Cartalog

About two years ago I was in one of the fun local coffee houses in Des Moines Mars Cafe and noticed an incredible sculpture. It was a large Question Mark made out of paper that hung from the ceiling. As I got closer I noticed something about the paper. It was written on. But not just any writing, typing that listed title and author and subject. The entire sculpture was made out of old card catalog cards. And it was not the only one. The coffee house was doing a show of card catalog art.

I didn't buy any of the art at that time and am kicking myself a little bit for it. The question mark that I loved was already purchased but there were a number of other sculptures and paintings that would have looked wonderful in my library. If only I had known.

But today I found a site that fills me with just as much happiness. Cartalog is the brainchild of some people at the University of Iowa who were trying to think of what to do with their old card catalog cards. The card catalog, those old relics of the library, was removed in 2004 and the library was recycling all their old cards. This group grabbed up about a quarter of the cards and have been sending them out to people to create art with. The art is then archived in the university library. As a librarian this makes me incredibly happy. As an art lover, I'm in heaven.

So I spent some time this morning on the site just looking at the interesting art ideas that people have thought of using the cards. There is everything from painting, sculpture, poetry, and paper cuttings. All of it is interesting and all unique. The project closed in 2006 after the full 1 million cards salvaged had gone out. Not all of them have returned to the library in the form of art pieces but there is enough to make a very unique and beautiful collection. Plus they had some other examples of card catalog card artists. And I'll check those out too. Eventually, as a librarian, I will just have to own a piece.