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!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
CE for TS
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!
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!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Always Moving Forward
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.
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.
Monday, July 7, 2008
New Book on MARC
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.
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.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Library of Congress Subject Headings
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.
“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.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
More Technical Services Blogs
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.
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.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Tech Services Video
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
