Drastic changes in the way people do research..Lots of changes.

[csziggy]

8. When I was in high school in the 1960s our tiny libraries were limiting

Both the school and the town libraries were very small and it really restricted how much research could be done.

Then I got to my first college which was small with a small library - but I could get access to a state university across the bay. For one of my projects I found the one book that was the definitive source for the subject and had to get my professor to get it through interlibrary loan for me to complete my project.

When I transferred to a different state university with a huge library, it was like heaven. I found information on just about any subject I wanted. One of my projects was cataloging the books on his specialty for a professor and was disgusted that he had no idea how to find the books that I had listed for him, even though I included the Library of Congress catalogue numbers for him.

With our first computer the way to get online was to use the state library system which could connect to the library catalogs of universities all over the world. My husband was researching the early history of Macau and accidentally got into their main university library. He got a listing of book titles to request through interlibrary loans so he could further his interests. We were disappointed that none came from Macau, but from other university libraries in the US.

Now, to do the same research no one has to know LC or Dewey Decimal numbers - just look up the info online. Though if you really want to find older original sources, you do need to actually locate the books or publications at a real library.