sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (04/28/85)
The best system for filing, sorting and retrieving information that
doesn't use a computer is a system using Unisort cards. I use them for
filing negatives and slides, but it should work equally well for
recipes.
Unisort cards are cards (in various sizes) that have numbered 1/8 inch
holes punched around the edge. A corner is cut away so that you can be
sure that the cards are all facing the same way. There is a special
paper punch that cuts a V notch, although any punch will work. The last
thing you need is a knitting needle that will pass through the holes in
the cards.
If you place the knitting needle through a stack of the cards and shake
gently, the cards with a notch cut from the edge to the hole will fall
out of the stack.
The only hard part is figuring out a coding scheme. You could use holes
1 through 9 as the primary ingredient, 10-15 as the style or ethnicity,
etc. The instruction booklet suggests assigning a hole for each item you
want to sort on, but we computer types could use a binary coding (use 4
holes to distinguish 16 items rather than 16 holes).
You could put a recipe on the card for new recipes, or you can use a
card as a pointer to where the recipes are. A single card can have
multipe recipes, or multiple pointers.
Unisort cards are made by Beekley Hospital Systems, Farmington
Industrial park, Farmington, CT 06032. Their phone number is
800-233-5539. Their minimum order is 500 cards so it might be a good
idea to get together with a few others and put an order in together.
Other companies make similar cards. On a trip to the local office supply
store I found two manufacturers other than Beeker.
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Marty Sasaki net: sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
Havard University Science Center phone: 617-495-1270
One Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138