card catalog

noun

1. a file of cards of uniform size arranged in some definite order and listing the items in the collection of a library or group of libraries, each card typically identifying a single item.

Word History and Origins

Origin of card catalog¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

The area was chock-full of things—not only books but old files, card catalogs, leather map tubes, gramophones and older news-box editions, dusty albums, photographs, and so on—displayed in glass.

From Literature

The jury threw not just the book at him, but the entire library, including the shelves and the card catalog:

From Salon

"If you want to engineer a balanced immune response, you go to that card catalog, you find the particular TCR genes that, when engineered to build the cell therapy, can provide that balanced response."

From Science Daily

Nervously, I looked around as I gathered the courage to walk over to the card catalog.

From Seattle Times

And when I got confused when Mrs. Rouse was explaining about the online card catalog, Betsy didn’t make fun of me.

From Literature