Jane C. Butler writes :
“Still filing shelflist cards, I admit,
They’re small and compact and they perfectly fit,
Right under the PC this catalog sits,
It supports the E-cat that’s smiling a bit.
The large universities with miles of drawers.
Sheer piles of cards they carefully stored,
The info within them as vast as sea shores,
Whoever in browsing would ever be bored?
Jane C. Butler writes :
“Still filing shelflist cards, I admit,
They’re small and compact and they perfectly fit,
Right under the PC this catalog sits,
It supports the E-cat that’s smiling a bit.
The large universities with miles of drawers.
Sheer piles of cards they carefully stored,
The info within them as vast as sea shores,
Whoever in browsing would ever be bored?
I thank you card typists for being so kind,
For each bit of whimsy that’s simply sublime,
Pleasant, (not Peasant) Uprisings I find,
Who typed this Card, were they out of their mind?
But when filing I ponder my once needed skills,
If only I could have sent management bills!
I remember the standing for hours long still,
A lost art for filing that no one need fill.
The lost art of card filing,
Well, not filing as such,
But the art of rod pulling,
And now we’ve lost touch.
I knew them all, I had the skill,
Bunches of drawers, each one to fill,
Shifting, refiling each one that is full.
Rods spring loaded, lift up, unscrew or pull?
So many choices,
So much to try,
But all in one catalog?
Why? Yes, oh Why?
The art of rod pulling,
What fun it was once,
But now it’s e-filling,
The computer’s a dunce!
So what did I learn by using them each,
To persevere no matter the reach,
To make sense of this marvelous treat,
The card filer’s lament is now complete!
jane
Jane C. Butler
ARI Library
butlerj [at] ALEXANDRIA-EMH2.ARMY.MIL
“
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