looking at these expressive dirt bands
dirt bands in library card catalogs, similar to dirt and wear marks on the fore edges of books gives some evidence of use
this can be useful research, but it has silently disappeared over time due to lack of archiving materials like card catalogs
some of these issues also pop up with digitizing physical books and throwing them away... we lose the information about how they were bound, how they might have been used, all the physicality is gone
Fifty drawers compose it. They are made of blond wood. Pull out one of the C drawers, the one labelled “Catalogs.” Here are several guide cards: one for “Catalogs,” one for “Censorship,” one for “Children’s Literature.” Before you have read or touched a single card, you have learned something important about the library-school library, and even possibly about librarianship in general: the edges of the cards following the guide cards for “Censorship” and “Children’s Literature” are dark with handling, whereas the ones following “Catalogs” are not. Thus “Censorship” and “Children’s Literature” have over the years been of more interest to library-school students than “Catalogs” has. This is a surprise—at least, it was a surprise to me. Maybe it’s one reason we’re in this pickle.
wear on library card catalog cards as an indicator of use
a similar thing can be found in one's personal note cards and has been noticed in Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten
Sometimes, you may be tempted to write that wrapper. Because all your (React or Vue or insert your reactive framework here) instincts tell you so.Resist the temptation. There is a better way. A svelter way. Introducing: the use-directive (a.k.a. “actions”).