The "Cabinet of Mysteries" in my earlier PESO was indeed a library card catalog cabinet, as Paul and others noted. It was were all research was done, back before library books became computerized. The one in my PESO is a relic, saved and now used to catalog the back issues of The Daily Dartmouth, the student newspaper of my alma mater, which is America's oldest college newspaper, published continuously since August 27, 1799.
In my day, the main hall of Baker Library at Dartmouth was crammed with hundreds of these cabinets, all overflowing with index cards containing information on the more than 1,000,000 volumes kept in the stacks and special collections. I spent many hours searching through the cards, especially when working on my thesis. This is what that main hall looks like today: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=18151516 To me, it appears almost vacant, compared to the days when one could hardly move between the catalog card cabinets. Most young people today would have no idea how to use a library card catalog. Dan Matyola http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.