I was looking at a picture of the inside of the Woodson taken right about the time I got here in 1991. I’ve used this image before but this time I noticed something that had escaped me earlier:
(This photo makes me feel all kind of things, by the way, but mostly gratitude for the remodel that gave us a far nicer space to work in.)
You can see it clearly in this shot. And yes, the card catalogue is also sadly obsolete but I do not recognize that terminal on top of it at all. Any thoughts?
Bonus: Here we go again.
The terminal looks like a Lear-Seigler ADM-3A. A “dumb” video terminal. Not sure what it would have been connected to in 1991. I have one of those terminals stored in the attic of my shop somewhere. You obviously need it for an office decoration
Those were the cheapest functional terminal available. They were everywhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A
Yep. That terminal started shipping sometime in the mid-late 70’s . So by 1991, it was already an archeological relic …
Looks vaguely like a TRS-80 terminal too. We had a handful of those in Sewall Hall and some of them made it to APBH in ‘90/91.
The library had its own computer system at that time, managed by then Asst. Librarian Kay Flowers. So it’s likely the terminal was connected to that system.
I believe Walter is correct that they were LS ADM-3A’s. They were considered for use in ICSA labs but the Visual 200/210 terminals ended up becoming the standard terminal.
Melissa – it is gratifying to know that you like the renovation. Shepley Bulfinch was the design architect/library planner, Bailey Architects was the executive architect, Ana Ramirez was Rice’s PM and Sara Lowman sat in every construction meeting as the client representative.