A long way in a short amount of Time!

I have been working in libraries for 15 years now. And believe it or not, I've been here long enough to know how they "used to do it" before computers. When I started internet and computer use was just glimmer. It's amazing how much they have invaded in such a short amount of time! When I started library work we had a real 'card' card catalog. Every time we put a book in at least 3 cards were put in the catalog. (same when we took a book out) We had an 'accession' book that listed every single book in the collection, date purchased, from whom, amt paid and where it was. We had books dating back to the turn of the century. Wow did I love looking at those old books! If we wanted to do an interlibrary loan we had to make a phone call to the regional library after we checked 'books in print'. Shortly after that they got disks that we could use in our one computer that would tell us what was available in other libraries. The speed and ease that computers have given us is pretty astounding. It's hard to even think of how it was done before they were around. Not to mention how much we rely on them to answer reference questions. What am I talking about? People don't ask reference questions anymore. They go to their own computers and 'google' it. Back then.... we hunted in books like the New York Public library reference book, or the World Almanac, or telephone directories for questions like "Where's the closest place to get a cow inseminated?" or "What was Nigeria's gross national income last year?" My favorite was "I need to read a book by an American Author written in the 19th century". So when I gave her Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the student came back the next day and told me her teacher said Alcott wasn't American. ARGH! But, I digress. I knew from the first day that working in a library was going to be the best job I ever had. But it was going to be Waaaaay more than just checking out books. 15 years isn't really that long in a job, but it's sure seen huge changes. I can't wait to see what the next 15 hold!