Editing Sterling Memorial Library (section)

===Catalog===
[[File:Sterling_Memorial_Library_card_catalog.jpeg|thumb|Card catalogs stood in echelons in the nave in this 2010 image. A [[Online public access catalog|computer catalog]] now serves that information, and, since 2014, tables and chairs for student use fill that space.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Reformation comes to Sterling Library|url=https://yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1876-the-reformation-comes-to-sterling-library|author=Branch, Mark Alden|date=September 2, 2014|work=Yale Alumni Magazine|access-date=June 30, 2016}}</ref>]]
The large majority of materials in Sterling are housed in the bookstacks, which are contained in the building's tower. The bookstacks use two classification systems: the Yale Library system and the Library of Congress system. Adopted in the 1890s, the non-standard Yale system became cumbersome and inefficient for cataloging. Though replaced in 1970 by the Library of Congress system, many of the 5.7 million volumes held by the library at that time remain filed in the Yale system.<ref name="Gordon">{{cite news |last=Gordon |first=Gideon |title=Library Changing Catalog System |date=5 November 1970 |newspaper=Yale Daily News |url=http://digital.library.yale.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/yale-ydn/id/194619/rec/73 |access-date=23 April 2014}}</ref> The card catalogs in the nave once contained as many as 9.5 million cards, sorted in 8,700 trays.<ref name="Taylor" />