A couple of thoughts on the copy cataloging I've been doing so far, and generated by specific items I've cataloged.
Remarkably few of the items I've found have had a record suitable for straight copying. They often have some small issue - a missing edition statement, two call numbers or none at all, some confusion over the publisher statement, we'll have part of a larger set, or the library already owns a copy.
One thing that was explained was the use of "The Administration" in the publisher field. It confused me when I first saw it, as this wasn't the exact phrase used in the publication statement. As explained to me, it was a shorthand dating back to the days of printed cards, used when the publisher's name was already mentioned in the title, statement of responsibility, or other earlier area.
Going through the records that I put aside while my supervisor was out, we dealt with the following today.
* Correcting the call number and URL listed in one record. Both done by noting that the one in the record was just wrong.
* Having only the first volume of a 3 volume set, which was cataloged with the set record to allow patrons to discover that the other two volumes existed and also because we may acquire the other parts of the set.
* Pulling a series authority record from the OCLC authority file for a work that was part of a series. I'd already done this before, but it's good to check it with my supervisor first at this point.
* For one item we already had a record for the electronic version. In this case we added the physical record (with a link to the URL of the electronic version), so there will be 2 records in the catalog.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Two more visits
My supervisor was out for the first two days of the week, and I had two more visits with other staff in the cataloging department.
One was with someone who, amongst other duties, handles the automated reports the cataloging system generates when authors are added to the catalog for the first time. These reports are designed to allow the maintenance of the catalog to make sure that authorized names are used and no duplicate names are accidentally created. It was a nice insight into the processes used to prevent accidental corruption of the catalog during the cataloging process without requiring a lot of careful, and often needless, upfront work during cataloging. It also allows for mass loads of data without upfront manual verification of every record.
The other visit was with a serials cataloger. This was particularly interesting as I'd had little exposure to serials cataloging before. The major differences between serials and monographs that I observed were:
* the use of the CONSER guidelines rather than straight AACR2. CONSER's manual provided needed elaboration on the AACR2 guidelines to make them more useful and specific to serials.
* the focus on relationships to other records. This is required to track title changes, publisher changes, corporate author changes, and the like. These relationship and changes were expressed in the Notes fields (5xx) and in specific fields for relationships (7xx).
* Subject headings tend to be pretty broad as a serial will tend to cover a broad subject area over the course of their lifetime. While specific entry would mean many monographs would have a more specific subject than "biology", for some serials that broad a subject heading is entirely appropriate as anything more specific would exclude some articles.
We also discussed the differences between serials and integrating resources and the issues faced in cataloging print serials in conjunction with online serials. Online serials often use different numbering, or lack numbering all together, which can render cataloging them difficult in conjunction with their print versions.
Those were my last two visits for now. I may visit other people later in the summer, but for now I should focus on cataloging again now that my supervisor is back.
One was with someone who, amongst other duties, handles the automated reports the cataloging system generates when authors are added to the catalog for the first time. These reports are designed to allow the maintenance of the catalog to make sure that authorized names are used and no duplicate names are accidentally created. It was a nice insight into the processes used to prevent accidental corruption of the catalog during the cataloging process without requiring a lot of careful, and often needless, upfront work during cataloging. It also allows for mass loads of data without upfront manual verification of every record.
The other visit was with a serials cataloger. This was particularly interesting as I'd had little exposure to serials cataloging before. The major differences between serials and monographs that I observed were:
* the use of the CONSER guidelines rather than straight AACR2. CONSER's manual provided needed elaboration on the AACR2 guidelines to make them more useful and specific to serials.
* the focus on relationships to other records. This is required to track title changes, publisher changes, corporate author changes, and the like. These relationship and changes were expressed in the Notes fields (5xx) and in specific fields for relationships (7xx).
* Subject headings tend to be pretty broad as a serial will tend to cover a broad subject area over the course of their lifetime. While specific entry would mean many monographs would have a more specific subject than "biology", for some serials that broad a subject heading is entirely appropriate as anything more specific would exclude some articles.
We also discussed the differences between serials and integrating resources and the issues faced in cataloging print serials in conjunction with online serials. Online serials often use different numbering, or lack numbering all together, which can render cataloging them difficult in conjunction with their print versions.
Those were my last two visits for now. I may visit other people later in the summer, but for now I should focus on cataloging again now that my supervisor is back.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
A week of visitations
I've continued copy cataloging for the Wilkinson gift items, pulling aside some items that have issues. Some need upgrade cataloging as no suitable record exists. Others have issues with the URL identified as an electronic version of the resource. I've ended up updating a few OCLC records with better URLs for electronic versions, which has been nice. It's great to think that I'm doing something that is improving the record that libraries around the country will use so many people will have better access to resources for their work and research.
Because my supervisor was going to be busy or out of town every day last week, she arranged some time with various other departments. Rather than a post a day about the visits, I'll just sum them up in this post at the end of the week.
On Tuesday I visited the conservation lab where I got a look at the tools, materials, and processes for mending books as well as constructing boxes or other protective casing/covers. We discussed the materials used and how newer books were treated differently than older rarer materials. One major difference was the use of PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue for modern books, but repairs to older books were usually done with paste is it is fully reversible by soaking it off in water later, if necessary. Another major material used was Japanese tissue. Repairs made to covers with the tissue were remarkably invisible when complete. I was fortunate enough to be visiting when a 10 volume set of 18th century Italian books were having boxes constructed for them, which were interesting to examine.
On Wednesday, I visited the documents department. On that visit, I found out that the department actually combines 4 different groups of material: government documents, business data, maps, and microform. The idea is to work with the synergies between the material types - for example, maps are often produced by the government and also are a great way to represent a lot of the data from government or business documents. Microform materials are often government documents (or newspaper archives). In the maps section, I found the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps a real treat; the level of detail available in them and the look at the history of the areas was fascinating.
The university also has a large amount of aerial photos over most of the 20th century. These are popular with local construction and environmental groups to do environmental impact studies. We talked briefly about the university's charges for these services. While I hadn't thought of the need to charge the public for the service, and it struck me as odd at first, it makes to me now given the demands placed on the staff who are there primarily to serve the university. If the choice is to charge fees (and thus allow for more staff time to service the requests) or not offer the service at all due to cost, I can see the argument for requiring fees.
This is getting longer than I expected, so I'll try to be brief. One other documents group project that was interesting was the compilation of resources related to Salem, OR for use in 25 different classes this year. The documents group apparently uses a more consultative model rather than a reference model. Instead of having a reference desk for the department they tend to have appointments with patrons and expect to spend up to an hour (or more) with the patron understanding their need, seeking out resources, and getting the patron comfortable with those resources.
On Thursday, I went through the physical processing process with a staff member. This consists mostly of applying the security tagging, barcodes, and call number labels to the items before they are shelved for the first time. As we went through the process it became evident that there a lot of variations depending on the exact nature of the material being processed - format, media, rarity. It was nice to get a sense of what exactly happens to the items after I catalog them and place them on the processing truck. It gave me a more comprehensive understanding of the whole work acquisition process through the point it ends up on a shelf somewhere.
On Friday, I sat in with a cataloger who works with a lot of different formats. We discussed the differences and similarities in cataloging purely electronic resources (available over the internet), DVDs, CDs, monographs with supplemental CDs, and the like. From his perspective it seemed they were mostly the same with variations for the physical description of the media and some limited description of the contents. This was interesting in light of the discussion in a a cataloging course of what ought to done for access points for popular movies - who is "responsible" for the work, who should have added entries, etc.
Because my supervisor was going to be busy or out of town every day last week, she arranged some time with various other departments. Rather than a post a day about the visits, I'll just sum them up in this post at the end of the week.
On Tuesday I visited the conservation lab where I got a look at the tools, materials, and processes for mending books as well as constructing boxes or other protective casing/covers. We discussed the materials used and how newer books were treated differently than older rarer materials. One major difference was the use of PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue for modern books, but repairs to older books were usually done with paste is it is fully reversible by soaking it off in water later, if necessary. Another major material used was Japanese tissue. Repairs made to covers with the tissue were remarkably invisible when complete. I was fortunate enough to be visiting when a 10 volume set of 18th century Italian books were having boxes constructed for them, which were interesting to examine.
On Wednesday, I visited the documents department. On that visit, I found out that the department actually combines 4 different groups of material: government documents, business data, maps, and microform. The idea is to work with the synergies between the material types - for example, maps are often produced by the government and also are a great way to represent a lot of the data from government or business documents. Microform materials are often government documents (or newspaper archives). In the maps section, I found the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps a real treat; the level of detail available in them and the look at the history of the areas was fascinating.
The university also has a large amount of aerial photos over most of the 20th century. These are popular with local construction and environmental groups to do environmental impact studies. We talked briefly about the university's charges for these services. While I hadn't thought of the need to charge the public for the service, and it struck me as odd at first, it makes to me now given the demands placed on the staff who are there primarily to serve the university. If the choice is to charge fees (and thus allow for more staff time to service the requests) or not offer the service at all due to cost, I can see the argument for requiring fees.
This is getting longer than I expected, so I'll try to be brief. One other documents group project that was interesting was the compilation of resources related to Salem, OR for use in 25 different classes this year. The documents group apparently uses a more consultative model rather than a reference model. Instead of having a reference desk for the department they tend to have appointments with patrons and expect to spend up to an hour (or more) with the patron understanding their need, seeking out resources, and getting the patron comfortable with those resources.
On Thursday, I went through the physical processing process with a staff member. This consists mostly of applying the security tagging, barcodes, and call number labels to the items before they are shelved for the first time. As we went through the process it became evident that there a lot of variations depending on the exact nature of the material being processed - format, media, rarity. It was nice to get a sense of what exactly happens to the items after I catalog them and place them on the processing truck. It gave me a more comprehensive understanding of the whole work acquisition process through the point it ends up on a shelf somewhere.
On Friday, I sat in with a cataloger who works with a lot of different formats. We discussed the differences and similarities in cataloging purely electronic resources (available over the internet), DVDs, CDs, monographs with supplemental CDs, and the like. From his perspective it seemed they were mostly the same with variations for the physical description of the media and some limited description of the contents. This was interesting in light of the discussion in a a cataloging course of what ought to done for access points for popular movies - who is "responsible" for the work, who should have added entries, etc.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Looking forward to week 2 and beyond
So, as we head into the second week, I thought I'd type up a bit of what will be coming and what I'm looking forward to, to organize my thoughts.
But first, something from the first week I forgot about in my last post. The changes I'm making to the catalog are going live as I'm making them. Which is really been an interesting part of the experience, to see the work that I'm doing being presented to the public. This stuff I'm doing is having areal impact on how people will find these resources.
Anyway, looking forward. Next week my supervisor is out, so she's set up some time with various other departments/sections of the department next week. So I'll be seeing the documents department, the conservation lab, and the physical processing group. She's also gone the first couple days of the week after so I'll be sitting in with someone from the serials cataloging group. All this while continuing my work on the Wilkinson bicycle collection - monographs, especially trade publications and those with electronic versions.
Looking even farther forward, I'm starting to formulate my learning goals and those are reflected in what I'm doing this summer. The foremost is getting practical experience in cataloging. This has so far been mostly copy cataloging, but over time will include some upgrading of records and probably some original cataloging. This will also give me greater exposure to subject cataloging and the LC classification system. I'll also be doing some authority work. So, all those will be very valuable and as I have time I'll be getting exposure to a variety of other types of cataloging and library work. Many of these were covered in the last paragraph, but I've also talked to my supervisor briefly about getting some exposure to the more patron-interactive portions of library work such as the reference desk.
Lots going on in this short summer internship, which is great and I've already found it very informative and it has been reinforcing a lot of what I learned in 531. And it's been helping me understand some other aspects of how the library works. For example, I always had some trouble remembering how LC call numbers were ordered. But now that I've worked with them a bit from the assignment side the ordering system makes more sense and is easier for me to remember.
But first, something from the first week I forgot about in my last post. The changes I'm making to the catalog are going live as I'm making them. Which is really been an interesting part of the experience, to see the work that I'm doing being presented to the public. This stuff I'm doing is having areal impact on how people will find these resources.
Anyway, looking forward. Next week my supervisor is out, so she's set up some time with various other departments/sections of the department next week. So I'll be seeing the documents department, the conservation lab, and the physical processing group. She's also gone the first couple days of the week after so I'll be sitting in with someone from the serials cataloging group. All this while continuing my work on the Wilkinson bicycle collection - monographs, especially trade publications and those with electronic versions.
Looking even farther forward, I'm starting to formulate my learning goals and those are reflected in what I'm doing this summer. The foremost is getting practical experience in cataloging. This has so far been mostly copy cataloging, but over time will include some upgrading of records and probably some original cataloging. This will also give me greater exposure to subject cataloging and the LC classification system. I'll also be doing some authority work. So, all those will be very valuable and as I have time I'll be getting exposure to a variety of other types of cataloging and library work. Many of these were covered in the last paragraph, but I've also talked to my supervisor briefly about getting some exposure to the more patron-interactive portions of library work such as the reference desk.
Lots going on in this short summer internship, which is great and I've already found it very informative and it has been reinforcing a lot of what I learned in 531. And it's been helping me understand some other aspects of how the library works. For example, I always had some trouble remembering how LC call numbers were ordered. But now that I've worked with them a bit from the assignment side the ordering system makes more sense and is easier for me to remember.
End of week 1
Only one week has gone by, but it feels like more. Every day something new, every day the complexity steps up a little. But it's been a good learning experience so far and as the cataloging becomes more complicated I expect it'll be even more so.
On Wednesday, I started on monographs that are part of a larger series (not to be confused with serials). This was pretty new to me; in my cataloging class (LIS 531) we'd sort of skipped over the 4XX series fields as beyond the scope of the class. But it all seems reasonably straightforward, mainly concerning the addition of an authority file to keep series titles and numbering consistent, in addition to concerns of whether volumes of a series will be cataloged separately or just under a single series entry.
On Thursday, this was given a twist in dealing with work from a foreign language series. I talked to my supervisor about access points as they relate to foreign language works with English translations, as well as about corporate or title main entry for some works.
And on Friday, I started working with some monographs that have an electronic version available. At first this seemed like a simple matter of adding a 856 field to the record, but it soon became obvious there were additional concerns about whether the online version was the same as the print version, whether it was part of it, or a different edition/printing, even if it didn't indicate it was a different printing. I'm still working through the guidelines here - but in general the usual questions of what will be useful to the user, but not confusing/surprising seem like they point me in the right direction.
On Wednesday, I started on monographs that are part of a larger series (not to be confused with serials). This was pretty new to me; in my cataloging class (LIS 531) we'd sort of skipped over the 4XX series fields as beyond the scope of the class. But it all seems reasonably straightforward, mainly concerning the addition of an authority file to keep series titles and numbering consistent, in addition to concerns of whether volumes of a series will be cataloged separately or just under a single series entry.
On Thursday, this was given a twist in dealing with work from a foreign language series. I talked to my supervisor about access points as they relate to foreign language works with English translations, as well as about corporate or title main entry for some works.
And on Friday, I started working with some monographs that have an electronic version available. At first this seemed like a simple matter of adding a 856 field to the record, but it soon became obvious there were additional concerns about whether the online version was the same as the print version, whether it was part of it, or a different edition/printing, even if it didn't indicate it was a different printing. I'm still working through the guidelines here - but in general the usual questions of what will be useful to the user, but not confusing/surprising seem like they point me in the right direction.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Start of my Fieldwork
I started my directed fieldwork today. My supervisor introduced me to others working in the technical services department and gave me a grand tour of the department. The primary focus of my internship will be in cataloging materials from the Wilkinson bicycle donation. This should involve a mixture of copy cataloging and eventually some original cataloging. I'll be getting some experience with both descriptive cataloging and subject cataloging.
As the summer goes on, I will likely get some exposure to other work in the department. Serials cataloging, video cataloging, physical preparation of the materials for the shelf, and a look at the conservation lab in action.
But for now we've started with copy cataloging. Today was a familiarization with the OCLC Connexion client, as opposed to the web interface used in LIS 531, and the catalog management software used in the library. We also reviewed the process I'll be using in copy catalog - the department policies I'll be following to make sure that my work meshes with the current catalog and is professional quality.
As the summer goes on, I will likely get some exposure to other work in the department. Serials cataloging, video cataloging, physical preparation of the materials for the shelf, and a look at the conservation lab in action.
But for now we've started with copy cataloging. Today was a familiarization with the OCLC Connexion client, as opposed to the web interface used in LIS 531, and the catalog management software used in the library. We also reviewed the process I'll be using in copy catalog - the department policies I'll be following to make sure that my work meshes with the current catalog and is professional quality.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)