be memorable for me. Plus I usually use it online. One of the fun things about the Seattle Central Library is the conveyor contraption you feed your return books into and it whooshes them away.

The bookplates, checkout slips and card pockets captured in book images in the Internet Archive fascinate me. At university libraries, did someone famous check this book out? What are the first and last due dates? Plus the marbled endpapers. Not the same as the smell of old books and the feel of the pages, but I probably won't be visiting all the libraries on my list in what remains of my lifetime.s
posted by Altomentis at 5:33 PM on July 18, 2018


I wish we still had a working library system to use our cards! Where I live, cutbacks in local government mean that libraries (and other non-essential things like quirky local museums, arts groups, theatres) are first on the chopping block. They've kept the building open, and there are some books in there (nowhere near as many as there used to be) and some computers that ought to be in a museum but no professional librarians anymore.
I am so sorry. What a tragic loss to your community.

Libraries are such a vital resource. The regional library system in my area serves our communities in so many ways: cool spots on hot days here where air conditioning is uncommon, computers, media players and media; meeting spaces. A place where anyone can enjoy things many of us take for granted. A place where a couple of guys can be found watching DVDs at least one day a week. Programs for adults and kids. Games to play and puzzles to put together. Coloring books with crayons, etc. that can be checked out and colored. In my library branch they've had zine making supplies on a table where anyone can make a zine and some copies and add it to the library collection. I've used interlibrary loans to borrow books where there seems to be only one or two copies extant in the entire US. And a good selection of electronic materials.
posted by Altomentis at 5:54 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


So this interests me because multiple people have alluded to entering their number for self-checkout. Other than the Claremont branch of the Berkeley Public Library having self-checkout set up over (I think) telnet when I was in college, I've never encountered a self-checkout that doesn't have a barcode scanner.

If you don't have your card with you, it's nice to be able to enter it manually. And if you have the number memorized, it's about the same amount of time to type it in or convince the scanner that it likes your card. Everyone in my family has their card number memorized so it's not a big deal if we've planned to go to the library and brought the backpack where the library cards live or if we've just stopped in on a whim. It's a one and four zeros before seven more digits, so I guess it's just what you're used to.

cool spots on hot days here where air conditioning is uncommon,
I do know which branch of SPL in my part of town has air-conditioning, but my branch, the one I can walk to, closes when it gets too hot. (For anyone in West Seattle, go to Delridge when it's hot out.)
posted by Margalo Epps at 1:37 PM on July 21, 2018


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