The stuffy librarian stereotype has been around since the turn of the twentieth century. Librarians at this time were primarily considered as caretakers of books and the space in which they occupy. Although there was considerably more to the job than that, anything other than shelving and circulation was kept out of the public view.

As a result, while technological and societal changes were occurring rapidly on the outside, the library seemed to remain static. While the ideas contained in the books may have been progressive and exciting, the task of cataloguing them by Dewey order certainly wasn't.

The circulation desk

Technology enters the library

Librarians were paying close attention to the changes that technology brought to this new era. They couldn't ignore, for instance, that there were more books needing to be catalogued than ever before. Innovations in printing presses made production cheaper and faster, and the publishing output was increasing exponentially. Books in the backroom became backlogs, and librarians started to question the advisability of cataloguing whatever came to their desk.¹

Librarians began to confer on collection development policies and other issues, through publications of their own. Professional journals appeared more regularly, as the librarians began submitting ideas on how to keep pace.

More and more books

Cards at risk: "[the] direct contact with the hands of a not too clean public, they are liable to become gradually unfit to be used." -E. Wade

"Cataloging in the Future" 1895

In an article for the Library Journal in 1895, Emily Isabel Wade discussed potential replacements for "that much abused old standby, the card catalogue" to access the collection. Possible contenders were the Leyden and Sacconi binder systems; however, these took up too much space and were unwieldy. Wade cast her vote with the Rudolph Indexer, a glass-topped case that displayed sheets of the printed catalogue fed through the side.

Interestingly, Wade may have anticipated the plague of repetitive stress injuries that affect current library staff: "The Rudolph appliance requires a small exertion of turning a crank, economizes the time and consequently much of the nerve power of the searcher."²