Why are things the way they are….?

Check out Seth Godin’s posting on the reason why things are… Here’s a few . . .
“The Reason
By Seth Godin
The reason they teach biology before they teach chemistry in high school is that biology was invented first. Even though you need chemistry to do biology, but not vice versa.
The reason that Blockbuster exists is that VCR tapes used to cost more than $100.
The reason that SUVs have a truck chassis is that the government regulates vehicles with a truck chassis differently.
The reason you have a front lawn is to demonstrate to your friends and neighbors how much time and energy you’re prepared to waste.
The reason the typewriter keyboard is in a weird order is that original typewriters jammed, and they needed to rearrange the letters to keep common letters far apart.
The reason we don’t have school in the summer is so our kids can help with farmwork.
The reason there’s a toll on that bridge but not on that road is that there used to be a ferry on that river, and the ferryman needed to make a living.
What’s your reason?”

What are the reasons for some of our library stuff?
Is the reason why MARC records are so long and complicated that information used to be a scarce commodity and we had to describe it to death?
Is the reason we have MARC fields instead of tags because computers used to have to read from left ot right?
Do we have library cards because they came before other recognition and authentication systems like iris scanning or fingerprint recognition?
Do we still dial our pushbutton phones, what about voice reponse dialing? Where’s the dial?
What other mindsets are there in our little world and are they holding our thinking back?
We count objects (books, VHS tapes, DVD’s, etc. ) that circulate but possibly of our transcations are now virtual and only unique clicks, etc.
Just a question….
Stephen