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Wed 12 Jul, 2006 11:27 am
I noticed when my daughter takes out books from the library that they insert a card in the back. You know the little card that has a 1, 2, 3, 4 on it and sits in a little pocket on the inside of the back cover. And it says something along the lines - book due on last day stamped. I don't know about your library, but all the libraries I've been around my parts do not stamp this card any longer. This is now computerized and they insert a little piece of paper with the books you borrowed and the due date.
So why do they bother putting that little card in the back of each book? It serves no purposes. The library must pay for the little cards and then spend time putting them in books and taking them out. Can anyone enlighten me?
To use as a bookmark? I have no clue, but that's as good an answer as I can come up with.
That is what I use it for. But it used to have a purpose way back when. They used to put it in some machine to stamp the due date on - now you go check out a book - they scan the book with a bar code in the front cover and then flip the book over, get a card from a pile and put it in the little pocket. After they scan all your books they print out a little receipt with the list of books and due dates and insert into one of the books.
Why the h*ll waste time and paper on those silly little cards. It bothers me.
Yeah, I've noticed this too. I am old enought to remember the good old days of library book borrowing. Signing your name on that card and having them stamp it with the due date.
Why do they still put that card there? Nostalgia? Something to do? Maybe they have a huge surplus of those cards and they're trying to use them up? Darned if I know.
Do we have any librarians here that can answer this?
Linkat wrote:Why the h*ll waste time and paper on those silly little cards. It bothers me.
Tough morning, huh? :wink:
Reyn wrote:Linkat wrote:Why the h*ll waste time and paper on those silly little cards. It bothers me.
Tough morning, huh? :wink:
Actually yeah. Read the item on Boston's big dig and you will understand by h*llish commutes over the last couple of days with no end in sight. Figured it was good to focus on something that really didn't matter.
My old town of Brooline, MA still did the old card thing. I notice there were many books that hadn't been checked out since the late 20's or early 30's! One book on bridge I recall was last checked out in 1921! Surely the last guy who checked it out was long dead!
The big dig is still going on? Yikes, you poor thing.
Diane wrote:The big dig is still going on? Yikes, you poor thing.
Yes and the problems keep mounting - poor woman was killed just the other day as a result and commuters are stuck without a tunnel to go through and even if they could, don't want to.
To destroy any value to a dishonest collector?
I have no answer to the problems of the Big Dig--but as for the subject of this thread, I'd ask a librarian.
yeah noddy, I was going to suggest that, but it sounded nicer from you...
You know what Nick, I miss having those cards in there for the reason you said...you could see when the book was last taken out...sometimes there'd be 4 dates in a row, then a lapse of a few years...then more checkouts...another lapse.
It was like following a story in itself. I miss that.
I always loose the little piece of paper, even when I use it as a bookmark.
I wonder if there's a way to see the history of check outs nowadays.
hmmmmm.....
BTW, my library doesn't put the card in there, but I think the little holder thingie is is there.
Actually I was planning on asking next time I go - but in the mean time - I thought the great minds we have here would know. Guess I gave you guys too much credit.
Linkat--
You are a woman capable of Primary Research--as well as a woman of great optimism and faith in her fellow posters.
May your quest be rewarded with more than double talk.
Could the cards be part of the Date Due system--left old-fashioned because children aren't detail-oriented?
Actually Inkat, the Big Dig is FINISHED! And it's already gotten old and aflling apart! A lady was killed in the tunnel the other day when part of it collapsed!
My mother is a retired librarian. I'll ask her, but I suspect it's a way to keep track of what's in and out for if/when the computer goes down. The library has to know its inventory all the time, even if the computer system crashes.
Chai Tea wrote:I always loose the little piece of paper, even when I use it as a bookmark.
Hey, isn't there a fine for that? :wink:
I bet Chai is one of those who take out every book on one subject.
Oh, were you trying to take out any books on welding?
I'll be done with them by the weekend.
I was a library aide for six or seven years, but at a little library where we still used the date due cards-- we were automated, but the computer didn't print out a receipt, so the date due cards were still needed for the patron to see when each book was due.
Plus, even if you get a reciept, isn't it kind of useful to be able to look at the card in each book in case you lost the reciept? It seems harder to keep track of a reciept than the cards to me...but maybe I'm not quite getting what you're saying....
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