Columbia University Computing History   
Translations  (see below for credits):

The IBM 2501 Card Reader

IBM card reader The IBM 2501 Card Reader. At Columbia University, the installation of these units for public use in late 1971 was a significant step along the path of bringing users and "the computer" closer together. Now, instead of handing in your deck of cards at the Operator window and coming back the next day to get the results, you could submit your job yourself, and get the results from the printer as soon as your job had reached the head of the queue, run, and completed.

Box of punched cards
Box of punched cards
There was usually a line for the card readers. Jobs might be anywhere from 30-40 cards to several boxes of 2000 cards each. Jams were frequent, and cards were often "eaten" by the reader, in which case you went back to the keypunch to make replacement cards, losing your place in line.  Photos:  IBM, Wikimedia Commons.

Translations of this page courtesy of...

Language Link Date Translator Organization
Danish Dansk 2022/08/16 David Hansbakk Kredittkortisten
Norwegian Norsk 2021/10/31 Stian Skjelbred Strøm24.no
Swedish Swedish 2021/10/31 Frederick Stenlund Spotistar.com
Columbia University Computing History Frank da Cruz / [email protected] This page created: February 2001 Last update: 17 August 2022