Architectural History of Sterling Memorial Library

Card Catalogs

Sterling Memorial Library Card Catalog

The alcoves along the Sterling Memorial Library (SML) Nave formerly held the library’s card catalogs, some of which are still present, although they’re no longer functional. A major restoration of the SML Nave in 2014 -- gift of Richard Gilder Yale ’54 and Lois Chiles, in honor of Yale President Emeritus Richard C. Levin Yale ’74 PhD and Jane A. Levin Yale ’75 PhD, and conducted by Helpern Architects -- cleaned the Nave’s stone surfaces and windows, cleaned and restored the plaster and wood ceilings, installed new lighting and environmental controls, restored the mural painting of Alma Mater, and removed the card catalogs. The card catalogs were a necessary and central feature of the library when Sterling was built but fell to the wayside in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the advent of Orbis, Yale’s online public access catalog.

1989 Weekly Bulletin and Calendar Announcement of Orbis

When Orbis was implemented, the library held 185 card catalogs, and Orbis included 900,000 titles, which comprised only materials added to the library system since 1977. The card catalog entries were slowly converted to Orbis records, and Orbis now holds catalog records for nearly 15 million print and electronic volumes, along with records for early manuscripts, digital collections, electronic databases, audiovisual material, contemporary manuscripts, maps, and archival material.

Sterling Memorial Library card catalog bay, 2021