James Rand, Sr.'s Rand Ledger Company (founded 1898) with its Visible Ledger system, and his son James Rand, Jr.'s American Kardex dominated sales of index card filing systems worldwide through much of the 20th century. These edge-notched cards were phased out in the 1980s in favor of computer databases, and they are no longer sold. In the late 1890s, edge-notched cards were invented, which allowed for easy sorting of data by means of a needle-like tool. Index cards could be selected and moved around at will to update and compare information at any time. In the mid 1760s Linnaeus refined this into what are now called index cards. His solution was to keep information on particular subjects on separate sheets, which could be complemented and reshuffled. Linnaeus had to deal with a conflict between needing to bring information into a fixed order for purposes of later retrieval, and needing to integrate new information into that order permanently. 1760 in order to help deal with the information overload facing early scientists that occurred from overseas discoveries, though there is room for dispute about whether he alone was the index card's inventor. Ĭarl Linnaeus, an 18th-century naturalist who formalized binomial nomenclature, is said to have "invented the index card" c. The German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was known to have relied on Harrison's invention in at least one of his research projects. Harrison's system was edited and improved by Vincent Placcius in his well-known handbook on excerpting methods ( De arte excerpendi, 1689). Harrison's manuscript on the "ark of studies" ( Arca studiorum) describes a small cabinet that allows users to excerpt books and file their notes in a specific order by attaching pieces of paper to metal hooks labeled by subject headings. The first early modern card cabinet was designed by 17th-century English inventor Thomas Harrison ( c. History įiling cabinet for paper slips in Vincent Placcius's De arte excerpendi (1689) Index cards are used for many events and are helpful for planning. Professional book indexers used index cards in the creation of book indexes until they were replaced by indexing software in the 1980s and 1990s.Īn often suggested organization method for bibliographical citations and notes in a card file is to use the smaller 3-inch by 5-inch cards to record the title and citation information of works cited, while using larger cards for recording quotes or other data, but some people have also given the opposite advice to put everything on one size of card. Index cards are used for a wide range of applications and environments: in the home to record and store recipes, shopping lists, contact information and other organizational data in business to record presentation notes, project research and notes, and contact information in schools as flash cards or other visual aids and in academic research to hold data such as bibliographical citations or notes in a card file. They are part of standard stationery and office supplies all around the globe. Special divider cards with protruding tabs and a variety of cases and trays to hold the cards are also sold by stationers and office product companies. Cards are available in blank, ruled and grid styles in a variety of colors. The most common size for index card in North America and the UK is 3 by 5 inches (76.2 by 127.0 mm), hence the common name 3-by-5 card.
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