Nostalgic Echoes in the Grand Hall

The Grand Hall in the St. Louis Public Library on Olive Street downtown is an impressive room by any standard. Footsteps on the marble floors echo against the ornately-designed, ceiling. Natural light is provided by a bank of arched windows on each side of the room. But there's one thing missing that used to fill this space -- the library's card catalouge. The wooden filing cabinets filled with dogearred reference cards have been gone for years now, replaced by a computerized system. The convenience and speed of the new system doesn't, however, make up for theloss of the card catalouge. The Grand Hall is like an unfurnished room without it.