A New Book

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.