Birmingham age-herald., 1894-12-05
INDEX EVERYTHING.
THIS IS DONE BY USE OF THE CARD
 CATALOGUE SYSTEM.

as Libraries-It Can Be Made Elaborate
 and Costly OF Cheap and Simple-But It
 Must Be Hethodically Kept.
 One of the curious developments of modern American life is found in the con- stantly increasing use of the card cata- logue system. It is commonly supposed that card catalogues are used only or chief ly in large libraries. As matter of fact they are found in public offices, banks business houses and private studies. The business of making card catalogues has grown vastly in the last 15 years, and in ventors have been busy with a thousand and onedevices for increasing the effieien cy of the system.
 Not only can library now hiro pro- fessional cataloguer to card catalogue all its books, with an elaborate system of cross references; but, further, a bank or business house cain have it's ledger index card catalogued so that instant reference may be made to the name of any custom CT, and all needed information as to his business standing and financial history may be looked up.
 The mortality statistics of New York are deliberately card catalogued year by year. The system has been applied to the fares of railways, to the line records of the Long Distance Telephone company, to the registry of at least one conspicuous cattle breeding association, to insurance compa- nies, manufacturing concerns and tho publishing business.
 The card catalogue idea is by no means new. When Bostonian went to his oou- list few years ago, the latter said in matter of fact way:
 '1'll have to look up your record, and turning to a crude card catalogue he traced the history of the patient back to the time 30 years before when, as child of less than 10 years, be first came for treatment.
 Two cemetery companies in Boston card catalogue the dead intrusted to their keeping. Johns Hopkins university of Bal timore has a card catalogue giving the history of every case that comes to it's medical department for treatment. George Kennan has literally card catalogued his memory, so that he can refresh himself upon any given subject by looking over few dates and catch words and refer to any one of many thousand things that he has encountered in his reading
 Banks and business houses usually em- ploy a very simple variety of the card cat alogue, known as the dictionary form It is in effect merely list of names. If, for example, wholesale house deals with Brown, Jones and Robinson, it's card oatalogue-will contain one or more cards for the name of each of these gentlemen. If Brown gives mortgage, goes upon a security bond, asks indulgence from his creditors or does any one of dozen things affecting his credit, in goes another card noting this fact, with the proper date, and if need be referring to some easily aocessi- ble authority where full history of the transaction can be obtained. In this way the card catalogue of such a house may contain material for financial history of any one of thousand other business men, great and small
 There is no reason why the class of sub- jects included under each name in such card catalogue might not be indefinitely extended. Should Jones marry fortune, greatly change his style of living, enter politics, become the father of twins, mar ry off daughter, set son up in business join conspicuous club, become interested in horse racing or do any one of a hun dred other things that might be thought to have bearing upon his business life the fact might be made part of the record
 As matter of fact, however, tho growth of the card catalogue in business house l voluminous and expensive. The card cata- logue is a thing that increases by geomet- rical progression. If all of Jones' incom- ings and outgoings be recorded, the sym metrical card catalogue must treat Brown and Robinson with like consideration, and the greater the complexity of the cata- logue the more pains, time and intelli- gence are required for its proper manage ment. The credit man of the house has generalcharge of the card catalogue, but in ordinary cases he is too busy and high priced man to attend to the matter of keeping it up. This may be intrusted to an intelligent office clerk or stenogra- pher.
 A card catalogue as an aid to private memory has immense advantages to the man of method. Some old time politi- cians were so famous for their memory of men and events that one is tempted to be- lieve that they secretly used the card cata- logue system in some crude form known to an earlier generation. It would have been like our grandfathers, who so general ly dispensed with private secretaries, knew not stenographers and laboriously wrote with their own hands the elaborate epis- ties of those days to have devoted hours to the management of voluminous and carefully secreted card catalogue. The system is invaluable to the modern con- gressman pestered with a multitude of details, but not provided with a secretary. It Is characteristic of modern divisions of labor and the rush of modern life that tho '. man of today instead of making his own card catalogue, buys ono ready made along with elaborate appliances and labor saving conveniences that make the system an expensive luxury. The card catalogue can be made to cost next to nothing if the user is content to employ a convenient set of shallow drawers or covered trays and to cut out his own blank cards from stiff cardboard. Any reading man or writer or any housekeeper fond of detail and gift cd with method may start such cata- logue and keep it going at practically no cost and very little trouble With dozen blank cards carried in the pocket or kept within easy reach any reference may be jotted down at convenience, and ten min- utes day will suffice to arrange all the new cards in their proper sequence. The card catalogue is the best possible address book for housekeeper or a social leader. It enables the housekeeper to turn in- stantly to any one of thousand favorite recipes in any one of the two dozen abom- &I.s l.