Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
WordNet
n. a library catalog in which each publication is described on a separate file card [syn: card catalogue]
Wikipedia
The card catalog, or "catalog of characteristics," in cryptography, was a system designed by Polish Cipher Bureau mathematician-cryptologist Marian Rejewski, and first completed about 1935 or 1936, to facilitate decrypting German Enigma ciphers.
Usage examples of "card catalog".
But the memories themselves are not destroyed, as evidenced by memories that can return, when the amnesia abates, and the card catalog is operational again.
Now she tried to look inside her brain, to dip through her memory as if it were a card catalog at the library.
A xeroxed copy of one of Ruth's drawings had been passed around in the library until it had reached a boy at the card catalog who was overtaken by the librarian.
The library was a peculiar combination of the old card catalog system, and up-to-date computer files.