[seanc]

I think Library Science has contributed much more to modern computing than we ever realize.

For example, I often bring up images of card catalogs when explaining database indexing. As soon as people see the index card, and then see that there is a wooden case for looking up by Author, a separate case for looking up by Dewey Decimal et. cet. the light goes on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_catalog

[AdhemarVandamme]

I’m old enough to have used (book) dictionaries and wooden case card catalogues in the local library. So when I learned about hashmaps/IDictonary a quarter century ago, that’s indeed the image that helped me grok the concept.

However, the metaphor isn’t that educationally helpful anymore. On more than one occasion I found myself explaining how card catalogues or even (book) dictionaries work, only to be met with the reply: “oh, so they’re basically analogue hashmaps”.

[evv]

A few months ago I was asking myself, why is the "standard" width of a terminal 80 characters? I assumed it had to do with the screen size of some early PCs.

But nope, its because a punch card was 80 characters wide. And the first punch cards were basically just index cards. Another hat tip to the librarians.

I guess this is the computing equivalent of a car being the width of two horse's asses...

[tshaddox]

And the use of punch cards in computing is (arguably) inspired by the textile industry. Punched cards were used to configure looms starting way back in the 1700s.

[ssalazar]

For those who aren't already familiar, James Burke in Connections has a great summary/rundown of this technological progression from Jacquard loom to census tabulator to computer punchcard, starting around the 36 minute mark here (though the whole video is worth watching).

https://youtu.be/z6yL0_sDnX0?si=NtyyybZSGCKmktdG&t=2150

[macintux]

One of the teachers at my high school (40 years ago) somehow got permission to offer an entire class revolving around Connections. Several of my friends were taking it, so I decided to as well, and I had to drop band to make it fit.

Both band directors showed up at one of my classes the first day of school, dragged me to an empty room, and browbeat me into returning to band. It was the right choice for my social life, but I did hear great things about that class.

[tshaddox]

I always think of the indexes in the back of books as the origin of the term in computing. The relationship to "index cards" never even occurred to me!

[kgwgk]

Index cards are not different from index entries in a book. Index is “indicator” or “pointer” in Latin (hence the name of the finger).

[tshaddox]

Yeah, I've got the vocab, I just never associated index cards with that use case because growing up we only ever used index cards for labeling, note-taking, arts and crafts, and flash cards.

[taeric]

Absolutely! I confess I assumed this was explicitly part of how things were taught. With the "projected" attributes in the index being what you would fit on a card. I'm surprised that so many seem to not have any mental model for how this stuff works.

[dotancohen]

A year or two ago I explained the dusty wooden drawers in the corner of the library using a database analogy.

Context and preconceptions are everything!

[nitwit005]

Young people may not have seen a card catalog these days.

I just explain that hard disks are just a continuous list of 1s and 0s, and then ask what we need to do if people want to find anything. People are able to infer the idea of needing some sort of structure.

[charcircuit]

Even if it did contribute more, it still contributed an absolutely miniscule amount to modern computing.