Abstract
The article traces the conceptual history of the card catalogue while emphasizing the transformation of library catalogues from bound and printed books into systems of standardized and mobile paper slips. It focuses primarily on the influence of material conditions of knowledge production on the nature of scientific knowledge and its classification - int his regard, it also analyzes the card catalogue system of Niklas Luhmann as an example of three-dimensional writing, in which his theory of social systems is written.