There was a library in the Seymour High School but it wasn't all that different in content from the old Seymour library. It was when I got to college that things got interesting. The library at Oshkosh State College, later UW-Oshkosh, was new and the librarians were trying something new, filing books according the Library of Congress system instead of the Dewey Decimal. I briefly worked there as a student and found the system so confusing. I understood that an enormous institution like the Library of Congress needed an expandable system but no one could find what they wanted without some assistance from the staff.
I think the system was soon abandoned. I've never seen anything but the Dewey Decimal System since then, no matter where I lived from Los Angeles to Chicago, not in public libraries, not in university libraries.
For three years in the 1980's, I worked at the Muehl Public Library here in Seymour in the building that followed the fire station library and preceded the present one. The checkout system we used hadn't changed much from the one Miss Tubbs used. We stamped the books, we stamped a card which went into a drawer and sent the patrons on their way. It was there that I began my storytelling career by handling the children's story time.
I began to travel around the United States and into other countries, mostly performing in libraries. I began to notice the changes as computers took over. First it was the checkout process which was speeded up with scanners. Next the old card catalog was abandoned in favor of the computer. Gary found this upsetting. He had loved the old card catalogs and claimed the computers would never take the place of the old card drawers. He like browsing through them, looking for books, much as he wandered through the book stacks.
We soon found out we could scan the library holdings on a computer screen just as well and when the libraries formed systems, it was even better. In time, we had our own personal computers and could access the library records. We could find books all around Wisconsin, order them and pick them up in a day or two. Libraries now included books on CDs and videos.
Now I have a Nook electronic reader and seldom go to the library unless there is a special program, ordering library e-books from this personal computer.
Libraries keep evolving. Seymour has come a long way from that old library upstairs from the fire department. Where will it go next I wonder?
I think the system was soon abandoned. I've never seen anything but the Dewey Decimal System since then, no matter where I lived from Los Angeles to Chicago, not in public libraries, not in university libraries.
For three years in the 1980's, I worked at the Muehl Public Library here in Seymour in the building that followed the fire station library and preceded the present one. The checkout system we used hadn't changed much from the one Miss Tubbs used. We stamped the books, we stamped a card which went into a drawer and sent the patrons on their way. It was there that I began my storytelling career by handling the children's story time.
I began to travel around the United States and into other countries, mostly performing in libraries. I began to notice the changes as computers took over. First it was the checkout process which was speeded up with scanners. Next the old card catalog was abandoned in favor of the computer. Gary found this upsetting. He had loved the old card catalogs and claimed the computers would never take the place of the old card drawers. He like browsing through them, looking for books, much as he wandered through the book stacks.
We soon found out we could scan the library holdings on a computer screen just as well and when the libraries formed systems, it was even better. In time, we had our own personal computers and could access the library records. We could find books all around Wisconsin, order them and pick them up in a day or two. Libraries now included books on CDs and videos.
Now I have a Nook electronic reader and seldom go to the library unless there is a special program, ordering library e-books from this personal computer.
Libraries keep evolving. Seymour has come a long way from that old library upstairs from the fire department. Where will it go next I wonder?
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