Changing Library Technology

Long before computers, the library helped citizens gain access to new technology. The Microfilm Reading Room opened in 1948 with one reader and several cabinets of microfilm. The record and film collections began in the 1950s and the library purchased its first Xerox copier in 1966. Reference services in the 1970s and 1980s saw many advancements, from new electronic resources to innovative access tools. The library’s first public computer was installed in 1977. Staff in the Business & Technology, Magazines & Newspapers and Fine Arts divisions responded to thousands of customer questions each year. The expanded Columbus and Ohio room was dedicated in 1975 to answer local history and genealogy questions.

Judge Thomas Moyer (left) presents Assistant Director Charles Brown (right) with tapes for the Law Line service.

Director Larry Black with the first Discovery Place public terminal in 1989. The new terminals allowed library customers to search the electronic card catalog for the first time.

InfoTrac debuted in 1994, giving customers the ability to search periodical indices. Shelton P. Kang, a customer at Livingston Branch, used the database.

WLWC-TV (now WCMH-TV) donated a film collection to the library in 1970. Head Librarian Edward Daniels (left) and Martin Luther King Branch librarian Verdi Fitz accepted the donation.

The library began offering newspapers on microfilm in 1948.