Libraries across the country have rediscovered their ancient card catalogs and found new uses for them.

If you’re beyond a certain gentle age, like me, you might have fond memories of time spent in your local library… a slightly magical place, suffused in amber light, where endless rows of books opened doors to the past and future, to other worlds, to exotic lives in our own world, to random ideas and mysteries and secrets. And the on-ramp to that journey was the card catalog. The weight and solidity of this massive piece of infrastructure conveyed how deeply we valued it. 

Artfully assembled from dense hardwoods and hand-crafted brass fittings, suffused with the dust and wear of dozens of years of use by thousands of readers, the card catalog seemed as if it had always been there, a part of the landscape. Today, that landscape has evolved, and the card catalog is extinct. But for those of us who remember, it still evokes feelings of warmth and connection and anticipation.

So it’s not surprising that libraries across the country have rediscovered their ancient card catalogs, stored in basements and attics, spruced them up, and found new uses for them. One of the best and most common uses is to create a seed catalog, and now we have one of those right here in Providence. 

The thirty-two-drawer card catalog was gathering dust in a corner of the library basement, when consultant Alisson Walsh came up with the plan to repurpose it to hold a free seed bank and also to help promote the library’s new Master Gardener program. The Gardeners, based at URI, donated seeds to the project, and also offered a special “Seed to Table On-Ramp Series” of programs aimed at urban gardening for beginners. The program, which is based at the community garden at Roger Williams Park, quickly filled up. Classes began in March, with a session on garden planning, and will finish in October, with putting the garden to bed for the winter.