1984 Library Research and Tech

[carodee]

Sadly, my experience with libraries at that time was just wandering the stacks and taking out interesting books. I vaguely remember using a microfiche once, for example, and all I remember is you have to turn the knob the opposite direction of what you're viewing. Research is a foreign land to me.

The googling I've done tells me that this year was smack dab in the middle of converting to computer use from old style card catalogues, etc. but no information on how a person goes about doing research. I would love to have a helpful librarian character too.

This is for an exchange fic so I'm putting the rest under a cut. Please don't click if you requested a canon set in the 80s in a current exchange. Thank you.

So the canon is The Terminator, set in LA in 1984. Sarah has a business card with a name and company she doesn't recognize, i.e., not Cyberdyne. He is actively looking for her so she needs to identify this guy and how he connects to Cyberdyne. How does the research go? Does she find his name in Computer Software magazines and business trades? How are those indexed? A friend told me he had a magazine subscription to hobby trains and the last issue of the year was an index to all the articles that year and in a library all of that year's issues would be bound into one book. Would this be the case for computer magazines? Or would they be computerized and how do you find a particular company in an article, like a list of up and coming companies to watch? Would a librarian direct them where to look or would they bring them the books? Would it make a difference between a large central library or a branch library?

Any help in how this would work or a website that has this research finding information would be very appreciated.

Edited to Add: Thanks for the suggestions so far but I actually need to have my character do some research beyond phone books for the story to work. What I'm getting is libraries might still? be using card catalogues rather than early computers but how would magazines and trade journals be listed in the card catalogue so that a specific company could be researched? Thank you for any suggestions. They do spark my imagination for adding to the scene.

ETA2: Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have what I need now. This community is a great resource.

Comments

[garonne]

I'm not specifically familiar with LA in the 1980s, but I'd imagine she'd just look up the name Cyberdyne in the telephone directory. A large paper book that had all subscribers in the area in alphabetical order. For larger cities they might have two books: one with private subscribers by alphabetical order of their family name, and one with the business subscribers by alphabetical order of company name. A smaller city might have one book with two sections. She could just find the name Cyberdyne in the alphabetical listing, along with the telephone number and the street address.

She wouldn't need to go to a library or whatever. Telephone directories were widely available pretty much anywhere there was a telephone. They were distributed by the telephone company to every subscriber, and updated yearly. (Again, don't know about 1980s LA specifically. I'm just describing how it generally worked throughout the late 20th century.)

If the business card has the guy's name, she could also look him up by his last name in the list of private subscribers and get his home address, if he has a home address in LA and has a home landline under his own name.

[garonne]

Hmm, re-reading your post, I think I misunderstood your question, sorry! Well, I'll leave my comment anyway in case it's useful.

[carodee]

Your last paragraph was useful for getting his home address so thank you for that!

[pikkugen]

Depending on your library, they might be even using archive cards. (Mine did until the early 90s.) The most likely thing to research is a phone book, though, and you could get them from a phone booth or, indeed, your library. The yellow pages would have the names and phone numbers (and sometimes the names of the most important personnel) of any given company in the city. If you didn't find the company or the person, then you might turn to the magazines (and especially the ads in them, depending on the company and the person's position there). The magazines were listed in the archive cards and they also had their shelf space listed, just like modern computer entries, except they were a stack of paper cards in a special box system that you had to dig out yourself. Most people who did any research knew how to use the card archive, but you might also ask a librarian, which would probably be faster. (Note: Not American, very young at the time, but extremely nerdy kid who could use the archive cards.)

[gelliaclodiana]

I think 1984 is too early for Sarah Connor to be doing research using computerized databases.

She would definitely be able to find information about her target in business newspapers and magazines. You probably want to check which computer-industry publications were in business in 1984; I know at the time a certain amount of computer-related reporting was in papers like Electronics News and its competitors. These would be indexed and available in bound volumes in the LA county* main library. So you can make up an article about her guy and let her find it with the help of your helpful librarian!

She would also be able to use business reports (the annual reports of both Cyberdyne and Corporation X) and might be able to find some way to use those to make the connection between her target and Cyberdyne. Maybe they're both investing in the same 3rd company? and then he's on the board of that? Or you could make her go through a couple more steps to draw the connection. But I am pretty sure that the boards and upper management of publically traded corporations are required to be published every year, and so she might be able to find that in, say, 1982, Company X invested in Company Y, Company Y invested in Company Z, and Company Z was bought by Cyberdyne.


*I'm not familiar with the organization of the library system in LA, but this kind of research would definitely be done in the main library, not a branch library.

[carodee]

Oh, that's very helpful. Thank you. I'll use both the computer-industry publications and annual reports. This is perfect. Although I think I will have my librarian be very helpful LOL!

[carodee]

Unfortunately, I just googled some yellow page images and in the US business street addresses with phone numbers but no names were used. Googling trade journals did get me a lovely list of journal names for me to pick through so thank you for the suggestion!

[anne]

That's not true...there were a lot of businesses with names like AAAAAAA Locksmith because that way they'd be at the top of the list. If you can link the images you found, I can figure out what you were looking at.

[armiphlage]

Back in the 1900s, the Thomas Register was a useful tool. Major libraries and large companies would have a shelf filled with dozens of oversized hardcover books. You could search for a business based on the goods or services it provided, or by its name. The entry would have basic information in text about the company, including contacts; some companies also paid for ad space in it.

At one of my first jobs, I spent an hour driving to the library of a nearby university to use their Thomas Register to look up potential suppliers.

A character could search for "Manufacturer, Robot, Hunter-Killer" and get "Cyberdyne Systems Inc - see Volume 35 page 725". Flipping to that page would give the company name, address, service offerings, and possibly names of key executives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Register

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E22AQGk6_MhVy4AdQ/feedshare-shrink_2048_1536/B4EZahkRnjHMAs-/0/1746467363759?e=1778716800&v=beta&t=OmHxsDSsP-fJQ-U3EKzXLRcqcYhw16ilqHrIOPK4KfY

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chris-bailey-2366651_b2bmarketing-manufacturingmarketing-digitaltransformation-activity-7325215052423176193-8evT/

[carodee]

OMG, this is amazing! Just perfect. Also, LOL at the very specific example.

Thank you so much! This is all I need now.

[dewline]

I remember a three(?)-volume item called Who Owns Whom as also being of some use in such matters...and Dun and Bradstreet was the publisher, I think?

Oooh!

Just found a reference in the Library of Congress...

https://guides.loc.gov/dun-and-bradstreet/who-owns-whom

[carodee]

Wow. This is amazing. I can definitely use this to make the connection. Thanks!

Computers are incredible for research but humans aren't going to let a litle thing like not having invented it keep them collecting and organizing information. This has all been so interesting.