Made in the late 1960s or early 1970s, this film shows the Book-O-Tron system, a high tech card reading and keypunch computer system developed by the Harwald Company of Evanston, Illinois for a library to keep track of film rentals. A 16mm film library is also seen, and the system by which films are rented and shipped to teachers in classrooms. An IBM computer was used to keep track of overall film usage by title, apparently providing ready statistics to librarians.
The library shown is part of the Broward County, Florida school system.
Harwald Co. was apparently a pioneer in the television equipment business and also built film inspection equipment. The company declared bankruptcy in 1974 and its assets were taken over by Research Technology, Inc. (‘RTI’).
The effectiveness and disposition of this computer system is unknown. If you know anything about it please add to comments!
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
