Then and Now: No more Card Catalogs?

As I contemplated the changes that occurred in education over the last 30 years, I reflected on my college days and the differences between then and now. I remembered going to the library and walking down the journal-filled isles to find professional articles related to my current assignment. With a stack of journals, I would stand in the copy machine line with a coinbpurse full of dimes and payed for each PAGE I photocopied from the articles I chose for my papers. After making copies and stapling them together, I would take out my highlighter and mark the pages while I read. 

Back in the day, looking up information was via the card catalog was interesting. They had separate cards for the same book based on the author, title, journal name, or topic... all were alphabetical and in different drawers. When I was at the community college, I worked at the worked at the college library and remember typing several cards for each book then filed them in tiny little drawers. 

Another big difference from when I was in college was typing my papers using  a borrowed typewriter. The day I was able to afford my own typewriter was a great day! I remember how excited I was to eventually have my own. The part I remembered the most about typing is how slow I had to type to be sure that I didn't make a mistake. White out was invented and I was in heaven. Later, they came out with "white out papers" and it was better yet. Even with these modern advances, I remember carefully reviewing each page before I pulled it out of the typewriter, and EVERY TIME I took out the paper, I would IMMEDIATELY find an error! No matter what you did, you would NEVER align the paper just right.

Years later, the internet had barely started but was not accessible to many. I used the school computer lab and their printers and was so grateful for the advances.

The presentations were different as well. I remember using my glue stick and cutting out paper to place on a large poster board so that I could present information in class. I thought about my current job and was thankful that I used PowerPoint presentations at work because PowerPoint replaced poster boards a long time ago. I worried about how to research information in the technology age and wondered how difficult it would be to use computers for research instead of the card catalog and copy machine. I knew that it would be challenging, but I was ready!