Edge-notched card

Edge-notched cards or edge-punched cards are an obsolete technology used to store a small amount of binary or logical data on paper index cards, encoded via the presence or absence of notches in the edges of the cards. The notches allowed efficient sorting and selecting of specific cards matching multiple desired criteria, from a larger number of cards in a paper-based database of information. In the mid-20th century they were also known by commercial names such as Cope-Chat cards, E-Z Sort cards, and McBee Keysort cards.

Overview

File:Edge-notched card.jpg

Edge-notched card used as a library card. Edges not notched here.

A notched card showing two levels of notching.

Hand tool for notching cards.

Edge-notched cards are a manual data storage and manipulation technology used for specialized data storage and cataloging applications through much of the 20th century. An early instance of something like this methodology appeared in 1904. While there were many variants, by the mid-20th century a popular version consisted of 5-by-8-inch (13 by 20 cm) paperboard cards with holes punched at regular intervals along all four edges, a short distance in from the edges. The center of the card might be blank space for information to be written, or contain a pre-printed form, or contain a microform image in the case of edge-notched aperture cards.

To record data, the paper stock between a hole and the nearest edge was removed by a special notching tool. The holes were assigned a meaning dependent upon a particular application. For example, one hole might record the answer to a yes/no question on a survey, with the presence of a notch meaning "yes". More-complex data was encoded using a variety of schemes, often using a superimposed code which allows more distinct categories to be coded than the number of holes available.

To allow a visual check that all cards in a deck were oriented the same way, one corner of each card was beveled, much like Hollerith punched cards. Edge-notched cards, however, were not intended to be read by machines. Instead, they were manipulated by passing one or more slim needles through selected holes in a group of cards. As the needles were lifted, the cards that were notched in the hole positions where the needles were inserted would be left behind as rest of the deck was lifted by the needles. Using two or more needles produced a logical and function. Combining the cards from two different selections produced a logical or. Quite complex manipulations, including sorting were possible using these techniques.

Before the widespread use of computers, some public libraries used a system of small edge-notched cards in paper pockets in the back of library books to keep track of them. Edge-notched cards were also used for course scheduling in some high schools and colleges during the same era.

Needle cards

Needle cards (another term for edge-notched cards) are index cards with text, written by hand or typewriter, that have a line of prepunched holes along one or more sides. By cutting or punching away (notching out) the paper between a hole and the edge of the card, the card is associated with a category. By putting long knitting needles through certain holes in a deck of such cards, lifting and shaking gently, cards that belong to a combination of categories can be selected. This tool is less useful for data sets larger than 10,000 records.

Affectionately referred to as "The Knitting Needle Computer", these database-like systems were popular sometime in the 1960s and 1970s. Science teachers may still use these as a teaching tool for relational databases. Indexed card systems can be made with index cards and a hole punch.

In her book Parti-colored Blocks for a Quilt, writer Marge Piercy described how she used needle cards instead of a notebook:

I keep neither a journal nor a notebook. I have a memory annex which serves my purposes. It uses edge-notched cards. Edge-notched cards are cards which have holes around the borders as opposed to machine punch cards which are punched through the body. The cards are sorted with knitting needles. I have a nice sophisticated system which I call the "General Practitioner."

See also

• Bucket sort
• Hash value
• Paper data storage
• Royal McBee
• Tag (metadata)
• Unit record equipment

References

• Kilgour, Frederick G. (15 February 1939). "A new punched card for circulation records". Library Journal. 64 (4): 131–133. An article introducing McBee Keysort edge-notched cards for use in library circulation records. The author, a technology early adopter, later became a pioneer in library computerization.
• US patent 2261719A, Roger, Connor & Donald A. Nevin, "Device for sorting card records", issued 4 November 1941, assigned to McBee Co.  One of several patents granted to the McBee Company for devices related to McBee Keysort edge-notched cards.
• An article that describes the use of McBee Keysort edge-notched cards in historical research.
• Edge-notched cards are mentioned in multiple chapters in this collection.
• An article that describes the use of microform images in edge-notched aperture cards.
• An article that describes the use of edge-notched cards in forest inventory.
• The four editions of this report published by the NSF between 1958 and 1966 contained a section that listed examples of specific scientific and technical information systems that used edge-notched cards.
• Sadove, Max S.; Levin, Myron J. (March 1958). "The Illinois E-Z Sort anesthesia record card". Anesthesiology. American Society of Anesthesiologists. 19 (2): 178–187. PMID 13521370. An article about use of E-Z Sort cards for anesthesia records.
• Engelbart discussed his use of edge-notched cards for personal information management at the Annual Meeting of the American Documentation Institute in 1960, while pointing out that it seemed "inevitable, for instance, that your documentation systems will go in the direction of using cooperative man-computer efforts", citing J. C. R. Licklider's "Man-Computer Symbiosis", also published in 1960.
• An article showing an edge-sorting tool in use.
• Engelbart discussed his use of edge-notched cards to partially model Vannevar Bush's Memex concept for intelligence augmentation, first described in Bush's "As We May Think" (1945).
• An article describing a system of edge-notched cards that "has been formulated to serve more general purposes and has sufficient capability to deal with the entire spectrum of biology".
• "Indecks Research Deck needle sort punch card kit". Computer History Museum. 1966. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
• Hoff describes a personal knowledge base for health professionals that uses edge-notched cards.
• Newberry, William F. (15 March 1981). "Edge-notched cards: prematurely buried". Library Journal. 106 (6): 624–625. An article that examines edge-notched cards as an inexpensive alternative to computers.
• A chapter that mentions edge-notched cards as part of personal information management in medicine.
• Williams, Robert V. (2002). "Punched cards: a brief tutorial". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing: Web Extra. 24 (2). Retrieved 2006-10-30.
• Kelly, Kevin (17 June 2008). "One dead media". kk.org. Retrieved 2008-06-18. An article on edge-notched cards that mentions their use in the production of The Last Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970s, among other projects. Kelly observed that as a medium edge-notched cards were "dead", but some commenters on the article suggested otherwise.
• Sneesby-Koch, Ann (31 January 2013). "Me and Mr. McBee". neh.gov. Office of Digital Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Retrieved 2018-04-08. An article that describes the digitization of the NEH's collection of McBee Keysort cards, which contained the NEH grant database of over 12,000 grant records from 1965 to 1980.