Ghalib's calling cards

On a library's old cataloguing system

- Mayank Austen Soofi

Delhi's book-filled Ghalib Academy Library overlooks poet Ghalib's tomb.

The library is doubly noteworthy for its two large handsome wooden cabinets. They preserve something rare.

Each cabinet is arrayed out into scores of long drawers. Each drawer contains stacks of so-called note cards. Slightly larger than a standard-issue visiting card, the card traditionally constituted a public library's most basic building block, commanding an architecture of its own. Pull open any drawer. Every card within has a hole punched through its centre. Look more carefully—a slim steel chord installed in the drawer is running through the hole of each card, keeping all in place. Every one of these cards corresponds to a book in the library, detailing in-depth info about the book—explains Bushra Begum, the Ghalib Academy librarian.