QUICK T.S.

The Next Phase of Quick T.S.

2010-06-30T11:29:00.005-04:00

Quick T.S. was started as one of a series of blogs of the Central Mass. Regional Library System. I've kept the focus on things that I thought would be of interest to technical services staff in central Massachusetts.

But today is the last day of CMRLS. Due to budget cuts, we have merged with the other Mass. Regional Library Systems into one single Massachusetts Library System (MLS). The building at 8 Flagg Rd. in Shrewsbury is emply, although there will be a few people here for a few days to finish up some details.

At the moment, there is no staff member at MLS whose primary focus is Technical Services, so I've decided to continue this blog and broaden its perspective a bit. I'm doing this as much for myself as for all of the other Tech Services people in Massachusetts. My career as a cataloger is not yet over even though I don't have a specific place of employment. Maintaining this blog will be a good way for me to keep up with TS issues and, more importantly, to think about them and expound upon them. Maybe I'll even post more often.

Not only am I available for full-time cataloging or metadata positions (with I hope with a shorter commute from my home in western Mass than I've had the last several years), but I can work on projects. If you know of a library that needs retrospective conversion or wants to become part of Digital Treasures, please keep me in mind.

As much as I love being a cataloger, I have a whole other life and beginning tomorrow I'll have more time to spend on it - at least for a while. I'm also planning to create a new, non-cataloging blog to help me navigate this new phase. I think I will call it Cataloger in Transition.

2010-06-30T10:30:00.010-04:00

After having a link sitting in my e-mail inbox since February, I finally watched the webinar Cataloging: Where are we now? Where are we going? with Karen Coyle and Renee Register. It was 90 minutes well spent.

If you follow Karen's blog or have heard her speak, there was nothing new or different in this webinar, but it was a nice summary of her position on library data. Karen is an advocate of sharing library data with other entities. She can also explain the semantic web and linked data in a way that I can almost understand. I've seen Renee's name, but have not heard her speak before. While her perspective may be a little different from Karen's, they are pretty much on the same side of the issue.

There is one (only one?) thing I'm still not totally clear about. I keep hearing (and not just from Karen) that other organizations are practically drooling over all of the data in libraries and if that data were more accessible it would be used - a lot. I'm all for sharing - after all I'm a librarian. However, I'm curious as to how library data would/could be used. I guess I don't have much of an imagination when it comes to things like this.

Karen has described research that maps when an author's work was published and compares that with when works about that author were published. Kind of neat, but not something I can see myself using on a day-to-day basis.

At the NETSL conference in April, one of the keynote speakers was Jon Orwant, Engineering Manager for Google Books, Google Magazines, and Google Patents. He talked about research in the area of language. The words in books can be mined to see word patterns, when a particular word first appeard, how often it appeared and frequency of appearance. This was another of the specific examples of how library data can be used. Linguists use this sort of information and, I expect, those who compile dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Still, I'd like to know of more examples of how library data could be used since I personally can't think of any. Regardless, I have no problem sharing and I'm happy to adapt library practices to facilitate sharing. After all, won't such sharing help raise the status of libraries in the eyes of the non-library world?

A byproduct of the webinar was that I learned about the Library Learning Network of the College of DuPage. During the academic year they offer a series of webinars on library issues. Unfortunately, there are no more scheduled until sometime in the fall, but the 5 they've offered since November are all available to view. I look forward to seeing what they offer next.

Digital Treasures in the Real World

2010-06-15T16:45:00.005-04:00

Fame is coming to Digital Treasures. And I'll be an author so I guess fame is coming to me, too.

Several months ago, Dr. Kwong Bor Ng, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at New York City's Queens College and Jason Kucsma, Emerging Technologies Manager, METRO posted to a discusion list. They were seeking chapters about actual digitization projects - real life experiences of real life libraries and librarians.

Well, Digital Treasures is a real digitization project and the things we've learned would definitely be of interest to others considering taking a similar step. And the fact that it is a collaborative project including many institutions gives Digital Treasures an unusual slant. So Kristi Chadwick of C/W MARS, Jan Resnick of WMRLS and I co-wrote a description of the project tentatively titled "Digital Treasures: The Evolution of a Digital Repository in Massachusetts". It is now in the editing stages and will soon become part of a book tentatively titled Digitization in the Real World.

I believe the book is due to be published later this year - December maybe. Watch for it!

Call for NETSL officers

2010-06-03T12:21:00.005-04:00

It's that time of year when YOU have the opportunity to expand your professional horizon and volunteer to serve on the Executive Board of NETSL.

I cannot stress the benefits enough. If you are elected to the NETSL Board, you can add that fact to your resume, you get to meet many interesting people who are active in the Technical Services world, you have a chance to develop organizational and leadership skills, and you can attend the annual spring conference for free.

I spent three happy years on the NETSL Board, one year each as Vice-President/President-Elect, President, and Past President. In my beginning librarian days, I was in awe of the people on the NETSL Board. But I can now say with absolute conviction that they are all warm and welcoming people. They enjoy working both with experienced librarians and newbies.

Where ever you are in your Technical Services career, please consider becoming more active via NETSL.

Here's the notice that was just posted to the various Tech Services discussion lists:

The New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Executive Board is committed to promoting and supporting technical services activities in New England. Board members plan and present the annual NETSL Spring Conference. The Board also develops programs for the New England Library Association (NELA) Annual Conference, presents the annual NETSL Award for Excellence in Technical Services, and promotes technical services throughout New England and beyond through partnerships with other similar organizations.

Each year NETSL holds elections to fill open positions on the Board. If you are enthusiastic about innovations in technical services, are interested in contributing to regional technical services programming, and would like to have direct input into the direction of NETSL as an organization, consider running for a position on the NETSL Executive Board. Candidates must be NETSL members (via membership in NELA) to serve on the board.The following positions on NETSL's 2010-2011 Executive Board are open:
* Corresponding Secretary (one-year term)
* Recording Secretary (one-year term)
* Treasurer (one-year term)
* Vice President/President-Elect (three-year term)

After serving as VP for one year, the VP succeeds to the office of President, then remains a third year on the Board as Past President. The VP must be, or become, a member of the ALCTS division of the American Library Association in addition to being a NETSL member. VP candidates write a personal statement (approximately 150 words) outlining their background and interests, which will be included on the ballot.

Terms of office officially begin at the end of NETSL's annual business meeting, held during the NELA Annual Conference (this year, October 17-19, 2010). The NETSL Board will hold a transition meeting with both current members and incoming members on September 17, 2010 at the LYRASIS offices in Southborough, MA.

For additional details about NETSL and the duties of the offices of the Board, visit the NETSL web site: http://www.nelib.org/netsl/bylaws.htm If you are interested in running for a Board office, please contact Amy Hart at netslpresident@nelib.org, or 508-655-8008 x222 by July 9th. Election ballots will go out to the membership in late July.

Amy Hart
President, NETSL
netslpresident@nelib.org
508-655-8008 x222

Library Science terminology

2010-05-20T11:35:00.006-04:00

Every profession has its lingo and Libraries are no differnt. Even those who have been in the field a while don't always know the meaning of a particular term, even if they know the term itself.

Thanks to AUTOCAT, I've added 3 sites to the CMRLS Cataloger's Pages under Miscellaneous Helpful Sites. They all contain definitions of Library Science terms and are very handy to have bookmarked.

I've been concerned about the fate of my pages since last fall when I learned that CMRLS was to be merged with the other 5 Regional Library Systems into one statewide Massachusetts Library System. I still don't know the ultimate destination of my pages, but for the immediate future they will be available in two different places. CMRLS will have a static website at www.cmrls.net so that CMRLS information will still be accessible until things settle down and people see what needs to be forwarded to the Mass. Library System's website.

The second place is at my delicious account. I've tagged every site Catalogers_Pages. I've also tagged each site with it's specific page name such as Cataloger's_Sites, Discussion_Lists, Professional_Organizations, Tutorials&Games, Blogs and Lighter_Side.

I have a workshop called "Must-See Sites for Tech. Services" and I've used my pages from CMRLS website to show people all of the nifty sources I've found over the years. I need to have the pages available to conduct the workshop regardless of what happens with my association with the Mass. Library System. (I should find out in the next day or two if I am one of the regional consultants "moving forward" with the "new entity".)

This is a good opportunity for me to develop my delicious skills. I'm hoping delicious allows hierarchies so that I can reconstruct my pages more like they are on the CMRLS site.

Do I sound like a cataloger?

Technical Service is Customer Service

2010-05-04T09:56:00.006-04:00

Last week was the Mass. Library Association's annual conference in Hyannis. All of the Tech. Services programs were held on Thursday; that is the day I was there.

The MLA/TSS Executive Board organized 4 programs. All were very different and all were full of really good information. I hope to blog about the other programs (especially about the eXtensible Catalog), but my favorite program was Improving Communication Between Technical and Public Services.

Sara Simpson is the Technical Services Manager for the Tulsa City-County Library. Tulsa is one of those large systems where the library in a town is a branch of the county library. The Tech Services functions (Acquisitions, Cataloging, Processing) are centralized in the main facility. The traditional Public Services occur in every branch. The communication project began about 8 years ago and the situation has finally gotten to the point where TS people no longer consider every PS request an interruption and PS people no longer view TS staff as people who say "no" to every request.

Lots of things happened during those 8 years including TSers working with PSers and vice versa to see what it was like to be one of "them" and PS staff being able to make some of the changes they once forwarded on to TS (and didn't get returned for a long time). Something that really struck me was the revised attitude that the staff in Public Services are the customers of Technical Services. When someone in Public Services has a request, it is not an interruption for Tech Services staff, but part of the job. That alone makes a difference.

If you have a less than wonderful relationship with the Public Services staff in your library, perhaps you should evaluate your view of PS. Do you consider the people in Public Services your customers?

Upcoming T.S. programs

2010-03-18T12:26:00.003-04:00

Thursdays will be busy for the next couple of months. The conferences I usually attend all fall on a Thursday this year.

On March 25, Digital Commonwealth will be holding its annual conference at Holy Cross College. I'll be giving a presentation on Metadata and focusing on Dublin Core. (I'll be giving a similar workshop at the Metrowest Regional Library System on Monday, March 29 from 1-3 p.m.)

April 15 is the day of the NETSL annual conference, also at Holy Cross. This year I'll be relaxing and letting others do all the work - no speaking; no organizing. For the 3 previous years of this conference, I was on the NETSL Executive Board and helped plan the annual conference.

MLA's annual conference will be held April 28-30 at the Hyannis Resort and Conference Center. The Technical Services section of MLA has scheduled all of their programs on Thursday, April 29. Titles of the programs are The Extensible Catalog; The Future of Publishing Digital vs Print; Improving Communication Between Technical and Public Services; and Library Stacks Management: System A Practical Approach for Libraries Large and Small. Only the titles are available right now. Descriptions will follow.

If you go to one or more of these conferences, be sure to say "hello".

Perpetual Beta & Bibliographic Records

2010-03-08T14:09:00.004-05:00

When I was trained as a cataloger, the goal was to create (as much as possible) the perfect bibliographic record. I completed a thorough description and included all possible access points. The idea was that other catalogers could find my bib record and know immediately that it matched (or didn't) the item that they held in their hands. I dreaded the thought that a colleague might say something like: "It would have been better if she had included ...". I expect this is how most catalogers think of bib records: if they need revision, the first cataloger did not do his/her job very well.

Even with CIP and brief records and on-the-fly records created locally so that an item can circulate - all of which need upgrading - catalogers still think in terms of bib records being complete, if not when they are entered, then the next time they are handled. Posters to AUTOCAT complain bitterly about "Level 3" records in OCLC, which are created by publishers, saying it takes longer to revise them than to start from scratch.

However, a few weeks ago, someone said something on one of the electronic discussion lists (I subscribe to several and most of the same people post to all of them) that perhaps we're thinking about bib records in the wrong way. We need to take a cooperative approach - after all this is the age of Web 2.0 where everyone contributes. Some catalogers are more experienced than others; different people have different skills (e.g. in languages).

So rather than thinking in terms of one person completing the perfect bib record, perhaps we begin with CIP or publishers data or something else and build on that. The first person with the book in hand adds details like paging. Someone who has studied a specific field can add more precise subject headings. The responsibility doesn't have to fall to just one person. This doesn't excuse anyone for doing a sloppy job, but sometimes the information one has to work with is limited. I've created bib records from "surrogates" (i.e. photocopies of titles pages) and for books in totally foreign (to me) languages like Hungarian. I expect I missed more than a few things in those cases, but I did the best I could with what I had.

We could think of bib records like a wiki. They evolve; people keep adding to them. Even though a published book is a static object and doesn't change, the information we have about the book, the author, publisher, etc. would and given the Semantic Web, that information could be incorporated into or linked to the bib record.

As a digital immigrant and a linear thinker, I'm still in awe of all of the possibilities of the Semantic Web, but I'm catching on. I'm realizing bib records can be so much more than what once "perfectly" fit on a 3x 5 card.

New Titles from ALA

2010-03-04T15:27:00.005-05:00

I just received the Spring/Summere 2010 edition of the ALA Publishing catalog. There are two new books of interest for catalogers. Sadly, CMRLS won't be purchasing them, but perhaps the Massachusetts Library System (into which CMRLS will be subsumed) will.

Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics by Chris Oliver.

And Cataloging Correctly for Kids: An Introduction to the Tools (5th edition) edited by Sheila Intner, Joanna Fountain and Jean Weihs.

NETSL Conference April 15

2010-03-01T13:02:00.002-05:00

NETSL is holding its annual spring conference on Thursday, April 15. The conference is usually on a Friday, but sometimes Fridays don't work out. Having it on a Thursday doesn't seem to hurt attendance any.

Registration is now open. I've sent my money in (or more correctly, CMRLS has sent money for me).

Click here for registration information whether mail-in or online.

Hope to see you there.

The RDA Toolkit

2010-02-19T14:56:00.007-05:00

Last week, I attended a Webinar on RDA given by Troy Linker, Publisher of the American Library Association's digital reference materials.

I'm not going to get into a discussion of whether or not we need RDA, if it goes too far or not far enough, or even if it's too expensive. I am going to talk about how the product works. Simply put, it's very 2.0.

I understand why there are no plans to publish the "document" in print format: it's not meant to be used that way. I also understand why it has no index: because it's keyword searchable.

Everything is hyperlinked, expandable/collapsible, and you can add your own notes. The entire text of AACR2 is included in the Toolkit. If you know the number of a specific rule in AACR2 (I don't know many of them, but a lot of catalogers do), you can go to the AACR2 section, locate the rule number and click on the blue RDA button next to it to be brought to the corresonding sections in RDA.

The specifics of the Toolkit are difficult to describe. It's not actually linear; it's really a website with hyperlinks that lead to the various places a person might want to go - like the corresponding MARC tag. If you want to look only at the rules, you can hide the examples and retrieve them later. If you want to clarify how your library uses a specific rule, you can add a bookmark. You can also integrate the rules with your library's workflow, eliminating the need for a procedures manual (which many libraries don't have, but should).

There's been a lot of discussion on the AUTOCAT list about the price of the Toolkit. When it is released sometime in June 2010, there will be a free trial through August 31. Anyone who wants to use it can, but will have to register. The reason for registration is so that if you add notes and/or take advantage of the ability to add your workflow, you will not lose them when you subscribe to RDA.

The webinars (held February 8 and 9) are both available for viewing. Regardless of how you feel about RDA, I recommend viewing at least the tour (there's also discussion about the history of RDA, pricing, etc). As someone who immediately abandoned the print versions of OCLC's Bibliographic Formats and Standards and Library of Congress Subject Headings as soon as she learned about the online versions, I think I could have fun with the RDA Toolkit.

Oh, Those Notes

2010-02-12T12:31:00.006-05:00

Yes, there is a correct order for notes, according to AACR2. Or in MARC-speak 5XX fields. Although if you look at a dozen or so bibliographic records, you probably wouldn't know what the order is.

AACR2 prescribes a specific order; it's given in the Note Area (X.7) of each section. If you think of the bibliographic record, the notes follow the same pattern. You begin with the title, then subtitle, statement of responsibility, edition, place of publication, publisher, date, extent of item, etc. Any notes having to do with the entire item come first (Scope, Language, System Requirements), then notes about the title (e.g. Source of title), subtitle, statement of responsibility, edition, place of publication, publisher, date, extent of item, etc.

However, when MARC tags were assigned to these various notes, they were not assigned in numerical order. Therefore, the Systems Requirement note is 538 and the Language note is 546 even though they are the first notes. For a videorecording, the note about Cast (Actors; 511) comes before the note about Credits (Cinematographer; 508).

In creating original bib records on OCLC, some catalogers list notes according to AACR2 rules in which case the MARC tags are in no discernable order. Other catalogers don't know about AACR2 order and create notes in numerical MARC order. When downloading a bib record from OCLC, some ILSs shuffle the MARC tags into numerical order even if that's not the way the record was created. No wonder catalogers are confused!

Recently on AUTOCAT, I learned of 2 sites (Penn State and Brigham Young University) that provide guidance for the correct order of notes. I've added them to the cataloger's pages under Sites for Catalogers on the CMRLS website. If you're one of the many people confused about note order, these sites are a great help.

Learning More About RDA

2010-02-04T15:02:00.002-05:00

I've seen several notices about an RDA Toolkit Guided Tour so I've registered for the one to be held Tuesday, February 9 at 11:00 EST.

Just in case you haven't seen the information ...

ALA publishing is giving the same presentation we did at ALA midwinter as a Webinar for anyone interested to see a demo of the RDA Toolkit beta site. We will give the same presentation twice at different times of day in hopes of covering as may people as possible.
These are the first of what we hope to be many RDA related webinars.

RDA Toolkit: A Guided Tour!
Join Troy Linker from ALA Publishing for an introductory guided tour of the RDA Toolkit website. If you were at ALA Midwinter in Boston, you may already have taken this tour at the RDA Update Forum, the CC:DA meeting, or on the exhibit floor–but please feel free to join us again.
The webinar will be recorded and posted for anyone that is unable to participate live. Details for accessing the recorded webinar video will be emailed to registries and posted widely.
The tour includes:
• Description of the RDA Toolkit
• Overview of the RDA Toolkit contents at launch and beyond
• Tour of the RDA Toolkit interface including Search, Browse, Bookmarks, Workflows, Maps, and more
• Launch timeline
• Details of the Complimentary Open Access period
• RDA Toolkit pricing for the US
• Linking from external products to the RDA Toolkit
Join us on February 8, – 21:00-22:00 GMT 4:00pm-5pm EST 3:00pm-4pm CST 1:00pm-2pm PST
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/639494355
OR
Join us on February 9, – 16:00-17:00 GMT 11:00am-12pm EST 10:00am-11am CST 8:00am-9am PST
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/991492442

Kind regards,
Troy Linker
Publisher, ALA Digital Reference
American Library Association

DDC 23

2010-01-28T11:14:00.002-05:00

From Libbie Crawford, Product Manager of Dewey Decimal Classification via AUTOCAT:

Just to let you know, we are planning a print version of DDC 23 to be released in 2011 with the Abridged 15 edition to be released shortly after DDC 23 is released.

RDA and cell(ular) (tele)phones

2010-01-21T14:10:00.004-05:00

During the ALA Midwinter conference, pricing for the new cataloging standard, RDA, was announced. RDA will be online only, although any library that purchaces a license can print copies of its pages.

The price is $325 per year for one user (or many users, just one at a time). The license for additional concurrent users is $55/user. Nothing has been said about a price for library schools although the question has been asked on AUTOCAT along with LOTS of discussion on the cost and how difficult it will be for smaller libraries to afford.

Also posted on AUTOCAT recently was the list of Library of Congress Subject Headings changes. The last week in December, LC made 40 changes including changing all instances of Cellular telephone to Cell phone (Cellular telephone calls now Cell phone calls; Cellular telephones and traffic accidents now Cell phones and traffic accidents).

This switch to the common usage took a lot less time than it did with Airplanes - which were officially (according to LC) Aeroplanes until sometime in the 1980s.

New Technical Services Books

2010-01-05T11:36:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I received a catalog from Neal-Schuman publishers and saw they have several new books in the subject area "Cataloging & Classification". I generally find N-S publications very helpful. Too bad we won't be purchasing any of these titles for the CMRLS professional collection because I'm really interested in reading a couple of them myself. Perhaps the new Regional Library will buy some or all of these books when it becomes an official organization after June 30.

In the meantime, you might want one or more for your own collection.

Cataloging Nonbook, Electronic, Web, and Networked Resources: A How-To-Do-It Manual and CD-ROM for Librarians / by Mary Beth Weber and Fay Austin.

Cataloging Outside the Box: A Practical Guide to Cataloging Special Collections Materials / by Patricia Falk a;nd Stefanie Dennis Hunker.

Implementing FRBR in Libraries: Key Issues and Future Directions / by Yin Zhang and Athena Salaba.

Practical Cataloging: AACR, RDA, and MARC21 / by Anne Welsh and Sue Batley.

Essential Library of Congress Subject Headings / by Vanda Broughton.

Several related titles:
Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual / by Ross Harvey.

Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections / by Kate Theimer

Archives: Principles and Practices / by Laura A. Millar.

Community Archives: The Shaping of Memory / edited by Jeannette A. Bastian and Ben Alexander.

Starting, Strengthening and Managing Institutional Repositories: A How-To-Do-It Manual / by Jonathan Nabe.

Management Skills for Archivists and Records Managers / by Elizabeth Shepherd and Karen Anderson.

Managing Electronic Records /by William Saffady - 4th ed.

Future of Archives and Recordkeeping: A Reader / edited by Jennie Hill

NETSL Award for Excellence in Library Technical Services

2010-01-04T12:35:00.005-05:00

It's been very widely publicized, but just in case ...

New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Executive Board is seeking nominations for its annual NETSL Award for Excellence in Library Technical Services.

The NETSL Award recognizes and honors significant New England-based contributions to the field of library technical services. Contributions may have been made in New England by librarians from throughout the United States, or nationally by librarians residing in New England, through publications, service, or innovations in practice. The NETSL Executive Board members select a recipient at their February meeting based on nominations received. The Board reserves the right to suspend the Award for a year if no suitable candidate is nominated.

The next NETSL Award will be presented at the NETSL Annual Spring Conference 2010: Crosswalks to the Future, April 15, 2010, at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

Eligibility for nomination is as follows:
Nominees may be NETSL/NELA members, but membership in the Association is not a requirement.
A nomination must be accompanied by a written statement that includes the rationale for nomination and, if a resume of the nominee is not appended, a narrative summary of the nominee's career and achievements. Provision of a resume is strongly recommended.
Nominations may be made by NETSL members, or by non-members.
Nominations and statement(s) must be received by the NETSL Vice-President no later than Friday, February 5, 2010.
Current members of the NETSL Executive Board are not eligible for consideration.
Nominees shall have made contributions to library technical services in one or more of the following areas:
Leadership in professional associations at local, state, regional or national level
Contributions or innovations in technical services
Significant contributions to professional literature
Conduct of studies or research in technical services

Past Recipients include:
Lynda Kresge, Birdie MacLennan, Dr. Sheila Intner, Robert L. Cunningham, Matthew Beacom, Catherine Willis, Lisa Palmer, David Miller, and Martha Rice Sanders.

Please send nominations and inquiries to:
Amira Aaron
NETSL Vice-President/President-Elect
libconsultaa@gmail.com
781-248-1806 (cell)

NETSL is a section of the New England Library Association and is affiliated with the ALCTS Council of Regional Groups. For more information on NETSL, visit our website at:
http://www.netsl.org/

Help for Serials Catalogers

2009-12-31T15:32:00.002-05:00

I spent one summer working on a retrospective conversion project at Mount Holyoke College. Besides working in a beautiful library surrounded by lush lawns and shade trees, I had the good fortune to experience serials cataloging.

It was rather scary at first, but I had great support from two experienced serials catalogers and I learned a lot. Soon I began looking at the process like a jigsaw puzzle - putting all of the pieces together to create a larger picture that others could recognize.

Slowly, I've been building a list of helpful sites for serials catalogers. Today, I added three more sites. They are

MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data from the Network Development and MARC Standards office of the Library of Congress;

Primer: MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data, a 24-page pamphlet in .pdf from OCLC; and

Guidelines for Recording Serial Holdings handy help from Yale University.

If you're not already familiar with these resources, I hope you find them helpful. If I were still cataloging serials, I suspect I would refer to them on a regular basis.

Do you have a favorite site that I've not yet discovered? Please let me know.

Continuing Education Opportunities

2009-12-23T16:30:00.006-05:00

I've just completed the CMRLS Continuing Education Catalog for winter/spring 2010. It will be arriving in Central Region member libraries next week.

Technical Services programs scheduled are

Technical Services Roundtable, Wednesday, March 3 from 10-noon at the Jacob Edwards Library in Southbridge;
Serials Roundtable, Thursday, March 11 from 10-noon at the Webster Veterinary Library, cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Grafton;
Number, Please! Dewey Decimal Classification, Thursday, April 1 from 9:30-12:30 at the Rutland Public Library;
BISAC or Dewey: How Do You Classify Your Collection?, Tuesday, May 11 from 10-11 AM via GoToWebinar.

Other programs that are not spcifically Tech Services but which I organized are
Degunking your computer, Thursday, April 8 from 1-3 PM in the CMRLS Computer Lab;
Local History & Genealogy Roundtable, Friday March 19 from 10-noon at the Forbush Memorial Library in Westminster;
In Search of Old New England: Local History & Genealogy Field Trip to Old Deerfield, Wednesday, April 21 from 10-3;
Stress Reduction & Relaxation Techniques, Tuesday, Febrary 23 from 2-4:30 PM in the CMRLS Meeting Room.

Go to the CMRLS EventKeeper Calendar to register.

Hope to see you at a few of these programs

NETSL conference 2010

2009-12-16T09:15:00.003-05:00

NETSL has just announced the date and title of its spring conference: April 15, 2010; Crosswalks to the Future. The location, as always, is Holy Cross College in Worcester.

Keynote speakers will be Dr. Barbara B. Tillett, Chief, Policy and Standards Division, Library of Congress and Jon Orwant, Engineering Manager for Google Books, Google Magazines, and Google Patents.

I'm no longer on the NETSL board, so I can't tell you any more about the content, but this is always a great conference, so mark you calendars. I have. After attending several of the NETSL Spring Conferences I wanted to join the NETSL board and finally had a chance 3 years ago. I'm so glad I did.

Bits and Pieces

2009-12-07T14:28:00.005-05:00

The release date for RDA has been postponed causing some comments on the various e-mail discussion lists such as RDA = Release Delayed Again.

The most recent official notice says that RDA will be published in June 2010 and that pricing and purchasing information will be announced at the time of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, January15-18, 2010. Stay tuned.

There have been some updates to the catalogers pages on the CMRLS websites. They are revised whenever I learn of a new blog or site or organization. Links are removed if a blogger has not posted in a long time or a site appears to have been removed.

ACQWEB, a "gathering place for librarians and other professionals interested in acquisitions and collection development" has been added to the page Sites for Catalogers. ACQWEB has been around for many years, but has recently been redesigned and updated.

A new blog, Cataloging Thoughts, has been added to the Blogs page. Author Stephen Denney talks about his job at the University of California, Berkeley library. He explains his day-to-day responsibilities as a copy cataloger as if his audience is non-librarians - or at least non-tech services librarians. It's a very different perspective from most cataloging blogs and I like it.

How to Catalog a Hiccup has the totally opposite perspective and is aimed at experienced catalogers. Suzie DeGrasse Pocataligo chronicles her "independent study on cataloging ephemera (art, sound, people, smells, hiccups, etc.)" and only an experienced cataloger would have any idea what she's talking about. While unusual media are outnumbered by the plain old book, they take an inordinate amoun of a cataloger's time because they are unusual and we don't have lots of practice with them. In one of her earlier posts, Suzie actually supplies a MARC record for a hiccup. A more recent post is a CDWA record for a hiccup.

Next step: update my blogroll.

Another Blog About Cataloging

2009-11-18T10:46:00.003-05:00

When I first began to read blogs, there were lots of really good ones about libraries, but not too many about cataloging specifically.

Now there are several and more are being created. A new one is Cataloging Thoughts based on the personal experience of Steve Denney, a library assistant at the University of California, Berkeley.

I haven't had a chance to read any of his posts, but I've added the title to my blog reader and also to the list of blogs on the Catalogers pages of the CMRLS website.

I learned about this blog through the electronic discussion list RADCAT. Blogs and discussion lists are a major way for me to keep up with what's happening in the ever changing field of cataloging.

Hiring shelvers

2009-11-16T16:19:00.003-05:00

ALA has just published a book on that oh-so-practical topic of hiring, training and supervising shelvers.

We have not purchased it at CMRLS, but will if someone requests it. However, this may be something you want to purchase yourself so that you always have it in your library and can refer to it whenever needed.

Here's the pertinent info:

Hiring, Training, and Supervising Library Shelvers by Patricia Tunstall
ISBN: 978-0-8389-1010-8
Publisher: ALA Editions
Price: $48.00

109 pages; 6" x 9"Softcover

Guide to MARC21 – Book Review

2009-10-28T15:11:00.004-04:00

CMRLS recently purchased a copy of Guide to MARC21 For Cataloging of Books and Serials. The bib record’s been added to the C/W MARS catalog. I finally had a chance to read through this book and I have mixed feelings about its usefulness.

The book is written and edited by people whose first language is not English. I’m sure if I attempted to write even a paragraph in Spanish or French, the results would not be nearly as successful as Asoknath Mukhopadhyay’s book. Still, I found it distracting to be reading along and not have articles in places where I expect them to be, or have articles where I would not expect them. (“In early 1960s the Library of Congress … ”) Word order is sometimes a little unusual such as “Why MARC is needed when …?” since a born English-speaker would say “Why is MARC needed when …?” Like many people who have learned English as a second language, Mukhopadjyay’s vocabulary is excellent. However, his writing style is somewhat stilted or overly-scholarly sounding and requires paying careful attention. Maybe that's good.

The book has a copyright date of 2007. Details of MARC have not changed much in the last 2-3 years, but the attitude toward the format has. Mukhopadhyay’s “Wow! MARC is so great” perspective contrasts sharply with the “MARC is dead” crowd on the NGC4LIB and AUTOCAT discussion lists. Even I, a devoted fan of MARC can see that MARC is beginning to outlive its usefulness and that XML or other formats probably offer more for 21st century data transmission.

The book contains lots of URLs for further reading and research. Early on I noticed a typo: dektop. Even when I corrected it to desktop, I still received an error message. After some searching, I realized the URL was also missing a /. I found some URLs that no longer existed. I was able to locate Kyle Banergee’s Cataloging Calculator at an entirely different site. Too bad no one had left a forwarding URL when the site was moved. The 2007 publication/copyright date means there are some pieces of information that are out-of-date such as the contact information for Sagebrush Corporation which was bought out by Follett. As I found these mistakes or changes, I annotated the CMRLS copy of the book.

Guide to MARC21 does have positive points. If you need clarification of what data belongs in a particular MARC sub-field, you will likely find it in this book. Despite the typos and out-of-date URLs, this is a one-stop-shopping guide offering a wealth of information on all sorts of cataloging-related topics. There are selective lists of MARC codes, lots of examples of bib records, a list of form subdivisions, a glossary, a list of sources for MARC records and cataloging information, and information on barcodes. While there is nothing in the book that says so explicitly, the several pages of Romanization Tables for Indic Languages lead me to believe the primary market is intended to be India and adjacent countries.

Inside the back cover, there is a disc that contains cataloging software which I did not install on my computer. I think that Guide to MARC21 and its accompanying disc are intended for libraries in developing countries that don’t have Integrated Library Systems like most of the libraries with which I’m familiar. Mukhopadhyay is providing librarians there with a way to create a usable catalog and also to be able to exchange bibliographic records with the rest of the world.

New Book on MARC21

2009-10-23T13:18:00.003-04:00

Received, cataloged and ready for you to check out: Guide to MARC21 for cataloging of books and serials by Asoknath Mukhopadjyay.

I haven't had a chance to review this yet, but will soon.

In the meantime, I have lots of books on cataloging, classification, and other technical services topics in my office as part of the CMRLS professional collection. All are in the C/W MARS database and ready for use.

All the RDA you could ever want

2009-10-14T11:50:00.006-04:00

With RDA approaching, I've been seeing more references to it accompanied by links to more information.

I've updated the Sites for Catalogers page on the CMRLS website to include some of these links. Here's a synopsis of what's been added:

The official site of the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA (of course);
Two pages of links developed by MARS (nothing to do with C/W MARS) Automation Services, connected with Backstage Library Works;
And a humorous page of links put together by the staff of the library at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. All links are legitimate, but this is a fun and unique presentation. Check it out!

Dewey(less) in the News Again

2009-10-09T14:38:00.006-04:00

The October 1 issue of Library Journal contains an article about the newly re-opened Darien CT library and how they have modified the Dewey Decimal System in classifying their materials. More and more libraries are taking a new look at the organization of their materials as they try to provide a “positive experience” and ensure their libraries are “user friendly”. I think we can all agree that satisfied customers are a very good thing.

As a cataloger, however, I hope we’re not rushing too far in the Deweyless direction without taking a careful look at the entire picture. In reading the article (which I absolutely recommend – it is thoughtful and thorough) note Table 1: Why patrons have trouble finding non-fiction. These are the results of a survey by Barbara Fister, author of the LJ article. The reason with the highest percentage (68.4) is that patrons have “Trouble understanding the online catalog”. The catalog is not the classification system and I suspect this response is related to reason #3 below. The second reason (63.3 %) is that patrons “Feel intimidated by a classification system they don’t understand well.”

I won’t argue that DDC is far from ideal, but before discarding it altogether, look at the third reason. Patrons “Want to go straight to the right shelf without having to look anything up.” I can sympathize with that feeling every time I go into a new and/or large store. Where is that one little thing I’m looking for? And that patron who knows just where the knitting or car repair books are in one library, will have to start from scratch in a different library. I think the classification system is less important than good signs - and attentive staff on the lookout for confused patrons.

It’s not just a matter of whether to use Dewey or BISAC. If the patron can’t find what he/she is looking for, does the library not own it? It is checked out to another patron? Is there something available at another library? One hopes these questions can be answered via the catalog.

The staff at Darien are making a serious effort at reorganizing their library to be more useful to patrons who want to browse but not ignoring the scholar looking for a specific title. Their system of “glades” looks promising.

As you consider re-organizing your library’s collection, remember
· DDC was developed in 1873 for an academic library. It’s not as much “broken” as we’re trying to make it do something different.
· The DDC in the bibliographic record is not mandatory; you do *not* have to use that number if it doesn’t make sense for your library.
· Public libraries have already made a lot of modifications to DDC such as organizing fiction by the author’s last name and having a separate biography section.
· DDC is an “expansive” system and the numbers can get very long. Use the shortest number you can without combining disparate topics.
· If a subject seems to have two (or more) numbers (weight lifting is a good example: 613.713 and 796.41), choose one number and put all items there.
· General classification schemes do not work well for a focused collection such as Local History, and specific schemes have been developed such as NLM (National Library of Medicine).

Libraries are evolving organisms. Things change. I still see a lot of use for the Dewey Decimal System in the small to medium public library, but I’m open to modifications, adaptations and changes.

Cookery is soon to be cooking

2009-10-06T11:28:00.003-04:00

That title will likely make sense only to catalogers.

Read this announcement from the Library of Congress!

After confusing our patrons (and ourselves) with the subject heading Cookery, "... the ABA Policy and Standards Division (PSD) of the Library of Congress is in the initial planning stages of a project to revise the headings used in this area."

Thank heaven for the ability to make global changes in our on-line catalogs. Had this change occurred some 20 or so years ago, we'd all be wearing out every eraser in sight.

However, this means I'll have to update some of the handouts I use when I teach cataloging.

Do You Catalog Weird Stuff?

2009-10-05T13:42:00.006-04:00

Today I received an email from Jeremy Goldstein of the Berkshire Athenaeum, which is the public library in Pittsfield. The email contained a link to a slideshare presentation by Nanette Donohue of the Champaigne Public Library called Cataloging the Weird Stuff. I'm adding the link to the CMRLS Technical Services pages under Games and Tutorials.

While the presentation requires some basic knowledge of MARC format, I found it very helpful. I can easily see it's usefullness for a cataloger who is experienced, but not with the more recent and unusual media - sometimes called "funny formats."

You can view the tutorial here.

To see links for all of the tutorials and games I've amassed, go here.

Have you discovered a site useful for catalogers and other technical services types? Please let me know (dgaudet@cmrls.org) so that I can add it to the list.

Updated webpages

2009-09-04T12:55:00.013-04:00

I've been reading one of the books in the Teach Yourself Visually series: Dreamweaver CS3. As the backup webmaster here at CMRLS, I have a lot of catching up to do and this book is helping a lot. As I learn new things, I've been updating the cataloging pages on the CMRLS site.

The Sites for Catalogers page was getting longer and required too much scrolling, so when I came across the section called "Create a Jump Link within a Page" I knew exactly where I wanted to experiment with "Named Anchors".

I also added another link to the list under MARC sites. This is a document which lists the ending punctuation of variable fields, something original catalogers have to deal with on a regular basis. Since ending punctuation is not always understood, looking at other bib records may or may not help. They're just as apt to be wrong as right. This list is a vital tool, so keep it handy.

Tech Services Workshops for the Fall

2009-08-31T10:01:00.002-04:00

I haven't been posting to this blog because I've been working on the Continuing Education catalog which will be out this week. Please watch for it on the CMRLS website (www.cmrls.org) and in delivery.

Mark you calendars with these Technical Services programs. Note that the first one is only a week away. There are several courses offered by WebJunction. Contact me for the code so that you can take these courses for free.

Also, CMRLS is now using GoToWebinar for some of its workshops so that you can participate without leaving your library. I’ll be giving “Behind the Bib Record” using this technology.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for other T.S. programs.

Here's the list:

WebJunction Course: MARC 101
Tuesday, September 8 • 2-4 P.M. AND Wednesday, September 9 • 2-4 P.M.

Technical Services Roundtable
Wednesday, September 30 • 10–12 Noon Beaman Library, W. Boylston

Where Do I Put Them? Cataloging and Classifying Graphic Novels
Friday, October 9 • 2 – 4 p.m. CMRLS Meeting Room

WebJunction Course: FRBR - What It Is And How It Can Help You Prepare for RDA
Tuesday, October 13 • 2-4 P.M. And Thursday, October 15 • 2-4 P.M. Online

WebJunction Course: Basic Digitization: Everyday Imaging
Wed., Nov. 11 • 11:30 A.M.-1:30 P.M. AND Thursday, Nov. 12 • 11:30 A.M.-1:30 P.M. Online

Behind the Bibliographic Record
Monday, December 14 • 10–12 Noon Online

FRBR – Group 2 Entities

2009-08-10T16:06:00.004-04:00

I thought this section might be easier to understand since Group 2 has only 2 entities (Person and Corporate Body) versus 4 entities in Group 1 (Work, Expression, Manifestation and Item). The section was shorter, but not really much easier to absorb. And a third Entity – Family – got tossed in there, too. As author Robert Maxwell explained, Family is “not found in FRBR, [but] is defined in FRAD”. FRAD stands for Functional Requirements for Authority Data and is related to FRBR.

With Group 2 Entities we begin to see the relationship aspects of FRBR because a Work can be created by a Person or a Corporate Body. It can be about a Person or a Corporate Body. An Expression can be translated by a Person. A Manifestation can be published by a Corporate Body. An Item can be owned by a Person or a Corporate Body. Several of the above statements are often true simultaneously.

Group 2 Entities can also have relationships with each other. A Person can be part of a musical group which is a Corporate Body. A Person can write under multiple names. And (looking at FRAD) a person can be a member of a Family.

This is the easy part of FRBR’s Group 2 Entities. Things get more complicated once the discussion turns to the Attributes of each entity. Attributes of Person are Name of Person, Dates of Person (as in birth, death, or when the person was actively creative), Title of Person (Doctor, General, etc.), and “other designation associated with the person.” FRAD, however, delineates slightly different attributes of a Person and more of them (details like place of birth, gender, language) and Maxwell constantly compares FRBR to FRAD. Keeping them straight can create headaches.

What is really interesting about all of this is something Diane Hillman talked about in a program at the 2008 Mass Library Association Conference and again at NELINET. As a cataloger creates a bibliographic record, he/she does not have to determine (and key in) the “one authorized form” of a person’s name. The cataloger will be able to link that “author” line to a registry of names that will include more information than our current Name Authority Files. The same for publisher: No need to worry about which words (if any) to abbreviate, simply link to the registry of Corporate Names.

Of course, this assumes an infrastructure that we don’t exactly have yet. But as more registries are developed and linking rather than keying in becomes the norm, our information (and therefore our catalogs) will show relationships between and among works, expressions, manifestations, items, people and corporate bodies, not merely individual bibliographic records.

LCSH

2009-08-06T12:24:00.004-04:00

The Cataloging and Distribution Service of the Library of Congress has just published the 31st edition of the Library of Congress Subject Headings (a.k.a. The Red Books). Included with this edition is a 6th volume called Supplementary Vocabularies which contains free-floating subdivisions, genre/form headings, and children's subject headings.

The price is $295; ordering information is here.

Or you can use the Online Authority File which is updated continuously and includes names and series for free.

MARC resources

2009-07-28T09:20:00.005-04:00

For the last few years, since RDA has been in the making, there has also been talk about MARC’s demise. That’s MARC as in Machine Readable Cataloging. As our metadata evolves, the way to transmit it will probably also evolve. XML is a possibility, but for now we have MARC. MARC codes have recently been updated in anticipation of RDA.

If you have problems understanding all those codes, or just need to check out one(s) that you don’t use very often, there are some good sources available.

Understanding MARC Bibliographic is the best quick and easy MARC reference I’ve ever run across. If you want a copy in your hands, it is available from either Follett or Library of Congress for $5.

Library of Congress also hosts the official MARC21 Format for Bibliographic Data. After you click on a tag, you will have the choice of seeing the “full” or “concise” version of the description.

I’ve always preferred to use OCLC’s Bibliographic Formats and Standards . BF&S is freely available on the web; you do not have to be an OCLC member to use it. Perhaps it’s because I began using the print version of BF&S so I was familiar with the text and layout, or perhaps because I’m more used to it than MARC21 Format. I find it easier to navigate from one tag (or subfield) to another.

MARC uses codes for Geographic Area, Country, and Language. All are available on the official MARC21 site. When it comes to these codes, BF&S (eventually, after a few clicks) leads to MARC21.

If you’d like to practice by using a tutorial, there are a couple available. MARC21 Tutorial is from the University of Southern Mississippi and based on Understanding MARC Bibliographic. Introduction to the MARC System is one of several free cataloging-related tutorials offered by Idaho's Alternative Basic Library Education (ABLE) Program. Be careful, though as the ABLE program is slightly out of date. Maybe that’s a good test: See if you can find the obsolete indicator.

LISWiki – Cataloging & Classification

2009-07-24T12:24:00.007-04:00

Similar to the famous Wikipedia but more focused, there is a Wiki just for library topics called LISWiki. Begun in 2005, it still needs lots of work by knowledgeable librarians since many of the articles are just “stubs”.

For those new to libraries, it looks like a good place to start since most of the articles are not lengthy and therefore easy to read in a short period of time. Check out both of the categories Cataloging and Classification. Each has a link at the top of the page to the other, so once you’ve located one, it’s easy to find the other.

Cataloging has 52 articles and 3 sub-categories (Authority Control, Cataloging Elements, and Catalogs) each with several articles of its own. As stated earlier, some are only stubs. Classification has 26 articles. Many articles have a link to the Wikipedia article on the same topic. While the texts are similar, they are not identical.

As cited on the “About” page, the reason for having a separate Wiki devoted to library and information science is to allow for
-Conjecture and other original research
-Opinion and position pieces not written in a neutral point of view (with factual information properly presented, of course)
-Lists, directories, esoteric library information, and non-encyclopedic knowledge that may not meet Wikipedia's inclusion criteria.

Here’s a chance for catalogers to contribute to the professional literature. You can embellish upon the existing topics or add new pages for topics that need coverage. Wikis are easy to edit – which is the whole point.

FRBR Entities - Group 1

2009-07-15T16:46:00.024-04:00

I've been plugging away at Robert Maxwell's FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed for the last few weeks so that I could write a review of it in this blog. I've just finished the section on Group 1, the section with which many are most familiar: Work, Expression, Manifestation, Item. I've seen it written as WEMI which is helpful because it is very easy (for me at least) to confuse Expression and Manifestation.

FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) is not easy to understand, but I feel this book has helped me a lot. However, the book hasn't helped enough for me to explain FRBR very well to others. Or maybe FRBR is just not easily explainable. It is, after all, a conceptual model that explains relationships. Attempts at making FRBR concrete by creating diagrams can make it look even more complicated. So here's my understanding of how the Group 1 entities relate to each other.

A Work is an idea, a thought, a creation - not written, not spoken. It doesn't refer to a concrete item.

The Expression of a Work is also conceptual, not concrete. If we are ultimately talking about a book, the Work can be Expressed in English or French or Chinese or another language. Two different translations into French are two different Expressions.

With Manifestation, we approach actual things we can hold in our hands. The English language publication of a book by HarperCollins is a Manifestation. The English language publication of the same content by Bantam paperbacks is a different Manifestation. At this point, we're not talking about a single book, but the entire run. A Manifestation is what we catalog. A bibliographic record represents a Manifestation.

What I'm still confused about, is how the audiobook of this Work fits in here. Is the oral version a different Expression or a different Manifestation? Maxwell says that "... as currently written, FRBR does not deal well with genre/form relationships with Group 1 entities." Maybe that's the problem.

An Item is something we can all grasp - literally as well as figuratively. We can purchase one Item of a Manifestation. We can catalog it, classify it and put it in our library.

There's a lot more to FRBR than what I've described above. All of these entities have attributes such as title, form, date, other distinguishing characteristics. All attributes of Work are also attribute of Expression plus some additional ones. Fortunately, not all available attributes will apply to every entity.

As he explains each entity and its attributes, Maxwell sometimes points out difficulties or problems with the model. As I look at the FRBR diagrams and try to follow the relationships, I have to wonder who figured this out?

Now it's on to the Group 2 entities: Person, Corporate Body, Family. Perhaps this section with help shed some light on what I've already read,

Catalogers' Learning Workshop

2009-07-13T10:52:00.006-04:00

On the Library of Congress site is a section called Catalogers' Learning Workshop, which includes freely available cataloging and metadata training materials.

While using these materials takes some self-discipline, what a great way to learn about LCSH, LCCN, authority work, metadata and digitization and continuing resources (in all their permutations).

The list looks like this

Cataloging Skills (CCT)
Basic Creation of Name and Title Authorities
Basic Subject Cataloging Using LCSH
Fundamentals of Series Authorities
Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification

The Digital Library Environment (Cat21)
Digital Project Planning & Management Basics
Metadata and Digital Library Development
Metadata Standards and Applications
Principles of Controlled Vocabulary and Thesaurus Design
Rules and Tools for Cataloging Internet Resources

Continuing Resources (SCCTP)
Advanced Serials Cataloging
Basic Serials Cataloging
Electronic Serials Cataloging
Integrating Resources Cataloging
Serials Holdings

Graphic Novels: What to do with them?

2009-07-10T12:13:00.003-04:00

I just received the latest issue of Technicalities. The serial is a little on the expensive side, but I usually find good information inside of its black and white covers. This issue was no exception. On pages 10-14 is an article called “Graphic Novels and Metadata: The Connections and the Challenges” by Tom Adamich, a certified teacher-librarian and the president of Visiting Librarian Service in New Philadelphia, Ohio.

Graphic novels are a perpetual topic in the semi-annual Technical Services Roundtable and any help with this amorphous medium is greatly appreciated.

There is a list (supplied by Mark Yanko, graphic novel artist and cataloger at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh) of both online and print review sources that will help anyone in collection development. CMRLS owns one of the print titles and I have suggested that some of the other also be purchased.

As a cataloger, I paid special attention to Tom’s summary of a document developed by Mary Rose and Joel Hahn of the Lewis and Clark Library System called Cataloging Graphic Novels. While these guidelines are for a specific library, they make a good starting point for developing your own routines for organizing, classifying, and displaying this format in your library.

There’s been very little written, that I’ve seen, on this aspect of graphic novels in libraries. I don’t read Graphic Novels (too busy reading mysteries) and don’t have the opportunity to work with them, so I welcome Tom’s contribution to the literature.

I Graduated!

2009-06-30T09:56:00.004-04:00

I completed the Univesity of North Texas course on Technical Services offered through WebJunction. I read through all of the information, wrote the required assignments, played the 2 games, took the pre- and post-quizzes and - ta da! - received my certificate of completion.

Blooming Blogs

2009-06-29T11:56:00.008-04:00

While there are a lot of library-related blogs, Technical Services people have been slower to get into the biblioblogosphere.

On the cataglogers pages of the CMRLS website, I have a list of Cataloging Blogs which I've just updated with several more. Here's a little information about the new additions. Most have begun in the last 6 months.

A Portal to My Cataloging Aids Website is written by Lynne LeGrow who says "For many years I have maintained a website with cataloguing aids, reminders, and links." Her list of aids is similar to my cataloging pages mentioned above. Lynne is the Cataloguer (note the u) at the Halifax Public Library in Nova Scotia.

Celeripedean claims to be "Just Another Blog About Libraries." The author is Jennifer Eustis who "would like to share my thoughts on librarianship and cataloging." Jennifer is Catalog & Metadata Librarian at the Snell Library at Northeastern University in Boston.

From the Catalog of Babes describes the day-to-day adventures of recently graduated librarian Rachel Clarke (therefore just a "babe in the woods") who is now the cataloger in a library of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California.

Future4Catalogers Blog is written by Heidi Hoerman, faculty member of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, as she "tries to understand what's coming." Heidi made the cataloging headlines in October of 2008 when she announced at the OLAC/MOUG conference in Cleveland that she thought RDA would die a slow death. She's since recanted.

Inquiring Librarian is the blog of Jenn Riley. Jenn is Metadata Librarian with the Indiana University Digital Library Program. I had the pleasure of attending one of Jenn's programs on Metadata at the OLAC/MOUG conference in Cleveland.

Metadata Librarian Experience is written by Jin Xiu Guo who is the Assistant Librarian, Catalog/Metadata Librarian at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

I'm not certain if Resource Description and Access: ALA Rep Notes is still being updated, but it offers lots of insight into the RDA process. RDA is due to be released in November 2009. The ALA Rep is John Attig, of Pennsylvania State University.

I like the witty title Three Catalogers Walk Into a Blog. The three catalogers are Jennifer B. Young, Serials Cataloger at Northwestern University; Joy Anhalt, Technical Services Manager at the Tinley Park Public Library, Tinley Park, Illinois; and Richard A. Stewart,Senior Cataloger at the Indian Trails Public Library Disctrict and an instructor in the Graduate School (formerly the Graduate School, USDA). While this blog has been around since September 2008, I just discoverd it recently.

These are all good blogs to add to your RSS feed. If, after a while, you don't find them particularly useful, it's easy enough to delete the feed. I find a lot of the cataloging blogs cover the same information, so a review of them can often be very quick.

Additional Operations (sometimes) in Technical Services

2009-06-25T14:59:00.004-04:00

This was the chapter on Other - the stuff that didn't quite deserve its own chapter but still is (or might be) part of Technical Services. Topics were Gifts or donations; Interlibrary loan and/or document delivery operations; Systems management or at least management of the library’s OPAC; Digitization projects.

Gifts, as was rightly pointed out, are a form of Acquisitions. If you wouldn't buy it, you shouldn't accept it as a gift. All gifts must fit into a library's collection development policy. When people donate items to a library, it should be made clear that the library might do something else with the gift. The donor should be given the chance to recind the offer. Gifts (like kittens and Open Source Software) are not free. There are costs to processing and even disposing of gifts.

While the instructors made some good arguments about Interlibrary Loan being a part of Technical Services, I've never seen it structured that way in any library where I've worked. Of course they're related as all library functions are related.

Tech Services staff have often become "accidental" IT staff. I guess a lot of people think "Tech is Tech". But some people have a natural affinity for IT and others do not. It can be very stressful to be responsible for something you're somewhat afraid of (and I speak from a certain amount of experience).

Digitization is another one of those default things like IT. There is definitely a relationship since Digital images need cataloging, too. And Digital images are saved in a catalog which may or may not be the same catalog as the books and other materials.

This chapter did not include a fun game, but there was an assignment to describe how your library is organized and who is responsible for the various Technical Services functions: Acquisitions, Cataloging, Processing, and Collection Maintenance. Here is the description I wrote and posted on Blackboard.

I don’t work in a “real” library, but rather the headquarters of a Regional Library System that provides services, including consulting, to area libraries regardless of type. We have a small professional collection.
The individual consultants (including me) are responsible for collection development in their areas of expertise. We choose the titles and purchase them, usually via Amazon or ALA. There is an overall acquisitions budget monitored by the Assistant Regional Administrator.
When items arrive, they all come to me – the cataloger. We are part of a consortium and the Network headquarters maintains the catalog. I assign call numbers, add our holdings to that catalog and import bib records into it from OCLC if the ones I need are not already there. I will create an original record in OCLC if necessary. I also do all of the processing: property stamp, barcode, spine labels.The individual consultants are responsible for weeding their own areas. Once weeded, I delete our holdings from the Network catalog and OCLC.
Interlibrary Loan and Circulation are handled by a paraprofessional.The director (or in our case the Regional Administrator) occasionally selects and purchases books the same as the other consultants. The business office pays the bills.
We do no repairs; we replace an item if needed, but that seldom happens. We have small back runs of serials, but never bind them. They are rarely used except by the consultants.
We do no digitization, but I am responsible for helping area libraries select items they want digitized and create metadata. The Network headquarters maintains the digital repository and staff there handle the scanning and maintenance of the digital collections.

Collection Maintenance

2009-06-24T14:24:00.004-04:00

The Technical Services online course continues and this chapter covered collection maintenance - weeding, repairing, binding, replacing, etc.

In my opining, most libraries need to spend more time on weeding their collections. Reasons for removing an item include:

Not used sufficiently to justify the space (or real estate) they require
No longer contains current, correct, reliable, or complete information
No longer needed or duplicate of another item
Poor condition
Outdated or obsolete format or technology

Rather than having more books, most libraries need a better looking collection with books spaced out so they can be seen (not to mention removed from the shelf without pulling down adjacent books). Academic libraries rarely weed, but their mission is different from a public library's and something with information that is not "current, correct, reliable, or complete" can still contribute to historical research.

Mending is a useful tool when used appropriately. However, sometimes it is actually more cost effective to purchase a new copy than try to mend a book. A heavily mended book is usually unattractive and less likely to be chosen by a library patron, so why even keep it?

In the chapter on Preservation and Conservation, the instructors distinguish between preserving the intellectual content and prolonging the life of the artifact. For example, digitizing a newspaper article makes more sense than trying to prevent it from yellowing and disintegrating. However, a rare book should be kept in a climate controlled area to prevent its deterioration.

The chapter ended with a fun little game (I like games). Different items were shown with a brief description. We were instructed to drag the item to one of 5 choices: Dispose, Repair, Digitize, Return to the Collection as is, Replace. For example, a VHS copy of the video Gone With the Wind with over 300 circulations has a broken cassette. Answer: replace it with a DVD. In a few cases, there were 2 correct answers depending on the situation.

This exercise has a major typo. At the very beginning are the instructions for the previous game - the one matching Dewey Decimal numbers to book titles. I'm still looking for a way to report this problem since I'm sure it's easy to fix.

In general, this was a thought-provoking section and one too often overlooked or not thought through very carefully in Technical Services. Too many people still have a horror of throwing away books, but there are good reasons for not keeping some things in the collection. See above.

Physical Materials

2009-06-18T10:37:00.003-04:00

This was an extremely brief chapter. It took less than 5 minutes to read from beginning to end. It covered serials, both hard copy and electronic.

While the coverage was quite cursory, I have to admit that I don't even mention serials when I teach Cataloging & Classification. Many catalogers would like to forget they exist since even the simplest bib record for a serial is fraught with details and irregularities not found in most monographs. I had the good fortune (and I'm not being sarcastic) to work with a lot of serials as part of a retrospective conversion project several years ago. I worked with 2 very experienced serials catalogers and I learned a lot from them. After a few weeks, not only did I not dread serials, but I actually began looking at them as a puzzle to be solved.

Databases and electronic books were also included in this chapter, again very, very briefly - not much more coverage than that they exist. I would have really liked more detail since I have no direct experience with acquiring or cataloging such entities. Both are becoming a larger and larger component of libraries' collections and I'm feeling increasingly left behind. Attending workshops isn't the same as dealing with them on a day-to-day basis.

There are just a few more sections left in this course. Stay tuned for the final chapters.

Processing

2009-06-17T11:53:00.004-04:00

The online course on Technical Services continues and the section I just finished was on Processing.

Like the other sections the description on exactly what happens was pretty brief. However, the emphasis of this section was on examining what you do for processing and justifying each step. I totally agree with this approach.

Too many libraries record information that's not actually used, just because that's the way it's always been done. It's not unusual to see pencilled somewhere on the book an accession number, the date received, from whom/where and/or the price. Is this information ever used? If it is, can it be found anywhere else? Now that many libraries have online acquisitions systems, numbers, dates and prices can be found there. Does a staff person also need to hand write it in the book?

Another archaic practice I sometimes see is ownership information on a "secret page". Just in case someone tears off the library's name from the front of the book, the owner can be identified by going to page 62 (or 87 or some other agreed upon page) and see an additional ownership stamp. In my opinion, for all the time it takes to stamp every book the library owns on an additional specific page, the library could purchase an occasional replacement copy.

An important lesson to take away from the section on Processing: look at each step and have a good reason for doing it. Otherwise, abandon it. There's plenty of other necessary stuff to do.

The instructor also discussed outsourcing. Outsourcing is something to be considered but the library has to be careful. It may mean more compromises than the library is willing to make. However, having your books arrive with jackets already attached, or outsourcing some other very specific task might be worth the cost. If you have an abundance of reliable student workers or pages, I'd jacket in-house.

When it comes to processing library materials, think Faster, Cheaper, Better. You can only have two of them.

Cataloging & Classification

2009-06-16T15:16:00.006-04:00

After Acquisitions, the next section in the Technical Services course that I'm taking online was Cataloging & Classification - my specialty.

This section was a very brief overview of the kinds of things involved: Descriptive Cataloging, Copy Cataloging, Subject Headings and Access Points, Item Records, Authority Control, and a reminder that the cataloging environment is ever-changing.

There was a fun exercise where I got to drag some general Dewey Decimal numbers to the corresponding hypothetical titles. There is a Dewey Concentration game in the Cataloging section of the CMRLS website. Not only is it a good refresher, but you can exercise your brain and help ward off dementia.

I expect that the reason this section did not have a lot of depth is because most cataloging in most libraries is Copy Cataloging - where a person searches a database for an existing bibliographic record and downloads it into a local system. Or in the case of a consortial member, searches the consortium database and adds local holdings. There was no coverage on the details of a bib record, no real discussion of AACR2 and its rules. And while the author was clear there have been lots of changes in the cataloging world and more to come, there was no actual mention of RDA or any other specifics.

I would have liked to see a little more in this section. Maybe some exercises that had students look at different library catalogs and/or looking at bib records in more detail. However, this is a survey course so maybe this level of coverage is appropriate.

NETSL is looking for a few good people

2009-06-15T11:55:00.006-04:00

Are you the type of person who wants to stay up-to-date with Technical Services issues? Do you like to collaborate on projects with other Technical Services people? Do you usually attend the NETSL spring conference? Would you like to go for free?

If you answered "yes" to any or all of the above questions, please consider running for an office on the NETSL Executive Board.

Every year, there are 4 openings: Vice-Presedent-Elect, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer. Each term is for one year. However, the VP/Pres-Elect automatically becomes President the following year and Past-President the year after that, so the position is, in fact, a 3 year committment.

In addition to the elected offices, there are some positions appointed by the President in consultation with the rest of the Board. There are 2 Members-at-Large, Membership Committee Chair, and Archivist. If you run unsuccessfully for one of the above offices, and want to serve on the Board, you can volunteer for any of the appointed positions.

For more details on being a NETSL officer, see Article IV of the By-Laws on the NETSL website. I'm also happy to talk with anyone who just wants to discuss the responsibilities in more detail.

To toss your hat into the NETSL ring, contact current President Amy Benson at netslpresident@nelib.org, or 617-495-5858 by July 8th.

The Ideal Vendor

2009-06-11T11:42:00.004-04:00

I’m proceeding with the online course on Technical Services. I’ve just finished the section on Acquisitions (or will when I finish this assignment).

We were to visit the websites of at least two library book vendors and notice 1. The type of information they provide; 2. The value-added services and features; 3. Anything else that struck us as interesting and/or desirable.

Then we were to visit the websites of at least two regular retail Internet book and audiovisual sellers and notice 1. Value-added features they provide; 2. How the information is organized; 3. Other observations.

One thing that’s pretty obvious is that Amazon sells a lot more than books. Kind of like Wal-Mart or Super Stop & Shop – they sell at least some of just about everything. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up buying my next car from Amazon :-)

Now I’m to make a list of the features, special services, or other factors that I would want from the "ideal" vendor or source for books and audiovisual items for a library like mine.

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in acquisitions, and I don't work in a "real" library, so my answers are all theoretical.

A lot of my expectations of a vendor would depend on the circumstances of my library. Do I have adequate staff? What kind of equipment does my Technical Services Department have? Am I part of a consortium or do I have a stand-alone ILS? The less my library has, the more I will want from my vendor. (Note to administrators: You have to pay one way or the other.)

If I’m not part of a consortium, or did not have access to OCLC or other large database, I’d likely want bibliographic records for the items I purchased. If I had minimal staff, I’d probably want my items processed (mylar book jackets, property stamps, spine labels, barcodes, etc.).

Another option would be a third-party company for cataloging and processing. Perhaps it’s because I worked for just such a company, but my impression is that a library is able to get very specific customization from such an entity. If a bibliographic record does not already exist, they will create one. My experience with most vendors is that if they cannot find an existing bib record, the library does not receive one. Also, there are fewer existing bib records for audiovisual materials than for books, yet the need for those records is just as great. How would I get bib records for "odd" items?

Regardless of cataloging and processing, I’d want an online ordering system that coordinated with my catalog so that my patrons could see what was on order as well as what my library owned. I’d want to be able to keep track of the status of my items (shipped, on backorder, out of stock, etc.). I’d want to be able to keep track of what I’d already spent, what I’d encumbered, and be able to allot funds to different accounts if I had multiple branches. It's unlikely that I'd be able to purchase 100% of the items I wanted from a single vendor, so I'd need to be able to incorporate those other purchases into the accounting system.

Technical Services does not exist in a vacuum. I want materials that I order to arrive quickly, be findable in the library catalog and to look neat and clean on the library shelves so that patrons will want to check them out and take them home.

Digital Projects in Massachusetts

2009-06-09T12:29:00.013-04:00

I received an email recently asking about "digital comings and goings in Massachusetts library land". After replying with what I thought was a concise summary, it occurred to me that others might benefit from this information. I've edited my reply somewhat to make it more generic and applicable to other libraries.

There’s a lot going on in the Massachusetts digital world. Let me outline some
of it; I’m sure there is more of which I’m not aware.

In western and central Massachusetts, there’s Digital Treasures which is a collaboration among WMRLS, CMRLS and C/W MARS. Any library that’s a member of either of the regions can participate. You don’t have to be a C/W MARS member. There is a cost, which is slightly higher for non-C/W members, but I also have some grant money that can be used to defray most of that cost. The metadata for images in Digital Treasures are written in Dublin Core. The metadata have been sent to OCLC, converted to MARC, and imported into the C/W MARS catalog, so everything is available in both places. Digital Treasures is OAI (Open Archives Initiative) harvestable and everything is searchable via Google or any search engine as well as from the OAIster site.

In Massachusetts as a whole, there is Digital Commonwealth. DigiCom is primarily a portal which (similar to OAIster) harvests digital images in repositories throughout Massachusetts. There is a fee to join, but CMRLS, WMRLS and C/W MARS are all members so any library who is a part of Digital Treasures can search its collection via DigiCom. Libraries that have their own repositories can join DigiCom directly.

If a library (or museum or archive) wants to display its digital images, but does not want to or is unable to go through one of the existing repositories and does not have its own repository, DigiCom has a partnership with NELINET to host individual organizations’ repositories.
Boston Public Library is participating in the Internet Archive. I know a lot less about this project since I have not been directly involved with it. I do know, however, that libraries that want to have books scanned can send them to BPL and those books will be available via the Internet Archive. The Webster Vet Library at Tufts in North Grafton has done this with many titles in a special collection they received called the Seaverns Equine Collection. The digitized books are searchable from both the IA and their catalog.

BPL also has a partnership with Open Library . Like IA above, I’m not directly involved with this project. I do know that people can request books to be scanned so they are available to read online or download.

If your library has photos or documents (not books) to scan and wants to be part of Digital Treasures, please let me know. I can help a little with selection (it’s not my strength, but I can offer some guidelines) and a lot with metadata creation.

That last paragraph applies to all libraries located within the central region. Calling (or emailing) me and talking more about Digital Treasures does not commit you to anything. Feel free just to gather information for a possible future project.

Online courses

2009-06-03T15:02:00.006-04:00

I've just started an online course called Tech Services: What, Why, How. It is a University of North Texas LE@D course through WebJunction.

I'm taking the course for a couple of reasons:
1. Since I teach a beginning cataloging course, I'm always looking to see what other cataloging-related courses are offered. I like to see how other people cover the information and I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. I watch the way the information is presented because I want to be able to present it in a way beginners will understand. One of the biggest chalenges of knowing your subject matter well is remembering that others do not. I can't assume everyone knows the terminology or has much Technical Services experience. Even people who have worked in a library for many years often don't know the deatils of what happens in Technical Services.

2. For a while now, I've wanted to do more with online courses. Between the cost of gasoline and the time it takes to commute, more people are reluctant to go out to workshops. This situation is now compounded with cuts to library budges which often means fewer staff making it even more difficult to leave the library. Online courses give people more options and many of my standard workshops lend themselves to online teaching. A good way for me to learn how this all works is to take an online course.

3. Even with face-to-face classes, an online component adds variety to the material and allows for more interaction - something else I've been trying to incorporate into my workshops.

This particular online course has keeping a journal as one of its assignements. That's great for me as it gives me a reason to post regularly to this blog.

So far, the material is pretty basic. I took the pre-test and got a 98%. There was one question worth 10 points. It contained a list of skills and I was supposed to check off all of the ones needed for Technical Services. One was "Good business sense" which I debated about. I think someone in Tech Services should have good business sense, but decided the creator of the quiz would not expect that to be included. I was wrong and I lost 2 points for not checking that particular skill.

So be aware: Good business sense is needed in Technical Services.

If you're interested in taking this online course or any of the WebJunction courses, they are free for staff of CMRLS member libraries. CMRLS has purchased a large block of "units" to be made available to library staff. You'll need a coupon code to register and you can request that by sending me an email at dgaudet@cmrls.org

Pet Peeves

2009-06-01T14:48:00.004-04:00

For years I’ve been politely (maybe that’s my problem) reminding people that ISBN stands for International Standard Bibliographic Number so that saying ISBN Number is redundant. It’s like saying International Standard Bibliographic Number Number. (Same thing for PIN Number – Personal Identification Number Number – but that’s not specifically a library term and out of the scope of Quick T.S.)

Now there’s a new war to wage as I see more and more references to ILS Systems. ILS stands for Integrated Library System, so again saying ILS System is the same as saying Integrated Library System System.

Yes, I am a cataloger and therefore very picky about things like that. However, I feel the “problem” is broader than it might appear at first. Librarians, and especially catalogers, have a lot of jargon. We need to be careful when talking to non-library types not to use jargon if we want them to understand what we’re talking about. We even need to be careful when talking to non-cataloger librarians.

If you need to use the word “number” after the initials ISBN because you think the person with whom you’re talking will not understand you, then perhaps you shouldn’t be using the initials. Perhaps you should be using the entire phrase: International Standard Bibliographic Number.

I’m surprised how many people (even librarians) are not familiar with the initials ILS. They likely know what an online catalog is and probably what an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) is, but don’t think of it as being part of a larger system – an Integrated Library System. An ILS is an inventory of holdings with a user-friendly (one hopes) interface for searching and locating those holdings. It includes additional modules such as serials check-in and acquisitions for ordering new items as well as a module to circulate those items to the public and a way to create various reports. It may include other features, too, such as a repository for digital images.

There’s always discussion in library circles about the catalog and what it should be and for whom. Perhaps in a few years, there will be a different set of initials to contemplate.

Another Great NETSL Conference

2009-04-22T13:53:00.003-04:00

Things have been pretty busy lately, a reason I haven't done much posting to this blog. One of the projects keeping me occupied was the NETSL spring conference which was held last Friday at Holy Cross College.

This may have been the best NETSL conference ever. Keynote speaker Karen Coyle demonstrated some ways that bibliographic data can be used besides looking for a book. Rick Block kept the audience chuckling while he discussed the pros and cons of RDA. (There were 3 other breakout sessions, but alas, I could only attend one.)

Ted Fons talked about some of the research in which OCLC is involved. Three panelists showed how their institutions are "Mining the OPAC". All of the talks tied together very nicely and lots of audience members asked questions or made comments. The food was good, several vendors helped with sponsorships, and one lucky person took home a lovely doorprize.

The speakers' presentations are available on the NETSL website.

There is no date set for the 2010 conference, but it will be on a Friday in April so watch for information beginning early in the year.

Planning summer CE

2009-03-23T10:38:00.003-04:00

The CMRLS summer Continuing Education workshops begin June 1. That gives us just 2 months to decide on programs, contact speakers, produce the CE catalog and get it into members' hands in time to register for the earliest of the offerings. Each consultant will be coming up with creative ideas in his or her area.

So, my question to you is What do you think CMRLS should offer in the area of Technical Services? There are programs on bibliographic records in general, MARC records, Dewey Decimal System that I teach regularly. Something on Resource Description and Access (RDA - the new, revised version of cataloging rules) is probable since if/when it is implemented will change cataloging - maybe drastically.

What would you like to learn more about? What would you attend? It doesn't have to be limited to Tech Services as I can always forward ideas on to my colleagues.

Please let me know!

A New Book

2009-03-17T16:32:00.005-04:00

When I first began working at CMRLS, I spent a lot of time and the organization's money updating the Professional Collection (also known as RCO) with Technical Services books. Fortunately, for our budget, there aren't a lot of T.S. books published in a year, so I'm still able to purchase the ones that are.

Recently, I received a copy of the 3rd edition of The Organization of Information by Arlene Taylor and Daniel Joudrey. It is now cataloged and ready for information hungry tech services librarians to borrow.

Who'll be the first?

The Massachusetts Library Association Conference

2009-03-09T13:40:00.005-04:00

The program catalog for the Mass. Library Association conference if out and the Tech Services Section of MLA has done another fine job.

Most Technical Services programs will be held on Thursday, May 7 beginning at 8:30 a.m. when LibraryThing's Tim Spalding will be talking about community content.

Immediately on Tim's heels is a program entitled “Next Generation” Cataloging and Metadata Creation Pilot with speakers Renee Register and Maureen Huss, both from OCLC.

That program is followed by Barbara Tillett, Chief of the Policy and Standards Division of the Library of Congress talking about Resource Description and Access (RDA). All in all, a very full morning.

There will, of course, be other programs of interest to Tech Services-types like the mini-conference on Manga to be held all day Friday. For anyone who has ordered, cataloged, classified and generally had to organized Manga, knowing more about it can only help. In fact, just about everything being offered at the MLA conference has some relationship to Technical Services which does not exist in isolation.

I'll be giving a presentation at the conference on Friday on Public Speaking. While you may not have to expound at your local Town Meeting, basic public speaking skills are also important when defending the value of Technical Services in your own library. Too many people, other librarians included, do not understand all that happens "behind the scenes." Informed, articulate Technical Services Librarians are an integral part of any library meeting its patrons needs.

Don't forget the NETSL Conference

2009-03-06T11:33:00.003-05:00

Registration opened recently for the annual spring NETSL conference to be held April 17 at Holy Cross College.

It's going to be a great program (aren't they all?) so don't miss it.

Join NETSL

2009-01-12T10:12:00.003-05:00

I just received my renewal notice for NELA. I expect you did, too.

Don't forget to check off NETSL at the bottom of the page. It doesn't cost anything extra and you get to be part of an elite cadre. You'll also get an invitation (which includes a free drink) to attend the NETSL reception at the NELA conference in the fall.

The NETSL Executive Board is already hard at work planning its Spring Conference which will be held at Holy Cross College on Friday, April 17. And it's soliciting nominations for the NETSL Award for Excellence in LibraryTechnical Services which will be presented at the conference.

There's lots going on in NETSL; don't be left out!

New Book

2009-01-08T11:53:00.008-05:00

CMRLS just received a copy of Learn Dewey Decimal Classification (edition 22) by Mary Mortimer. It is now cataloged (in Dewey, of course) and listed in C/W MARS.

This is a great workbook for understanding how DDC works. It goes into necessary detail of the different parts of the 4 volume set explaining how each section works and how to use them together. There are lots of excellent exercises.

We also own the earlier edition and will keep that in our collection. Even though some of the numbers are different (I actually haven't comared the two editions side-by-side), the process is still the same.

I'll be using this book in my upcoming Cataloging Workshops, so it is not available for circulation until after April 7, but please take a look at it when you can. It will likely answer all of those Dewey-related questions you have.

More CE Opportunities for Tech Services Staff

2009-01-02T11:37:00.002-05:00

I didn’t want my last post to be too long, so I saved this information for a separate post.

There are some Roundtables coming up to put on your calendar. As always, if you have any questions, suggestions for Roundtable topics, or suggestions for Technical Services programs in general, please let me know.

Serials Roundtable – Friday, March 27, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. While staff members of Public and School Libraries are invited, the topics discussed apply more to Academic and Special Libraries who are members of OCLC.

Technical Services Roundtable – Friday, April 10, Lawrence Library, Pepperell. Here, the focus is on Public Libraries, tending toward workflow, acquisitions, labeling, packaging and repair issues. Graphic novels are often a concern: selection, organization, classification, etc. However, we can all learn from each other, so Academics, Schools and Specials are certainly invited to attend.

TS staff are likely to be involved in Digital Treasures. If so, Beyond Digital Treasures will be held on Wednesday, May 27 at the Jacob Edwards Library in Southbridge. If some of your library’s items have been scanned and mounted in Digital Treasures you can use those images to help market the collection and your library in more ways than with a simple link on your library’s web page. If you’ve not yet become a part of this digital library, this is a chance to talk with those who have and find out what’s involved.

Last, but not least, and not just for Tech Services people, CMRLS will be offering a workshop on Stress Reduction and Relaxation techniques on Thursday, April 9. Zayda Vallejo, from the Center for Mindfulness at the UMass Medical School will offer participants a variety of ways to make the most of these stressful times.

Register for these programs on the CMRLS website.

Cataloging and Classification Mini-Courses coming soon!

2008-12-29T10:51:00.006-05:00

The CMRLS Continuing Education catalog is now out! There are lots of great programs and a full schedule for Tech Services people.

It's CMRLS’ turn to offer the Cataloging and Classification BLT. BLT stands for Basic Library Training which is a series of mini-courses (Administration, Cataloging & Classification, Collection Development and Reference) required by all Massachusetts public library directors in towns of under 10,000 who do not have a Masters degree in Library Science.

However, many different people take these courses. Some are not currently directors, but are planning for the future. Some want training more formal than OTJ (on the job). Some have an MLS (or MLIS) and want a practical refresher. Regardless, the C&C mini-course is always overenrolled and we have to turn people away.

That’s why I’ve scheduled two sessions in slightly different formats in two different places to try to meet the needs of as many people as possible.

The first session will be held at CMRLS on Thursdays, February 5 and 12. If either of those days is snowed out, I’ve also reserved February 19. The class will run from 10:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break.

For the second session, I’ve reserved the meeting room at the Lunenburg Public Library (if you haven’t been there, it’s beautiful; be sure to visit the Children’s Room and look up at the ceiling) on Tuesdays: March 24, March 31 and April 7 from 1:00 till 4:30.

Both courses will cover the exact same topics in the same order: some history, Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC), and Resource Description and Access (RDA - the new AACR2). As we cover each topic, we’ll actually be creating bibliographic records from scratch. I’ve been a cataloger for many years, and I’ll have lots of anecdotes to share. I expect some of you do, too.

Each session is limited to 20 people so that everyone will get some personal attention. Be sure to register soon for either the February or March session. This will be THE place to talk all things cataloging.

OLAC and Its Newsletter

2008-12-23T15:47:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I received my print version of the OLAC (Online Audiovisual Catalogers) Newsletter. As usual, it’s chock full of stuff that’s incredibly interesting to catalogers.

This is the first issue since OLAC’s conference in Cleveland and there are minutes of meetings plus reports of the conference programs. Conference coverage doesn’t fit into one issue, so the remainder will be included in the next Newsletter.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be an OLAC member to read all about the Conference, book reviews, and other OLAC news. The Newsletters are available to everyone on the OLAC website.

While reading the Newsletter, I learned that the OLAC website had been moved, so I updated the link on the CMRLS Catalogers’ Professional Organizations page. I also learned that CAPC (OLAC’s Cataloging Policy Committee) has just completed its Guide to Cataloging Playaway Devices, so I added a link to it on the CMRLS Catalogers Sites page.

In fact, I revised the page slightly since CAPC has produced lots of useful training materials. I included a link to their entire page.

One of the real treats of the OLAC Newsletter is the section called Cataloger’s Judgment: Questions and Answers compiled by Jay Weitz of OCLC. These are the questions that catalogers have every day as they go about their work of trying to organize the world’s output so that people can find what they're looking for. If you catalog non-book materials, Jay’s column is a “must read”.

But then, so is the entire OLAC Newsletter.

More Technical Services Blogs

2008-12-17T15:59:00.003-05:00

I’ve added a couple more links to the list of Technical Services Blogs on the CMRLS Cataloging pages.

Metadata Matters is a new blog created by Diane Hillmann. Diane is Director of Metadata Initiatives and the Information Institute of Syracuse and a major figure in the Metadata world. She’s a proponent of RDA and has given several presentations explaining how it is intended to work.

A few weeks ago I received an email suggesting that I add a blog called TSLL TechScans. While the primary audience of the blog is Law Librarians, the posts contain information useful to all people involved in Technical Services.

If you know of any Technical Services blogs (or sites) useful to TSers, please let me know. I want the cataloger’s pages to be “the” place to go for up-to-date information.

How Soon RDA?

2008-12-15T16:04:00.005-05:00

A week ago Friday (was it really that long ago?) I attended a program given by Diane Hillmann at NELINET. This was a more detailed version of the one she presented at MLA in May. Diane’s handouts are available here.

Diane’s talk was entitled The Future of Catalogers and Cataloging but was really an explanation of RDA (Resource Description and Access) and how it is intended to work.

However, before you read through the handouts, I recommend reading Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. David’s book sets the stage for Diane’s talk.

It’s difficult to appreciate RDA’s potential unless you are thinking “World Wide Web”. The difference between AACR2 and RDA is similar to the difference between a book and a website. In many ways, they look the same. Both generally have text and images. Websites have “pages” and you can look at a web page and then look at another web page similar to looking at different pages of a book. However, when reading a book, if you want to follow up on a reference you’ve seen, you need to find another book, and that book may or may not be handy. With a web page, you merely click on the reference to get to its source.

RDA is meant to be used online. Like a website, its order doesn’t matter; you click to where you want to go. However, RDA is not yet in online form and is only available as several PDFs. It’s difficult to judge the usefulness of something if it’s in a different form – like looking at a two-dimensional picture of a three-dimensional object.

RDA’s shortfall, however in addition to its software not being available, it that the infrastructure on which it depends is also not available. Instead of having an author’s (or illustrator’s or composer’s) name listed in its authorized form on a bibliographic record, there is a URI (Universal Resource Identifier) that links to a database of authorized names like the Library of Congress Name Authority File. The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names can be used for cities and countries. Both LCNAF and the TGN offer far more information than a single name (so that users could search on “Big Apple” and still find New York City, for example). But equivalent databases do not exist for much of the information in a bibliographic record. Without these databases to which to link, the new RDA bib record is almost exactly like the current AACR2 bib record.

There’s an amazing new world out there on the World Wide Web, but we don’t yet have the tools to take advantage of it.

New Books

2008-11-21T09:18:00.014-05:00

CMRLS has received 2 new Technical Services books in the RCO (aka Professional) Collection. They are now cataloged and ready for use.

Cataloging of Audiovisual Materials and Other Special Materials: A Manual Based on AACR2 and MARC21 by Nancy B. Olson with the assistance of Robert L. Bothmann and Jessica J. Schomberg. I'm so glad this classic title has been updated. It is a vital resource for all non-book catalogers. There are lots of examples and I've always loved Nancy's chatty narratives chronicling her decision making process.

Metadata by Marcia Lei Zeng and Jian Qin has received good reviews. I haven't read it myself, but I figure there's no way a library can have too many books on this hot topic.

All new books (not just Technical Services) are highlighted on the CMRLS website on the "New Books" page. Each title has a direct link to the bibliographic record in C/W MARS for easy requesting.

The Latest on RDA

2008-11-12T12:05:00.003-05:00

I found this notice in my inbox today:

"Due to complications in software development, the Committee of Principals has determined that the full draft of RDA will be issued in PDF files. It will be available on November 17, 2008. We will provide the appropriate URL for accessing the full draft at this time. We will also provide an update on the software as soon as possible.

Nathalie Schulz, Secretary, JSC
for the
Committee of Principals"

I sometimes wonder if RDA will really happen. I'll be teaching a cataloging mini-course this coming spring and I'm glad that, for the moment, I can still use all of my material from AACR2/MARC. Of course I'll introduce RDA, but at least I have more time before I have to teach it.

The NELA Conference

2008-11-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

Wow! It’s been a busy month since I last posted.

I attended the New England Library Association Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire on October 19-21. There were lots of good programs including 3 organized by NETSL. I want to thank NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) for sponsoring one of the programs. They paid for Victoria Reich of Stanford University to fly to Manchester to talk about the CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program on Monday morning.

Monday afternoon, Danny Joudry , Assistant Professor at Simmons College GSLIS and Diane Baden, of Boston College Libraries discussed some Hot Topics in Tech Services. Diane reviewed RDA and Dan talked about the education (or in some cases lack of education) of catalogers. This panel was followed by the first-ever reception for NETSL members. Good food, stimulating company and a free drink. What more could you ask?

On Tuesday, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Research Scientist at OCLC, presented Why not the Library First? and suggested ways to return our libraries to prime source status.

Another fantastic program that I attended was sponsored by the Information Technology Section called The Internet is NOT Flat with Ethan Zuckermann, cofounder of Global Voices. Ethan is one of the best speakers I have ever seen. His presentation was incredibly well-organized, thought-provoking and fun. His topics flowed smoothly from one to the next. If you ever have a chance to see him in person, I strongly recommend it.

Blogs posts of all NELA programs, along with links to presentations and handouts, are available at the NELA website. What a great way to catch up on programs that you missed.

Another Incredible Success

2008-10-07T16:43:00.006-04:00

I traveled to Cleveland a couple of weeks ago to attend the OLAC/MOUG Conference. Even though I went through my pre-travel jitters (What am I going to pack? How will I find everything? Why don’t I just stay home and sleep in my own bed and stick with my routines?), everything went smoothly and the conference was great.

My plane didn’t land in time for me to take the scheduled tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I did, however, manage to attend the OLAC Executive Board meeting (which is open to all members) and learn more about what goes on behind the scenes.

The Conference began on Friday morning with a Continental Breakfast (all of the food was really good) and an opening keynote address by Lynne Howarth of the University of Toronto. Then came the breakout sessions and I headed to listen to Joseph Hinger of St. John’s University talk about Integrating Resources. His presentation was packed, but easily understood and there were handouts with lots of great examples.

The conference hotel was attached to a shopping mall. I had lunch in the food court and ended up sitting at a table with another OLAC attendee. My choice of afternoon breakout was Metadata for Audiovisual Materials and Its Role in Digital Projects by Jenn Riley of Indiana University/Bloomington. The more I learn about the various schemas, the more fascinated I become with them. There are some that I’d never heard of that are used for very specific projects.

Friday evening, we were treated to a reception at the Cleveland Museum of Art where I met some other people from Massachusetts and shared information about colleagues-in-common.

Saturday morning was the time for the poster sessions. People put a lot of work into describing their projects. However, none applied to my job so I didn’t linger. I attended a breakout session on Form/Genre Headings presented by Janis Young of the Library of Congress.

Lunch was the banquet and business meeting. I had heard much of the information at the board meeting, but there was some some new information. The final breakout session was Advanced Sound Recordings with Robert Freeborn from Penn State University. I can say that AV materials have become much more complicated over the years making AV cataloging much more complicated.

The real treats came on Sunday morning beginning with a program on RDA. Speakers were Glenn Patton of OCLC and Heidi Hoerman of the University of South Carolina. Heidi gave an especially provocative talk on her perspective of RDA. After much research she thinks RDA will die a quiet death and AACR will be revised. Next came a panel of presenters ready to answer audience questions and then Janet Swan Hill of the University of Colorado at Boulder summed up her reactions to the conference.

It was a very full two-and-a-half days. Handouts for all sessions are on the OLAC conference site.

And now I’m back at work, thinking about the different ways I’ll use everything I learned.

The ABCs of TS

2008-09-24T15:41:00.004-04:00

All professions have their acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations and libraries are no different.

Here are some that you are likely to see as you read through library literature with a focus on Technical Services.

AACR2 – Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules – 2nd edition. Published in 1978 by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (in the UK), AACR2 contains the guidelines for cataloging (or cataloguing) library materials.
RDA – Resource Description and Access. Built on foundations established by the AACR, RDA is being developed as a new standard for resource description and access designed for the digital world.
FRBR – Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. A conceptual entity-relationship model developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) that relates user tasks of retrieval and access in online library catalogues and bibliographic databases from a user’s perspective.

Okay, I’ll bet those were easy. You probably see them a lot. Now, how about these?
OLAC – Online Audiovisual Catalogers. An organization for media catalogers.
CAPC – OLAC’s Cataloging Policy Committee. CAPC represents the concerns of AV catalogers in matters relating to the formation, interpretation and implementation of national and international cataloging standards and related matters.
ALCTS – Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Pronounced (uh-lex), ALCTS is a division of ALA (American Library Association) that specifically addresses Technical Services issues.
CC:DA – Committee on Cataloging: Description & Access. The body within the American Library Association responsible for developing official ALA positions on additions to and revisions of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules.
MARBI - Machine Readable Bibliographic Information. A committee within the American Library Association responsible for developing official ALA positions on standards for the representation in machine-readable form of bibliographic information. MARBI focuses its attention on the development of the MARC format.

If you encounter an acronym (in any field) and want to find out what it stands for, a handy source is a specialized online dictionary called Acronym finder.

The Library of Congress has a long list of acronyms. I'll save them for a separate post.

“Introduction to Library Digitization” - All the Details

2008-09-19T15:03:00.005-04:00

If you haven't yet registered for this day-long conference, this is your chance. It looks like a great combination of speakers and topics. There's even a registration form at the end.

MLA Technical Services Section proudly presents “Introduction to Library Digitization”, a one day program on Tuesday October 28th, 2008, at the Worcester Public Library. This program will cover what libraries need to consider before starting a digitization project.

The speakers will be Massachusetts librarians who have successfully implemented digitization projects at their libraries.

The sessions will be:
Virtual Archives: Preparing to Create a Digital Collection Speaker: Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, M.A.L.S., C.A., F.S.A. Scot Preservation Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners 9:15 a.m.- 10:30 a.m.

Digitizing Dissertations at UMass Worcester Speakers, Mary Piorun, MLS, AHIP Associate Director for Technology Initiatives and Resource Management, Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts, Worcester
Lisa Palmer, MLS Catalog Librarian, Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts, Worcester 10:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m.

Digital Copyright in the 21st Century Speaker: Andrew D. Epstein, J.D. Barker, Epstein & Loscocco Copyright and Trademark Law; General Civil Litigation; Photography and Visual Art Law; Publishing and Licensing Agreements; General Business, Corporate and Real Estate Law
1:00 p.m. -2:15 p.m.

Panel Discussion: The day will end with a panel discussion with Massachusetts & Connecticut librarians on: * How libraries actually began their digitization project * The issues faced by librarians doing real projects * Project planning and management * Hardware needs * Copyright considerations * Metadata Standards used for data creation 2:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Panel Members:
Dodie Gaudet, Consultant for Bibliographic & Technical Services, Central Mass. Regional Library System; Kristi Chadwick, Access Services Supervisor, C/WMARS; Jeffrey Monseau, Archivist, Springfield College speaking on Central Mass Memory Project to increase the holdings of Digital Treasures (http://dlib.cwmars.org/)

Kathy Foulke, Connecticut History Online project director.

Leone E. Cole, Library Director, Watertown Free Public Library on Watertown’s Online Image Collection.

Date/time: October 28. 9:00a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Location: Worcester Public Library, Saxe Room 3 Salem Sq Worcester, MA 01608
(508) 799-1655
Map and directions: http://www.worcpublib.org/about/main.html
Metered parking at 50 cents per hour.
Cost: Early bird registration: (before Oct 1st) $40.00 per person $30.00 for MLA members
After October 1st: $45.00 per person $35.00 for MLA members

Deadline to register: October 14, 2008 Early bird deadline is October 1, 2008

Catering by: by Eric's LaPatisserie Café ____________________________________________________________________
To register:
1. Please send your check made payable to the Massachusetts Library Association to:
Lois Bacon Attn: MLA-TSS program 29 Harding Rd Needham MA 02492

Or register online at http://www.masslib.org/tss/Fall08DigitizationProgram.htm

2. Please fill out the information below and send it with your check

Full name: _______________________
Address: _______________________
_______________________
_______________________
If you would like a vegetarian meal, please check here ___
For registration questions, please contact: LBacon@EBSCO.COM

TechKNOW

2008-09-08T14:27:00.007-04:00

The Technical Services Division of the Ohio Library Council publishes a quarterly newsletter for Technical Services Librarians called TechKNOW. The August edition has just been released.

It includes practical information on OCLC’s Enhance Program, the imminent obsolescence of the 440 tag, the report of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, and the review of two books that Tech Services Librarians will want to know about and might want to purchase.

Some of the articles apply only to Ohio librarians, but I like to know what’s going on outside of New England. Who know what good ideas I might be able to "borrow"?

TechKNOW is freely available at Kent State University Libraries and Media Services. Check it out!

Introduction to Library Digitization - a program from MLA/TSS

2008-08-29T11:05:00.005-04:00

The Technical Services Section of the Massachusetts Library Association has organized a day-long program on the practical aspects of digitization in libraries. I'll be one of the afternoon panelists.

Here are the essentials:
Date: Tuesday October 28th, 2008
Location: Saxe Room, Worcester Public Library
Deadline to register: October 14, 2008

Cost: Early bird registration: (before Oct 1st) $40.00 per person
$30.00 for MLA members
After October 1st: $45.00 per person
$35.00 for MLA members

For registration questions, contact: Lois Bacon at LBacon@EBSCO.COM

This is a hot topic in libraries right now. Hope to see you there!

CE for TS

2008-08-27T11:18:00.006-04:00

The Fall Continuing Education Catalog is out! Be sure to browse through it and register for some of the great workshops the CMRLS staff has organized.

For Technical Services people, there will be a Roundtable on Tuesday, September 23 at the Gale Free Library in Holden. Here's a chance to visit another Tech Services department and see how they do things.

There are no prerequisites to attend a Roundtable. Just bring along any questions you might have and a willingness to share ideas and solutions.

See you there!

Always Moving Forward

2008-08-08T14:25:00.003-04:00

I’ve made some changes (as I do periodically) to the Cataloger’s pages on the CMRLS website.

Lois Reibach recently announced her new blog Collocate and Disambiguate on the AUTOCAT discussion list. The blog discusses issues of authority control and authority data. I really like her title. I expect it's one only a cataloger would think of.

When I first began compiling the Cataloger’s pages three years ago, there were very few Technical Services oriented blogs. Now I have 16 listed and I know there are a lot more. Please feel free to tell me if you know of one I have not yet discovered.

At the Serials Roundtable earlier this week, a participant mentioned something she had read on the discussion list SERIALIST. I am embarrassed to say I had neglected to add SERIALIST to the page on Electronic Discussion Lists and I remedied the oversight as soon as I returned to my office.

Most of my career has been spent with monographs, primarily cataloging, but also acquisitions in my early professional years. Serials are not the first things that come to my mind when I think Technical Services, but I promise to pay more attention from now on.

New Book on MARC

2008-07-07T10:46:00.003-04:00

Just added to the CMRLS Professional Collection: Easy MARC, 5th edition, by Scott Piepenburg.
ISBN: 978-1-933170-31-2; CMRLS Classification Number: RCO 025.3 Piepenburg.

Lots of explanations and examples and much more readable than the documentation from Library of Congress or OCLC. Integration of cataloging rules and ISBD punctuation.

I'll have the book with me on Wednesday, July 9, when I teach a workshop on reading a MARC record at the Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster. There's still time to register if you want to join us.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

2008-06-30T14:43:00.005-04:00

Last week, I received an announcement from the Cataloging Distribution Service News and Announcements list. It read

“DELAY IN PUBLICATION OF 31st EDITION OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS

Due to production problems, the 31st edition of the five-volume printed edition of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, commonly referred to as the Red Books, will not be available until the spring of 2009. The data cutoff date for the 31st edition will now be December 31, 2008.

Customers who have already placed a paid order for the 31st edition have the option of leaving their payments in their deposit accounts or requesting a refund.”

When the Red Books became available online back in 2001 or 2002, I began to use them in that format. I was a contract cataloger at the time, working at a variety of different libraries, and I didn’t always have access to the (then) 4-volume print edition. It is often easier to scan the printed version and one gets a different perspective of the subject headings on paper than from the digital version, but I’ve grown accustomed to searching for subject headings with my computer and that is my preferred method of access.

For one thing, there are now 5 – count ‘em 5 – Red Books to browse through looking for that authorized word or phrase. If I want to keep the books close enough that I don’t have to leave my computer, I’d have to get an additional desk! And like the electronic version of anything, the list is easy to revise and is updated nightly. While the print version saves paper and ink by using Pattern Headings, the electronic version can include all subdivisions for every topic. It also includes names and free-floating subdivisions which the print version cannot do without turning into a 10-volume set.

Newcomers to cataloging can benefit from the print version, though, because it includes a very valuable introduction – definitely worth reading – with instructions for how to navigate the Red Books plus the history and background of subject headings. The explanation on the Authorities web site focuses on how to search effectively. That’s important, but it assumes the cataloger already knows all about LCSH and needs only information about what’s different on the web site from the Red Books.

If you haven’t used the online version of LCSH, it’s available at the Library of Congress web site. LC has lots of interesting things on their site, so it’s worth a trip regardless of Subject Headings.

If you’d like to sign up for News and Announcements from the LC’s Cataloging Distribution Service, you can do that here.

More Technical Services Blogs

2008-06-26T13:21:00.001-04:00

I’ve had to update the Blogs page in the Cataloging section of the CMRLS website because I recently discovered two more Blogs that address Technical Services issues.

Metalogue, with the tag line “new directions in cataloging and metadata from around the world”, is hosted by Karen Calhoun, Vice President, WorldCat and Metadata Services for OCLC. In the box labeled “About this Blog” is written: “Metalogue is a forum for sharing thoughts on all things related to knowledge organization by and for libraries”. It appears that others will be joining Karen periodically to “contribute perspectives and experiences about the current and future state of cataloguing and metadata.”

On Descript is a Blog I gladly recommend to new catalogers. So far, the posts consist of basic descriptions of Folksonomy, Metadata, and the Cataloging process with sources cited for more detailed information. The content is not surprising given that the writer is a student at the University of South Florida working towards his Masters in Library and Information Science. Good luck to you, Ken Matthews. I look forward to your joining the ranks of professional Catalogers.

Tech Services Video

2008-06-20T09:14:00.004-04:00

There aren't many (any?) videos about Technical Services, but this one is a beauty.

It's a parody of a hospital emergency room (ER), using library Technical Services (TS). While accuracy sometimes suffers for the sake of the performance (as in the scene of two people rushing to repair a book so that it can get back into circulation) the video is a quick, fun look at what goes on in the library that not many know about.

"Thanks" to Illinois' Arlington Heights Memorial Library for producing this little gem.

Rocking the Metaverse with OLAC

2008-06-19T11:40:00.003-04:00

Registration for the OLAC-MOUG 2008 Conference is now open!

Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC) and Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) are holding a joint conference. The conference, called Rocking the Metaverse:A/V Cataloging in a Web X.0 Environment, will be held Friday, September 26 through Sunday, September 28, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio.

This is my favorite conference. Imagine 200 people talking in MARC codes! It’s the perfect place for a cataloger to be.

In addition to plenary sessions with Lynne Howarth (former Dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto), Janet Swan Hill (Associate Director for Technical Services, University of Colorado), and another on RDA, there are also four breakout workshops on cataloging various non-book materials.

The conference is not all work. Tours of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and University Circle are planned for Thursday afternoon and there will be a Friday evening reception at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

There is a Map Cataloging preconference on Thursday September 25 given by Paige Andrew, Faculty Maps Cataloging Librarian at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries.

Detailed information as well as the conference registration form is available, so register now.

I’ll be there. Will you?

Call for NETSL officers for next year

2008-06-12T08:49:00.004-04:00

The following was just posted by the NETSL Corresponding Secretary Barry Hennessey on the NETSL discussion list. Please consider running for the NETSL Executive Board. It's a great educational and professional experience. Additional perks are that you get to meet wonderful people and attend the NETSL Spring Conference for no charge.

If you want to talk about the benefits and responsibilities before making a commitment, feel free to contact me via email dgaudet@cmrls.org or telephone 508-757-4110 x307.

NETSL EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTIONS:
CALL FOR (SELF-) NOMINATIONS

We are looking for a few enthusiastic individuals to run for positions on NETSL’s 2008-2009 Executive Board. Participating on the Board will allow you to have direct input into the conference programs that NETSL sponsors throughout the year as well as into the direction of NETSL as an organization.

We are seeking candidates for the following positions:

· Vice President/President-Elect (a three-year commitment: the VP succeeds to the office of President, and remains a third year on the Board as Past President. The VP must be—or become—a member of the ALCTS division of the American Library Association.)
· Recording Secretary
· Corresponding Secretary
· Treasurer

You can find out more about the duties of the officers from NETSL’s bylaws at http://www.nelib.org/netsl/bylaws.htm. Terms begin at the end of NETSL’s fall meeting, held during the NELA annual conference (October 19-21, 2008). With the exception of the Vice President/President-Elect, officers serve one-year terms with the possibility of re-election for a second term.

If you are interested in running or would like more information, please contact Dodie Gaudet at dgaudet@cmrls.org; 508-757-4110 x307.

Ballots will go out by the first week in August, so we will need to hear from you by July 11, 2008 to prepare the slate.

CE for TS

2008-05-22T15:05:00.005-04:00

There are lots of Continuing Education workshops for Technical Services people at all levels scheduled for the summer. Here’s a quick list. You can register for these or any other CE programs by going to the CMRLS website and clicking on "Continuing Education Classes" on the right-hand side under the word EVENTS.

Thursday, June 12, 10 a.m. at CMRLS. Digital Treasures in your Library: Overview & Update – Whether or not your library is participating in Digital Treasures, you can learn more about the project and the multiple ways it can benefit your library.

Wednesday, July 9, 10 a.m. at the Thayer Library in Lancaster. Read Along with MARC: How to read a MARC record – Intended for copy catalogers and new catalogers who want a better understanding of what all those numbers and symbols mean.

Thursday, July 17, 1:30 p.m. at CMRLS. Cataloging Electronic Resources – Every day, catalogers in academic and research libraries are faced with new and complicated media. Here’s a way to cope.

Wednesday, August 6, 10:00 a.m. at the Learning Resources Center at Worcester State College, The Ever-Evolving World of Serials: Serials Roundtable - The chance for Serials Catalogers to share their joys and sorrows with each other.

Thursday, August 14, 10:00 a.m. at CMRLS. Must-See Sites for Technical Services – An exploration of websites geared to Technical Services librarians and staff and a chance to share your favorites with others.

So get out your calendar and plan to spend some time honing your Tech Services knowledge and skills.

MLA, RDA and the Future

2008-05-21T09:56:00.002-04:00

I spent four stimulating days in Falmouth at the Mass Library Association Conference from May 6-9 which included a Pre-Conference on The Future of the ILS (Integrated Library System). My two favorite programs were the Keynote Speaker David Weinberger of Everything is Miscellaneous fame and Diane Hillmann who spoke on The Emerging Cataloging Future: RDA, DCMI, and the Semantic Web. I actually skipped a program called Learn, Laugh and Let Go: A Comic Stress Management Program with mime Robert Rivest to listen to Diane Hillmann. While I’m sorry I missed the mime, I’m not at all sorry I heard Ms Hillmann explain how RDA (Resource Description and Access) is intended to work.

The key to my enlightenment during the RDA program was first listening to David Weinberger. I read Everything is Miscellaneous last summer and really enjoyed it. Mr. Weinberger does not bash traditional library classification. His point is that organizing digital objects is different from organizing physical objects which can only be in one place at any one time. When people are meandering through the web, the path is not linear. We can begin at one place, click on a link to an entirely different place and, from there, go somewhere unrelated to where we began. Blogs and websites are good examples of how people navigate on the web. Think of all of the additional information “contained” on a blog via its links. While a book may have footnotes and citations, the material cited is not actually in the book.

With that image in mind, consider RDA, the successor to AACR2. RDA is meant to be digital, so it is not linear like AARC2 or any print resource. Most of the discussion I’ve been following on AUTOCAT and other lists has focused on the rules themselves. The larger picture of RDA creates bibliographic records with links instead of actual text. The links display as text, so the end result is the same at what we’re used to seeing.

For those of you who have a name authority file embedded in your OPAC, your main (and other) entries are linked to the records in that authority file. If you change the authority record, you globally change every name attached to it. This makes life a lot easier when adding a death date, for example and also links together all titles by one specific author.

RDA goes much further. Many (most?) terms can actually be linked to an authority record which contains much more information than the term. For example, while you might see the phrase “New York”, in actuality the place of publication would be a URI to the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. Where ever there is some sort of authority file such as LC name or subject authorities or the previously mentioned Getty Thesaurus, the person creating the bibliographic record could insert a URI rather than keying in a phrase. Then, if the viewer chose, he/she could follow that link and see the extensive information about New York contained in the authority record.

While many authority files exist, many more need to be created. An infrastructure must be built in order for RDA to work well. What a fascinating future we have ahead of us!

Thoughts on FRBR and RDA

2008-05-02T10:16:00.005-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I attended a program at CMRLS on AACR2, RDA and FRBR. It was presented by Amy Benson, formerly of NELINET and now Archivist for Digital Initiatives at the Schlesinger Library. Amy always does a very good job. She researches her topic thoroughly and presents it with lots of humor and interesting anecdotes. This presentation was no exception.

Amy spent a lot of time laying the foundation by explaining that FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) is a conceptual model that identifies entities, relationships, and attributes. A bibliographic entity has 4 attributes: Work, Expression, Manifestation (the equivalent of a bibliographic record) and Item (one specific, physical piece). A work entity has a reciprocal relationship with a person entity when the work was created by a person and the person created the work. There are a lot more details which were carefully mapped out with the aid of diagrams.

There has been lots of discussion on AUTOCAT and other electronic discussion lists about FRBR and RDA (Resource Description and Access). Listening to Amy’s presentation helped me solidify my own feelings towards these ideas. I strongly agree with the FRBR principles. While it may seem strange at first, FRBR is really the way we organize books and other works. We want to know if a movie with a particular title is related to a book with the same title or if an audio version of a book is exactly the book word-for-word or if it has been modified. I like the way AquaBrowser and Endeca make use of the FRBR relationships in our online catalogs. I also think it’s easier for patrons when they know that a library has a title and don’t care which edition they borrow.

However, I am really ambivalent about RDA which is intended to replace AACR2 using FRBR principles. As someone who has cataloged art objects and other non-book materials, I am well aware of AACR2’s shortcomings. Yet, it works really well for books and other print material. Can a one-size-fits-all product like RDA really do both books and websites justice? As things stand now, no one is happy with RDA. Some think is goes too far and others not far enough.

I wonder how this will all shake out. We’ll begin to find out in the spring of 2009 when RDA is due to be published. Stay tuned!

OLAC Conference Scholarship

2008-04-11T12:30:00.002-04:00

OLAC (OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers) organizes a biennial conference for catalogers who work with – what else? – audiovisual materials. This is the place where people speak MARCese (“In 245 subfield c … “) and everyone knows exactly what they mean.

The 2008 conference will be held September 26-28 at the Renaissance Hotel in Cleveland Ohio and scholarships are available for first time attendees. The application and supporting materials must be received no later than May 15, 2008. The award will be announced no later than July 30, 2008.

Eligibility:Any personal member of OLAC who has never attended an OLAC Conference is eligible for the OLAC Conference Scholarship.Award Description:The award amount will be determined by the OLAC Board; it will be sufficient to cover reasonable estimated costs for registration, lodging, travel, and meals.Conditions/Requirements: The recipient must confirm in writing that he or she will attend. The recipient must attend the full conference, including the business meeting where the award will be announced, and the recipient must write a brief report for the OLAC Board indicating what he or she gained and found to be most helpful in his or her work.
Applicants must include the completed application form below, current resume, and a cover letter describing why the applicant wishes to attend the Conference, how the receipt/non-receipt of the scholarship will influence his or her ability to attend the conference, and potential applications to his or her present and future job responsibilities.

2008 OLAC CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION FORM(Please enter information and print the form or type/print neatly)

Name: (First MI Last)
Mailing Address:
Country:
Daytime telephone:
Email address:
Place of employment:
Position title:
Personal member of Online Audiovisual Catalogers since:
Brief description of job responsibilities/related non-print involvement/experience:

Send the application (printed or electronic) and supporting materials to:Pam Skittino
skittino@cooklib.org
OLAC Conference Scholarship CommitteeCook Memorial Public Library District413 N. Milwaukee Ave. Libertyville, IL 60048
For further information, please contact Pam Skittino at (847) 362-2352 x157 or skittino@cooklib.org

OLAC has great conferences. Every time I’ve attended I’ve learned a lot, met some really interesting people, and visited wonderful places. As part of the conferences’ programs, I’ve toured a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park, IL as well as the National Geographic Society in Washington DC.

I encourage catalogers to apply for this scholarship. Good luck to all applicants.

Another NETSL Success

2008-04-08T16:54:00.002-04:00

On Friday, April 4, the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross College was packed as 280 Librarians attended the annual NETSL (New England Technical Services Librarians) conference. This year’s title was Cohabiting and Colliding: Print and Electronic resources.

If you weren’t there, you missed some great presentations and discussions (as well as a good meal). But all is not lost. PowerPoints and handouts are available to see on the NETSL website.

And congratulations to David Miller of the Levin Library at Currey College. David was the recipient of the NETSL Award for Excellence in Technical Services.

Don’t miss the fun next year. The conference will be held on a Friday in April in 2009. We don’t have a specific date yet, but when we do, it will be posted on the website. Information will be updated as we select a title and begin lining up speakers, so visit the site regularly.

Get Involved with MLA/TSS

2008-03-27T12:10:00.008-04:00

Back in the 1980s when I was a relatively new staff member at the Western Mass Regional Library System, someone asked me if I'd like to run for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Technical Services Section of the Massachusetts Library Association. Saying "Yes" was one of the best moves I ever made professionally, socially, and intellectually.

Now you have an opportunity to meet new friends, develop leadership skills, serve others, and gain increased personal and professional satisfaction. As of July 1, there are two vacant positions on the MLA/TSS Executive Board. One is Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (one-year term) and the other is Member-at-Large (two-year term).

If you would like to serve in either of these positions please contact Chair Wei Jeng-Chu at wjengchu@cwmars.org or Vice-Chair Cecile Bianco at Cecile.Bianco@umassmed.edu. The slate will be presented and voted on at the TSS Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 8th at the MLA Annual Conference.

There are no extra dues to be a TSS member. Simply check off TSS on your MLA member application or renewal. It could be the best move you've ever made.

MLA has a lot to offer Technical Services staff

2008-03-26T11:15:00.003-04:00

I hope you’re planning to spend some time at the Mass Library Association conference in Falmouth. Dates: May 6-9, 2008. The Technical Services Section has put together a dazzling array of programs.

First, on Tuesday, May 6 and the morning of May 7, there will be a pre-conference devoted entirely to The Future of the ILS (Integrated Library System). Speakers are Marshall Breeding, Director of Innovative Technologies and Research at Vanderbilt University Libraries and Eric Lease Morgan, Head of Digital Access and Information Architecture at University Libraries of Notre Dame. Also speaking will be representatives from new and innovative ILSs like Georgia PINES, Koha, Endeca, VUFind, Scriblio, and WorldCat Local.

The rest of the schedule is just as exciting

Wednesday, May 7th, 1:15pm – 2:30pm. The Emerging Cataloging Future: RDA, DCMI, and the Semantic Web. Speaker: Diane L. Hillmann, Research Librarian, Cornell University Library.

Thursday, May 8th, 9:30am - 10:45am. The Future of Bibliographic Control: Predictions, Pratfalls, Dread or Delight? Speaker: Janet Swan Hill, Professor, Associate Director for Technical Services, University of Colorado Libraries.

Thursday, May 8th, 11:30am - 12:45am. UR Research at the University of Rochester: an Institutional Repository case study. Speaker: Suzanne Bell, Economics/Data Librarian and UR Research Projects Coordinator, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester.

Registrations must be postmarked before April 18, 2008 or you can also register at the Conference.

I'll be there and I hope to see you.

Book Review: Cataloging Without Tears

2008-03-17T11:04:00.006-04:00

Cataloging without tears: managing knowledge in the information society by Jane M. Read. Oxford, England : Chandos Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 1843340437 (pbk)

There are lots of things I like about this book beyond its intriguing title. I like the chatty, informal tone. It’s a book that constantly reassures readers that cataloging doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, cataloging can be a lot of fun for those “who enjoy intellectual challenges for their own sake.” Even the layout of the book is reassuring and easy to read. There is lots of white space so the book reads fairly quickly.

It contains a lot of good background and good general information including a section on Dublin Core and ONIX. In fact, I had an “aha” moment since I learned the precise place for a piece of information that I was never sure how to include in a Dublin Core record. It was like finding a missing link. There is a very informative comparison and contrast of AACR2/MARC and DC, XML, ONIX.

The book is divided into two parts. All of the above are included in Part I or “The Big Picture”. Part II is called “The Nitty-Gritty” and covers just that – in a way. In discussing the specific parts of a bib records, Ms Read describes the thought process involved when choosing what to include and how. There is a very good chapter on cataloging items in different languages, something I’ve faced many times and, fortunately, survived. Another chapter covers the details of cataloging archives and rare books.

While this book is well worth reading, it has some shortcomings. The first is that the British orientation can sometimes be distracting for U.S. readers. Cataloging Without Tears is definitely not a reference book. One cannot learn much by skimming the book; an entire chapter (or the book) must be read to get any value out of it.

While Ms. Read uses a lot of humor, it is sometimes a little too cute for my taste. There are many cartoon, few of which I thought were funny. Humor can be culture specific, though, so maybe a British reader would react differently.

While Part II is entitled “The Nitty-Gritty”, no actual rules are cited. In talking about dates, Ms Read says “AACR gives rules for determining which date to use.” Examples of bib records do not use the format of Library of Congress Subject Headings which may be confusing for U.S. readers trying to learn how to catalog. Many libraries in central Massachusetts and throughout the state are a part of an automated network such as C/W MARS, yet the book assumes a standalone catalog and never addresses shared catalogs. The book was published in 2003, so is slightly out-of-date. Ms Read states that AACR3 will be published in 2005 or 2006. AACR3 was abandoned a few years ago for RDA which is (optimistically) due to arrive in the spring of 2009.

Don’t be turned off by these few negative comments. Overall, I think this book is well worth the time of a new (or newish) cataloger to gain a lot of insight into the history, background and thought process of cataloging. Even a veteran cataloger like me can – and did – learn a few things.

NETSL Spring Conference – Registration is Open

2008-03-03T13:38:00.001-05:00

If you’re not a subscriber to one of the myriad cataloging-related electronic discussion lists (NETSL, Autocat, OLAC, NELINET, etc.) you might not have heard that registration is now open for the Absolutely Very Best conference for Technical Services Librarians.

Every year, usually on a Friday in April, NETSL – New England Technical Services Librarians – organizes a conference so great that it draws over 200 librarians from all over the northeast. The two featured speakers are Janet Swan Hill and Jay Weitz – both well know and well respected names in the cataloging field. In addition, there are 4 breakout sessions scheduled on a variety of topics relating to managing the traditional print resources AND the newer electronic resources.

For more details, visit the NETSL website. You can register with a credit card or by mail. Registrations are pouring in, so act fast.

What! Working in libraries can be stressful?

2008-02-28T12:28:00.005-05:00

Even though we work in libraries because we believe in them and want to work there, there are some stressful situations. There is the occasional irate patron and office politics do not happen only in profit making organizations.

There is physical stress, too. For those of us who work at a computer most of the day, carpel tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress injury are, unfortunately, too frequent. Just plain sore and stiff muscles are common regardless of the type of job.

Here are two aids – one for each kind of stress.

Managing Stress and Conflict in Libraries by Sheila Pantry has just been added to our professional collection. Request it via the C/W MARS catalog.

StretchWare is a program that you can download to your computer. It reminds you to stretch and gives you some simple exercises, most of which you can do at your desk. You can try it free for 30 days. I’ve been using it a mere 24 hours and so far I am favorably impressed.

Oops! The little Zen bell just rang. Gotta go relieve some stress!

New Books

2008-02-22T16:16:00.019-05:00

We’ve added several new books to the RCO (aka Professional ) Collection at CMRLS. Here are the titles that pertain to Technical Services.

Fundamentals of Technical Services Management / Sheila S. Intner, with Peggy Johnson. Chicago : ALA, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8389-0953-9. Call no.: RCO025.02 Intner.

FRBR a Guide for the Perplexed / Robert L. Maxwell. Chicago : ALA, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8389-0950-8. Call no. RCO 025.3 Maxwell.

Understanding FRBR : What it is and How it will Affect our Retrieval Tools / edited by Arlene G. Taylor. Westport, CT : Libraries Unlimited, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-59158-509-1. Call no.: RCO 025.3 Understanding.

Sheila Intner, Robert Maxwell and Arlene Taylor are all very respected names in the cataloging arena.

All of these titles are in the C/W MARS catalog. To borrow any of them, follow the same procedure that you would for any other item: Locate the title in the CMARS section of the catalog and click on the “Request” button.

We have lots of other titles in our RCO collection. We’ve purchased them for you to borrow. If you discover a useful title that we don’t own, please let us know. We’ll likely order it.

Share your history. Be a part of Digital Treasures

2008-02-14T11:53:00.002-05:00

Have you explored Digital Treasures? If not, you’re in for a treat.

Click here and then click on “Browse” along the top of the page.
You can do it right now. I’ll wait….

Did you see the image of that great Grout steam automobile for $800? It’s part of the collection at the Wheeler Memorial Library in Orange. Did you see the images of Calvin Coolidge in the Forbes Library’s collection? Or the one of the Great Fire on School Street in Worcester in 1838? The Bancroft Memorial Library in Hopedale has scanned historic, one-of a kind newspapers as well as photographs. In all, 26 libraries are participants in this fantastic resource and you can be, too.

I have received a grant from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation to help libraries in central Massachusetts add their treasured photographs, postcards, pamphlets and other materials to Digital Treasures. Don’t have the time to choose items? Don’t know how to create metadata in Dublin Core? Not to worry. The grant includes a professional librarian that will work with you on those tasks.

Not a member of C/W MARS? Not a problem. The grant includes scanning fees for both members and non-members of C/W MARS.

Don’t delay! Contact me right away to get more information. Contact me right away to begin the process of adding your images to Digital Treasures. Contact me right away at dgaudet@cmrls.org or 508-757-4110 x307.

What’s in store for DDC

2008-02-13T14:58:00.002-05:00

The Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC) is a ten-member international advisory board for the Dewey Decimal Classification system. The EPC held its most recent meeting (called Meeting 128) on November 13 and 14, 2007 at the Library of Congress.

EPC is the group that revises DDC and at this meeting they approved a complete overhaul of the treatment of groups of people, a project that has been under discussion since fall 2005. EPC also approved changes in 004-006 (Computer science); 010-090 (Information and general works); 100 (Philosophy, parapsychology and occultism, psychology); 320 (Political science); 380 (Commerce, communications, transportation); 390 (Customs and etiquette, except folklore); 520-550 (Astronomy, physics, chemistry, earth sciences); 610 (Medicine and health); 630 (Agriculture and related technologies); 780 (Music); 790 (Recreational and performing arts); 800 (Literature and rhetoric).

Also planned are changes in topics such as philosophical counseling; alternative therapies; volleyball; abortion; cytology and histology; and wine.

How did I find all of this out? I subscribe to the online newsletter LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE. It’s published irregularly by the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, Library Services, Library of Congress, and contains news of cataloging activities throughout the Library of Congress.

LC CATALOGING NEWSLINE is available in electronic form only and is free of charge. To subscribe, send a mail message to listserv @loc.gov with the text: subscribe lccn [firstname lastname]. Back issues of LCCN are available through the LCCN home page at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/lccn/

Cataloging Again

2008-02-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

Because of a shifting of responsibilities at CMRLS, I’m now copy cataloging again. Since CMRLS doesn’t have a very large collection, there’s not a lot to catalog, but we do have a very good professional collection used by lots of librarians.

Much of what we purchase is already in the C/W MARS catalog. If it isn’t in C/W MARS, it’s likely in OCLC just waiting for me to export to C/W MARS. The work isn’t difficult, but it’s nice to look at MARC records. I’m also learning the intricacies of MillCat (from Innovative Interfaces, Inc.) and the myriad ways one can produce spine labels. Maybe someday there will be an Integrated Library System (ILS) that allows easy printing of spine labels. I haven’t seen one yet. There are many ways, none of them easy.

We did recently purchase a book with an accompanying CD for which I found no copy in OCLC. I’ll search it again next week, but if there is still no bibliographic record, I’ll have to create one. I haven’t created an original record in over two years, and I hope I’m not too rusty. In the days when I cataloged every day, all day, I could whip out bib records pretty quickly complete with subject headings and classification numbers in both LC and Dewey. Now, I expect I’ll be a little slower, but I’m glad for the practice. I’ve been feeling as if I’m growing further and further away from knowing how to catalog all of the new media being developed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

(Almost) last chance to apply for NETSL scholarship

2008-01-15T11:20:00.000-05:00

For NETSL members:

The deadline to apply to NELLS (New England Library Leadership Symposium) is drawing near. The NETSL Executive Board wants to encourage Technical Services Librarians to become Library Leaders by offering a scholarship of $250 to attend NELLS.

NELLS is a great opportunity to develop leadership skills and connect with other "up and coming" library leaders from throughout New England. These connections will be invaluable for your entire career.

More information about NELLS and an application form are available at http://nelib.org/nells/. If you are a NETSL member and want to take advantage of the scholarship, add a note to your application form stating such.

The last date to apply for both NELLS and the NETSL scholarship is January 28, 2008, so GET GOING!

Get in (Technical Services) Shape

2008-01-07T14:48:00.000-05:00

CMRLS has just release the Spring Continuing Education Catalog. As usual, there is a great selection of programs for all library staff regardless of area of responsibility.

There’s a plethora of workshops for Technical Services devotees, so mark your calendars and plan to attend at least some of these events. I’ve described the ones for January and February. Watch this space for more information on workshops to be held in March, April and May.

Wednesday, January 30 (snow date February 1) at the Auburn Public Library, I’ll be teaching a workshop on Dewey Decimal Classification. Even though most bibliographic records include a DDC to use, some don’t. Sometimes the supplied number just doesn’t fit well with the rest of the items in a library’s collection. Sometime the number is wrong; I’ve found many a transposed DDC in my years of copy cataloging.

This workshop includes lots of hands on practice and practical advice for applying Dewey. We’ll see how numbers are built and learn how to shorten long numbers. And don’t forget all the opportunity for sharing tips and techniques with other Technical Services staff. Bring a recent edition (20th or 21st unabridged; 13th or 14th abridged) of DDC and items that need classifying. Please note that this workshop begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs until 12:30 p.m.

Tuesday, February 26 (snow date February 28) at the Paxton Public Library, I’m presenting a brand-new workshop on Authority Files. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make a bibliographic record useful and an Authority File is one of those things.

Several years ago, I worked on a Name Authority Project and found it fascinating. I have a lot of respect for the librarians who have researched the forms of personal and corporate names. There’s a lot of information to be gleaned from an Authority Record, but it can take a little practice to learn to read it. So take this tour with me. It begins at 10:00 a.m. and runs till noon.

You can see a list of upcoming workshops on the right hand side of the CMRLS home page. Click on the title of the workshop to be taken to a description and the opportunity to register. Want to register for something that’s not yet listed? Click on Continuing Education Classes at the top of the list for the complete schedule.

I hope to see many of you at one or more of these programs. Do they still say "be there or be square"?

New Tech. Services Titles

2008-01-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

CMRLS has something called an RCO collection. It’s a term left over from pre-incorporation days when CMRLS was a department within the Worcester Public Library and stands for Regional Consultants Office.

The RCO collection consists primarily of books (and some audiovisual materials) of use to library staff. The items include such topics as library management, supervising staff, writing grants, planning, social networking, storytelling, collection development and lots of other important topics.

Just like in your libraries, new books are arriving all the time. To see if CMRLS owns a book on a particular subject or has a specific title, search the C/W MARS catalog under Central Mass. Libraries. You can use the drop-down menu to select only CMRLS.

Three new Technical Services titles that just arrived are

Cataloging and Classification: An Introduction by Lois Mai Chan – 3rd. ed.

Maxwell’s Guide to Authority Work by Robert L. Maxwell.

Learn Library of Congress Classification by Helena Dittmann

There are lots of up-to-date Tech. Services books in the collection. Need to learn more about MARC? Dewey Decimal Classification? Metadata? We’ve got it! And coming soon: two books about FRBR.

Technical Services Librarians and Leadership

2007-12-31T12:05:00.000-05:00

I've had some good opportunities to develop my leadership skills and they've mostly been OTJ - On The Job. While there's not much that can substitute for real life adventures, I'm glad that there are additional opportunities for people in the Technical Services to become library leaders. I'm currently President of NETSL (a section of NELA - New England Library Association) and here's an opportunity I proudly to announce.

Along with all of the other advantages of being a member of the New England Technical Services Librarians here's another one.

The Executive Board of NETSL would like to encourage Technical Services staff to develop their leadership skills by applying to NELLS - The New England Library Association's leadership symposium. NELLS will be held July 28 through August 1, 2008, at Rolling Ridge Conference Center, North Andover MA.

While the cost of this symposium is underwritten by the 6 New England state library associations, participants are required to pay $500 tuition. The NETSL board is offering a scholarship - a minimum of $250 - towards the tuition of one NETSL member attending NELLS.

Applications for NELLS are due January 28, 2008.

When you fill out your application, add a note saying that you are a NETSL member and are also applying for the NETSL scholarship. If you want to apply for the scholarship and have already submitted your application, send an addendum stating such.

NELLS is a great opportunity to develop leadership skills, which are a definite asset in today's competitive library environment. Please seriously consider applying to NELLS, and, if you do, be sure to apply for the NETSL scholarship. Good Technical Services librarians make good leaders.

Cataloging History, or, The History of Cataloging

2007-12-04T14:58:00.000-05:00

Even though most cataloging is done electronically and bibliographic records are usually displayed on a computer screen, antiquated terminology is still very much in use. Words like “main entry” and “headings” and even our cataloging rules developed because of catalog cards.

If you’re confused by some of these terms because they don’t seem to fit well with NGCs (that’s New Generation Catalogs) or if you sometimes yearn for those simpler days of opening a drawer and flipping through cards, take a trip down Memory Lane with a visit to The Virtual Museum of Cataloging and Acquisitions Artifacts.

Heidi Lee Hoerman, faculty member of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina has gathered together cataloging essentials from days of yore. Take a look to see items you likely haven’t seen in many years – if you’ve ever seen them at all! The Virtual Museum’s homepage contains a link to The Library History Buff, which in turn has links to all sorts of Librariana including Library Postcards – a “must visit” for library fans.

If you’re looking for that perfect gift for your favorite cataloger, please consider Heidi's Washable Book Weights. Why would someone need a book weight? To hold a book open while keying original cataloging data into a template, of course!

Who does our cataloging?

2007-11-21T16:25:00.000-05:00

For most of us, “Cataloging” really means “Copy Cataloging” where we search a database and find a bibliographic record that matches the item we have in our hand. Except for one-of-a-kind things like manuscripts and works of art, someone has likely already cataloged the items in our collections and we only need to verify the accuracy of the bib record and import it into our library’s catalog.

That’s good. It means we spend far less time cataloging than our colleagues did 30 or 20 or even 10 years ago. It means we can train paraprofessionals to search for matching records which translates to processing items faster and getting them to our patrons in record time.

But where do all of those cataloging records that we’re all sharing come from?

A major contributor to our library catalogs is the Library of Congress via their Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate. The divisions within Bibliographic Access are responsible for the descriptive cataloging of books, music scores, sound recordings, microforms, and computer files. In addition, the Cataloging in Publication division prepares bibliographic records in advance of publication for those books most likely to be widely acquired by American libraries. The results of LC’s efforts are available to all libraries in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

However, not all of the bibliographic records we find come directly from the Library of Congress. The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) is an international cooperative program coordinated jointly by the Library of Congress & PCC participants around the world. Members contribute not only cataloging but authority records for names and subjects. The goal of PCC is to provide useful, timely, and cost-effective cataloging that can be shared by libraries.

In addition to the more formal PCC, members of OCLC or Online Computer Library Center also create and share bibliographic records via WorldCat. Once restricted to members only, WorldCat is now searchable to anyone with an Internet connection, although a membership is required to export bib records directly into a local catalog. A specific level of membership is needed to contribute records. Tens of thousands of libraries are OCLC members and their catalogers create new bibliographic records if they cannot find one that matches the item they are searching.

As a result of all this cooperation, libraries have readily available cataloging for their everyday, popular materials – as well as more obscure items – saving much time and energy. Finding bib records in a national database and importing them into a local catalog speeds up the entire cataloging process and gets items into patrons’ hands sooner. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

FRBR, AACR2 and RDA: Changes in Cataloging

2007-10-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

As 2009 draws nearer, catalogers are talking more about RDA and what it’s arrival will mean for libraries. RDA (Resource Description and Access) will replace the familiar AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed.) which has been the cataloging standard since 1978.

There is another set of initials involved in this scenario: FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), an idea which has been around for about 10 years, but hasn’t gotten much press until recently. FRBR is a conceptual model that considers Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item.

The Work is a “distinct intellectual or artistic creation.” Most of the time, it’s the title, but there are certain Works that are known by a variety of titles. Consider Hamlet which is also the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; Shakspeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; or Shakespeare’s tragedy of Hamlet depending on what happens to be printed on the title page. Yet, they are all the same Work.

If that Work (regardless of the title) is translated into another language, we now have a different Expression of the Work. If someone makes an audio recording of that Work (in either language), we now have a different Manifestation of the Work.

Item refers to the specific copy of the Work that you have in your library.

Some libraries are already taking advantage of the FRBR model in their OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogs). Products such as Endeca and Aquabrowser allow users to qualify their search easily by subject, genre, language and format.

But back to AACR2 and RDA. AACR2 was written primarily with printed materials in mind. Other media such as sound recordings could be incorporated with modifications. However, electronic media has been evolving so quickly that Chapter 9, which provides the rules for such things, had to be revised several times. The format, originally called MRDF (Machine Readable Data File) became Computer File and then Electronic Resource. As digitization, streaming media, and other new technologies were created, it became harder and harder to apply AACR2.

Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR gathered and began revising the rules to accommodate FRBR and digital media. It soon became evident that more than a revision was needed. Describing new and future media required an entirely new approach and the idea of RDA was born. The intension of RDA is to provide general guidelines that allow catalogers to describe items without the restrictions of AACR2.

However, it seems that very few people are happy with RDA. Many think the guidelines are too general and will result in inconsistent bibliographic records that are less likely to be shared among libraries. Others feel RDA is too much like AACR2 and will not be as easy to use for non-print media as they had hoped.

What does all of this mean for the cataloger in a small library that uses Library of Congress or OCLC for its source of cataloging? Probably not much right now. RDA is due out in the spring of 2009, and that’s an optimistic goal. The bibliographic records for books, CDs, and DVDs will likely continue to look very much the same for a while. The biggest impact will be on the “one of a kind” works.

Back when Quick T.S. was a column in the print newsletter Centralities, I wrote articles on RDA (p. 7 February 2006) and FRBR (p. 14 January 2006) as well one on the new OPACs (p. 14 January 2006). All of those articles contain links for more details.

I’ll continue to monitor the blogs and discussion lists for more information on the status of RDA and to post summaries. Stay tuned.

It’s more than T.S.

2007-09-07T16:35:00.000-04:00

Since this blog is titled Quick T.S., I try to stick pretty closely to Technical Services topics. However, like any good cataloger, I keep in touch with other aspects of libraries and the world beyond. Part of my job at CMRLS involves teaching workshops on cataloging. I’m also expected to attend conferences and represent the Central Region on several different committees.

Taking all of these responsibilities into consideration, there are two non-library blogs that I read regularly because I find they help in rounding out my professional life.

Presentation Zen is “Garr Reynolds’ blog on issues related to professional presentation design.” He talks a lot about PowerPoint and other visual aids and how their use could be improved. The posts tend to be long, but they include lots of video clips with examples of good (Garr likes Steve Jobs’ speaking style) and not-so-good presentations as well as examples of good and not-so-good slides and posters. He includes recommendations of books (complete with jacket cover images) many of which I’ve borrowed from my local public library. As some one who has sat through many a boring talk and squinted at too many unreadable slides, I want to spread the word of Presentation Zen to everyone who stands up in front of an audience (or even just creates a poster).

A recent discovery for me is Power Networking for Introverts. The focus of this blog is for business people, yet I’ve found Marcy Phelps’ suggestions practical and very helpful. Even though I’m not actively seeking clients, I understand the value of networking. Librarians need to build networks for a variety of reasons. For example, a well established network will help a public library director when asking for an increase in financial support from the town. A network is vital when job hunting and just plain handy when looking for information. If you’d like to do a better job at networking but feel a bit timid, read Marcy’s blog for lots of encouragement.

Even though Technical Services librarians often work in the basement or in another out-of-the-way place, we can still be vibrant and active members of this exciting profession. Presentation Zen and Power Networking for Introverts are great tools for the journey.