Legal Research

Ah, the Salad Days of Interlibrary Loan

By Biddle Law Library

One of the great services provided by libraries, including ours, is Interlibrary Loan.  In order to keep track of the complex network of internal and external request, our Interlibrary Loan department uses sophisticated software that places requests and tracks orders as they are sent and received by participating libraries.

But, in the time before time, computers were the names for human beings who plugged in a pulled switches on an elephantine motherboard.  And Biddle's interlibrary loan department wasn't run on ones and zeroes, but on good old-fashioned paper and pen.  To wit:

Above is an interlibrary loan ledger from Biddle in the 1940s. 

Interest in seeing it up close?  Come find me at the Archives.

Full post as published by Biddleblog on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).