Tina Stewart
Before we get to the further reading, I wanted to define a phrase Tina used. A Dummy Terminal is a PC that doesn’t store any information. It was used to to log into the catalog, search, and display results. It had no hard drive. That architecture is actually making a come back thanks to the proliferation of Cloud Computing. If you hear the phrase Thin Client or Zero Client those are descendants of the Dummy terminal. Ok, onto…
Further Reading
- Did you know the card catalog came about thanks to the French Revolution? It’s true: https://www.raymondgeddes.com/evolution-of-the-card-catalog-system
- Here’s more info on the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium: http://www.merrimaclibrary.org/faq.html
- Here’s a breakdown of what a Integrated Library System is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_library_system
Lastly, Tina mentioned that you can’t always trust what you find on Internet. One reason is because Google can’t see what’s behind paywalls, which are databases that are restricted to payed customers. Encyclopedia Britanica is no longer printing their volumes and all information is online behind a paywall. The library subscribes to this and a whole host of other databases hidden from google.
The other reason is because anyone can post their opinion of things online and pass it off as fact. Here’s a handy graphic to help you evaluate the source, something that was once the purview of librarians only.
