Academic
A study reported in 1972 comparing the ability of 20 University of Chicago graduate students to search 10 entries in a large book catalog (National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints) vs. 10 entries in a large card catalog (UC main card catalog) showed thatthe average search time per item was less in the card catalog (“consistently less than 19 seconds”) than in the book catalog (“consistently greater than 25 seconds”). However, the book catalog (3.1 million entries) was substantially larger than the card catalog (1.4 million entries). (Source)
A study reported in 1972 comparing the ability of 20 University of Chicago graduate students to search 6 entries in each of an essentially identical book and card catalog (Center for Research Libraries catalogs) showed thatfor 16 students the total search time using the book catalog was longer than when using the card catalog, for 2 students the time was identical, and for 2 students searching the book catalog took less total time than when searching the card catalog. (The differences in search time were statistically significant at the .05 level.) (Source)