Your description of the ER shelving contraption sounds like how they used
to provide phone books at public telephones. It usually hung down below
a shelf and you swung it up to lay it on the shelf and open it. Your local
phone company might have some leads.

___________________________________
Rebecca Davis, Outreach Librarian
Health Sciences Libraries
UC Davis Medical Center Library
2252 45th St., Sacramento, CA 95817
[log in to unmask]
916-734-4634 or 530-754-5874