Remember when people said that “kids who didn’t have access to libraries and books will grow up stupid?” Now everyone has the Internet and it sure hasn’t raised IQ’s…
2 completely different things. Google is so good that you don’t need to type a complete thought before it has guessed the right answer. Studies have shown that people have offloaded remembering trivial data and facts, because they are so easy to look up on the internet.
Remember going to the library? You had to be smart to step foot in the door. First, you had to know what category of book you’re looking for.
Fiction? Nonfiction? Geography? Self help?
No, I just want to check out The Outsiders.
Cool, it’s in the “Faction Fiction” section.
Wtf? How are these books organized?
Alphabetically.
By Author or by title?
Yes
You’re not being very helpful.
Oh? Well you can use the card catalog.
What’s that?
It’s a comprehensive data base of all library knowledge.
Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. Point me to the terminal.
Terminal? You mean wing?
Wha?
Yes, see that whole other wing of the library, completely devoid of books?
Yeah?
See the 15,000 drawers?
Yeah?
Each drawer contains 10,000 paper records. THAT is the card catalog.
Le sigh. Which drawer is the “O” drawer?
“O drawer?” There is no “O” drawer. The cards are cataloged numerically.
Numerically? There’s no numbers in “The Outsiders.”
Oh, you sweet sweet summer child. The card catalog uses the Dewey Decimal System.
Tha fuc?
The Dewey Decimal System encodes all of the section, genre, author, and title information into an arcane set of numbers. The books are arranged in the library according to this system.
You said the library is arranged alphabetically.
It is. Alphabetically, and numerically. And, the numeric codes contain letters.
So, how do I find a book in the library?
Use the card catalog?
How do I find the book in the card catalog?
You find the catalog card in the card catalog?
How?
Use the Dewey decimal system.
How do I do that?
There’s a book that can teach you.
…
Where are you going?
I’m just going to go buy a comic book and look at the pictures.