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This depends on the software your library has slected. If you don't like that: Complain. Get the software which shows adjacent records...
Ah, the university environment. BTDT. Once out in the world of real money and real hardware costs, though...
That's buttuming ;you could get access to a keypunch. All too often, in my experience, all the keypunches were in use by the data entry department and guarded by a fierce troll.
Absolutely!
Better than that - before I had access to a card saw I learned how to do it with a strip of card torn lengthwise. Disable the interlocks, make a bunch of random punches with no card in the machine to loosen up the jammed bits, work with the card strip, repeat as necessary. To me, a jammed keypunch in a busy student area was the best thing possible: I had immediate access to it, and once I had cleared it and done my own work it was once again available for others to use.
Yeah that comes from mathematics going back before even Hardy. I am exchanging email with Peter Denning in Monterey about this and my bosses working with people on Capitol Hill wanting...
Often I had to pop open the covers and dig around inside to find and remount the star wheels which had been ripped off by someone who jammed the drum on without raising them.
Our student area had a couple of punches which were reserved for quick fixes; to discourage long jobs they were mounted on pedestals so that you had to use them standing up. I probably saved the computer center a lot of money on card stock by disconnecting the auto-feed switch, which was guaranteeing two wasted cards for each one-card fix.
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