Throwback Thursday: Vehicle Data from the Dark Ages

Throwback Thursday: Vehicle Data from the Dark Ages

As I was standing brushing my teeth this morning (that’s where some of my best thinking takes place), I was reflecting about a few key “Throwback Thursday” posts I’d seen recently from a couple of my friends. I laughed as I thought of the big 80’s hair, muscle shirts and corded phones. We’ve come a long way!

It took me down the “throwback” path at work. I’m the Technical Librarian at Mitchell 1, in charge of data acquisition as well as maintaining the large library we have onsite. It’s a literal brick and mortar room with rows and rows of books packed with service information, labor times, parts catalogs and a plethora of other very important stuff.

So, I got to thinking about how far we’ve come in terms of how I acquire, receive and handle data. Data storage started with stone tablets and moved to print, microfiche and floppy disks, and then to tapes, CDs, DVDs, email, Zip files and on to FTP. We’ve come a long way!

Upon arriving at work, just for fun I opened the bottom drawer of the “old” cabinet and breathed in the smell of history. Looking at the books dating back to 1915, I was reminded that these old artifacts at one time were the latest and greatest. But the latest and greatest doesn’t stay that way for long, does it? That’s why we at Mitchell 1 are always working on growth and improvement; taking the best of what there is and putting it into our products to make life a little bit easier for our users.

If you’re not familiar with the Throwback Thursday phenomenon, you need only log on to one of the many social media sites on a Thursday. You’ll see folks posting pictures of them from a “while ago.” Since we have so much legacy vehicle info here in the Mitchell 1 library, we thought it would be cool to take a walk down memory lane and share some of these automotive relics from a “while ago.” This is the first of more Throwback Thursday posts to come!