The Vertical Librarian

Once upon a time, before the WWW transformed the Internet, libraries typically maintianed a "vertical file." This was a usually a set of file cabinets, with folders organized by subject, containing all sorts of materials; maps, flyers, government brochures etc. In a way it was the same sort of free ranging information source as the Internet, only physical, not virtual.

This blogger once took care of our vertical file as part of his duties. Part of the job involved going through a monthly publication called the Vertical File Index and writing off for various free materials. On one occasion we received in reply an envelope addressed to the "Vertical Librarian." Would be in contrast to a reclining librarian? ;-)

Pictured here is librarian Carol Timby at the vertical file in the old Drake Library, now Rakov. The older library had been in Hartwell Hall on the second floor, and then a new building just for the library was built in 1961. With the expansion of the college in the '60s we quickly outgrew that and the current Drake building was finished in 1974.