ABSTRACT
What was it like to study cataloging over 25 years ago? Realizing that I was a library school student then, I pulled out the notes and assignments from the three cataloging courses I took in 1964, 1965, and 1966. There they were-about 200 3 × 5 inch “p-slips,” neatly typed or handwritten in ink in correct card catalog format: call number in the upper left corner; main entry, body of the entry, physical description paragraph, and notes, all exactly paragraphed (with hanging indention when title was the main entry); tracings at the bottom. I had forgotten that we spent so much time meticulously writing or typing so many of these on nonerasable paper before the invention of “white out.” Some had been made into complete card sets-the unit card was typed or photocopied again and again with a different entry from the tracing typed at the top each time. There were handmade check-in cards for the serials, and finally, there were authority record cards and many references. Errors and alternative approaches were marked with red ink or pencil.
