Before personal computers were prevalent, you had to use something called a card catalog to locate material in the library (see photo, circa 1962). Those days are long gone. For those of you wondering, 1995 was the year the card catalog left East Meadow. Today, the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) or simply put, the catalog, has replaced dozens of drawers and thousands of paper cards. The library’s current catalog is shared with most of the other public libraries in Nassau County. It”s called ALISCAT and it can be accessed by visiting http://www.alisweb.org.
Soon it will undergo a transformation which will make it easier to use and a bit more powerful. You can have a sneak peek at the new ALISCAT before it goes live. Visit http://encore.alisweb.org and give the new catalog a try.