BAKER'S SMUDGES.

Authors :: Wilder, Stanley
Source :: Library Journal. 9/1/2006, Vol. 131 Issue 14, p30-32. 3p.
Publication Year :: 2006
Abstract: The article discusses some of the data lost in the transition from card to online catalogs. Novelist Nicholson Baker has suggested the dirt smudges on physical cards once indicated levels of scholarly use, which is not available on electronic records. Innovations in open source catalog software are attempting to provide scholars with a smudge equivalent to illustrate usefulness of certain items in a library's collection.