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.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
(Almost) last chance to apply for NETSL scholarship
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!
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!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Get in (Technical Services) Shape
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"?
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"?
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
New Tech. Services Titles
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.
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.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Technical Services Librarians and Leadership
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Cataloging History, or, The History of Cataloging
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Who does our cataloging?
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?
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?
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