Library Cards
PrintHave you ever wondered about the history of the library card? Library cards now come in all shapes and sizes, and even children are urged to get one.
Briefly, the library card came into existence because of the development of the model for modern library circulation. The 1955 ALA publication, Charging Systems by Helen Thornton Geer, explains John Cotton Dana’s role in its creation around 1900, and the machine based on that model that was introduced by the Gaylord Brothers in 1932.
An overview of the history of library cards, as well as insight into some of the more frequently asked questions about them appears on the Professional Tips Wiki page on Circulation.
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“Outside, I ducked out of the way of a beeping Book Robot that was performing no book-like functions I could see, and I slid down the wall. Beside me sat a young-ish librarian in shiny black flats, poking derisively at her phone...
Jessa Crispin, in her description of the PLA Conference exhibit hall, “Book Report,” The Smart Set, Mar. 27.
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