We’ve come a long way, baby.
Thanks to Megan Brett, Research Database and Records Manager at the Montpelier Foundation, we are able share with you a piece of ephemera from UVa Library’s computing past: a pamphlet on “Computer Literature Search.”
“Why use a computer search? Consider the time it takes to search manually through the many issues of printed indexes. The computer searches these indexes in seconds; the search is faster, more comprehensive, and often more precise, as there are more subject access points and greater flexibility in combining terms in a computer search.”
The pamphlet continues with an offer to split evenly the costs of search with Library patrons – “based on computer connect-time and on the number and format of citations printed.” Check out a PDF of the pamphlet, here (1mb). It is coded “10-84.” Is this from 1984?
Please comment if you can shed light on the date of the pamphlet, or want to share memories of early digital and computer-assisted scholarship at UVa. We’d also be very happy – in the semester in which we’ve rolled out a new Virgo interface based on Project Blacklight (first prototyped here in the Scholars’ Lab!) – to see more ephemera from UVa Library’s long engagement with digital research.