Independent Study, 10/28/09

Today is the last day of interviews on authority control with the cataloging staff at Jackson Library.

Cindy Zaruba

Cindy Zaruba is the Multiformats Cataloging Assistant for Jackson Library. She has also recently taken on some of the music cataloging as well. Cindy had some very interesting authority control stories. The first on she told me involved a UNCG faculty member. This faculty member had previously been married and since divorced. He and his wife had both hyphenated their names after that marriage. He had been published under that hyphenated name. The other day he contacted a reference librarian about the situation. I guess he had been searching the catalog and realized that his hyphenated name was still being used as the “official” form of his name. The reference librarian brought the situation to Cindy’s attention. She went to his authority record, and put the correct form in the 100 field and then moved the hyphenated form to the 400 field. She was able to change it in the UNCG catalog, however other libraries that have his books will have records that still use the hyphenated form of his name. It will have to be changed in OCLC. Paul Hessling will need to change it in OCLC.

In name authority records the 1XX fields contain the official form of the name, the 4XX fields contain the old form which is no longer authorized and the 5XX fields contain an older form of the name that is still a legitimate form for use. The best example of that is the UNCG authority file that was created by Paul Hessling.

Paul Hessling

Paul Hessling is the Special Collections/Chief Monographic Cataloger for Jackson Library. Paul repairs the authority records that already exist in UNCG’s catalog. He is also responsible for changing the authority records in OCLC. After changing the records in OCLC he then must wait for them to update the records. However, this whole process usually takes quite a while so Paul usually just changes the records in the catalog himself. His goal is to try to get the necessary authority records in at the same time as the items are cataloged, but that is not always a reality. In order to make a change in OCLC, it first must be reported to the Library of Congress with the proper documentation. If a library is a member of or takes part in a cooperative program such as NACO or BIBCO, then they are able to put records in or change records in OCLC.

Paul is also in charge of creating the library’s local authority records and the series authority records that UNCG uses, such as the Girls’ in Books Series authority records or the Women’s Detective Fiction Series. Many of the Women’s Detective Fiction Series was written by author’s who were writing under various pseudonyms. According to Paul, the Library of Congress is slow to realize that a pseudonym is a valid entry point. Therefore, he has created records for those pseudonyms himself.

Carolyn Bowen

Carolyn Bowen is the Multiformats Cataloger at Jackson Library. She is in charge of cataloging the library’s map collection. Maps offer an interesting authority problem. Geographic headings are either juristic or non-juristic. Juristic geographic headings are political, usually appear in the 1XX, 6XX or 7XX fields and a capable of authorship. Non-juristic geographic headings are used for geographic features such as mountain ranges or rivers, and are used in the 6XX field. Juristic headings can be difficult to pin down. For example, borders can change over time due to conquests, war, etc. Carolyn said Russia is a good example of this. Due to this problem, it can be challenging to figure out which geographic heading should be used. It is often a judgment call. Carolyn looks at similar records and consults the Subject Heading Manual and the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations to help her decide which headings are appropriate.

Independent Study, 10/21/09

The authority control interviews continue. My observations a Jackson Library thus far are that some catalogers deal with authority control a lot more than others. For the most part though the concerns and issues are the same. The main concern is to make sure that every field is authorized and contains the correct forms of the titles, names, subject headings, etc.

Katherine Nunnally

Katherine Nunnally is the Serials Cataloging Team Assistant at Jackson Library. Her primary job is to handle serials, electronic journals and Journal Finder. She is also working on the government document project that several other catalogers are also working on. Every month Katherine gets the list of the journals that W.T. Cox has added to Journal Finder. The list is available in the administrators view of Journal Finder. After she has this list, she then checks the catalog to make sure that Jackson does not have these titles. For the titles that are not in the catalog, she creates records and links for them so that they can be searched for in the catalog. She uses copy cataloging for this. before adding the record she always checks it over to make sure that the subject headings used would benefit the students searching for it. Occasionally she has to translate the records from another language if she is dealing with a foreign journal. She simply uses Babelfish for this. Katherine deals more hands on with the only print journals. She is in charge of making sure their records are correct and that all the fields have been controlled. W.T. Cox handles all of the electronic journals. They are responsible for making sure that the links are active and that all of their fields are controlled.

When dealing with the government document cataloging project, Katherine has run into many of the same problems as the other catalogers have. The available records are very poorly cataloged. The government documents that they are cataloging are old, so there may have been department or name changes. Many of them have no subject headings whatsoever. These both present problems and make these records more difficult to catalog properly.

Edward Waters

Edward Waters is Serials Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. One of his responsibilities is to handle the transfer of serials from on department to another. For example from the reference department to the Stacks. He also takes care of the books being withdrawn from the collection. He also handles the serials that are cataloged as monographs. These titles have their own separate records for each book, instead of only one record for an entire set of books. These include titles such as the Dictionary of Literary Biography. The DLB titles are classed together meaning that the entire set is kept together. There are also serials that are classed separate, this means that for whatever reason, the library has chosen to separate this collection. An example of this is the Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications. These books will all appear in the Q's, but they will not be together. Authority control issues very rarely come up in the work that he typically does.

Edward, like many of the catalogers in Jackson library, is also working on the Government Document cataloging project. He says the same things that the other catalogers are saying about this project. The records are messy. There are very few DLC records available for these items, so the records have to be throughly checked to make sure that they are controlled. OCLC is used for confirmation. Oftentimes when working on the government documents he just has to work out what is right.

Independent Study, 10/14/09

Today I continued interviewing the cataloging staff about their dealings with authority control.

Clara Kelly

Clara Kelly is the Monographic/Special Collections Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. She handles cataloging the Girls’ Books in Series and the Women’s Detective Fiction collections for the Special Collections and University Archives. This collection consists of books that have been donated and that Special Collections have collected. Many of the books in these collections are much older, and therefore may not have authority records. Special Collections decides what names are used for the author, uniform title, etc. Another problem that these books have is that many of the authors used numerous pseudonyms during their careers. Notes of these various pseudonyms are made in separate 700 field entries. Clara has a card file that was started by Special Collections that contains the official uniform entries for authors and titles that they have chosen to use. As new authors are acquired, Clara adds to this card file so that a record can be kept of all authority records created or used. Special Collections may decide to call a series by a different name than the one used by OCLC. This is also kept up in the card file that Clara uses. Clara goes by the form that has been established by Special Collections for these series. Recently Special Collections began adding a 690 field to the Girls’ Books in Series collection, making it so that when someone searches Girls’ Books in Series as a keyword search all 2,706 books in the collection are retrieved. Special Collections is also in the process of working on a list of all the series that are contained in this collection.

Cynthia “Cindy” Slater

Cindy Slater is the AV/TRC Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. She catalogs books with LC Classifications of J, K, PR and PS. The PR and PS books are the fiction books of the collection. According to Cindy, fiction books were not routinely given subject headings until the 1970s or 1980s. With the new books she catalogs, she has very few authority issues. They are all copy cataloged so as long as there is a DLC record for them and it looks like it is in order, everything is fine.

Cindy is also the cataloger for the Teaching Resources enter (TRC). The TRC does things differently in comparison with Jackson Library. For starters, call numbers are handled much differently. The TRC uses its own system for call numbers. For example an easy book by an author with last name Andrews would be cataloged as E – AND. When this collection first began, only the first letter of the authors last name was used. This systems creates many duplicate call numbers, which can be very confusing for people looking for a specific call number. (I speak from experience.)The TRC also has lots of kits or other unusual items that have to be cataloged. All sorts of various formats are available in the TRC. For these unusual items, Cindy consults the object, a publisher’s website or she tries to find similar items that have already been cataloged in OCLC. It is important that these items be cataloged so that they can be searched in the catalog.

Cindy has recently taken on cataloging scores, recitals and other AV materials for the Music Library at UNCG. Much of this cataloging is original and has to be done from scratch. The item being cataloged is used for information, but Cindy also will consult a similar record (with DLC cataloging) if she can find one. These types of records have many headings that must be verified. The scores and recitals offer a challenge due to the fact that these were recorded here at UNCG so often there will be no authority records available for the musicians, etc. that are performing the pieces. Many of these recitals do have programs that can be a valuable source of information for these pieces. Cindy has a book that she uses that lists the uniform titles for every composition created by very popular composers, such as Mozart. She consults this book when cataloging the recitals so that she is sure that she is using the accepted title for each piece. If there is ever a questions she will consult a similar DLC record.

Scott Hinshaw

Scott Hinshaw is the Monographic/Archives Cataloging Assistant at Jackson Library. Scott works closely with the University Archives in cataloging materials that originated here at UNCG. The university has had six name changes since its inception in 1891. (1891-1897, North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School; 1897-1919, North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College; 1919-1932, North Carolina College for Women; 1932-1963, Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina; 1963- , University of North Carolina at Greensboro) the 110 field is where UNCG would be located in a MARC record. Subfield b of that field would be where the department of school would be specified for the work being cataloged. Local authority files are created for many of the departments and schools here on campus. Paul Hessling is in charge of creating those authority files. When cataloging an item for the first time, the name that is the accepted name now is used. For example, the university is now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Now an item that was written and first cataloged in 1919 would use the name North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College. Serials when cataloged always include the preceeding and subsequent names of the serial is necessary. The authority record for a uniform title does contain all alternate spellings and names. For example, the authority record for UNCG contains all of its previous names as well. When an authority record does not exist for an item the records is still formated as if one does exist. If the record needs to be created then Paul will go back and create one for it at some point. Local authority records also contain any local practices that pertain to the library that they are created in. Scott also works some with the Special Collections on their Women Vets collections. A problem that he runs into with these is that the Armed Forces have many branches and divisions. These have to be looked up and checked.

Independent Study, 9/30/09

The interviewing continued today.

Kathy Shore

Kathy Shore is the Monographic/Maps Cataloging Assistant. She also deals a lot with series cataloging. Authority control is not really an issue with her. Her concern are the 400 fields. She checks the series information. If the record was downloaded from Library of Congress then it is taken without question. If the record was obtained from another source then the record will be carefully checked. The only thing she has ever ran into is sometimes author names in the 100 fields do not have dates attached to them. This is a red flag because often times names without dates will not control and so they must be checked out in OCLC to make sure they are in fact correct. OCLC recently decided that the 440 field would no longer be used for series information. They are now using the 490 field. The 490 field now contains the non-authoritative version of the series and the 830 field contains the authoritative form of the series title.

Jason Alston

Jason is the Diversity Resident at Jackson Library. This is a new position that was just created and Jason is the first to occupy it. He has been working closely with Paul Hessling who is the Special Collections and Chief Monographic Cataloger. Jason has been working with finding aids for the archives and manuscripts using EAD (Encoded Archival Data). He works with EAD in NoteTab. EAD is being used now as a set standard for cataloging archival or special collections materials. Before the Library of Congress established EAD there were no set standards for cataloging archival or special collections materials. Most institutions set their own individual standards. This meant that no two institutions standards were the same. This caused many problems when information was shared or users went from one archive to another.

Independent Study, 9/23/09

Today I began interviewing everyone in the technical services department about authority control.

Marcie Burton

I began by interviewing Marcie Burton. She is the Electronic Resources Cataloging Technical Assistant for Jackson Library. Marcie works mostly with copy cataloging. She is responsible for cataloging the electronic theses, websites and e-books. The electronic theses and dissertations require her to do original cataloging. She typically handles most of them in May, August and December when UNCG holds graduations. She often uses ProQuest to get information she might need to catalog these items. After being cataloged they are accessible through the catalog and online at NC DOCKS. NC DOCKS is the North Carolina Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship. It is a collection of the publications, theses and dissertations from ASU, ECU, UNCG, UNCP and UNCW. After Marcie catalogs the theses and dissertations for NC DOCKS Anne Marie puts them into the institutional repository (IR) for UNCG within NC DOCKS. For items that are already in NC DOCKS that need to be cataloged, Marcie uses MarcEdit. MarcEdit is a free MARC editing utility that was developed by Oregon State University’s library. With MarcEdit all Marcie has to do is to take the information out of UNCG’s IR in NC DOCKS and put it into MarcEdit to create a MARC record. That record can then be downloaded into the catalog. It is as simple as that.

As far as authority work goes, Marcie’s main job is to load the authority records into the catalog when Marcive sends them in. This happens once a month. Marcive will send an email saying the records are ready for download. The email also tells her how many records are available. She will receive an email for each title authority records, subject authority records and name authority records. Each email has a link that will take her to an FTP (file transfer protocol) site to download the record. Marcie then opens WorkFlows. She goes to Utility then to MARC Import. She then fills out the source and destination for the files. When it is done downloading a screen pops up that tells her how many records have been downloaded. She then double checks the number with the email she received to make sure the right number of records were downloaded. Marcie then must run the Load Authority Record Report in order to load the records into the catalog. This report creates records that do not exist and updates old records that need updating. At the first of each month Marcie has to extract any records that have been created by catalogers at Jackson Library and she must send this out to Marcive for authority control. There is another company that records are sent to in order to get any table of contents information that might be available.

Anne Marie Taber

Next I interviewed Anne Marie Taber. She handles most of the new book cataloging at Jackson Library. She is the Electronic Resources and Metadata Cataloger. She is the main cataloger for the NC DOCKS projects. She handles all of the faculty profiles as well as uploading the articles, etc. into UNCG’s IR for NC DOCKS. Most of the information that NC DOCKS had on UNCG’s faculty was pulled from Soldona. According to Anne Marie, Soldona is what the faculty use to list information about themselves. This information in entered by the faculty themselves. So when this information was pulled into NC DOCKS there were many inconsistencies. This caused many problems with searching, etc. To counteract this problem, Anne Marie created a NC DOCKS name authorities list. This list contains the uniform title for each school and their departments here at UNCG. It also includes the university’s independent units and their programs. Now that this has been created, whenever a department or school changes their name or merges with another(for example, Music, Theatre and Dance are getting ready to merge into one), ERIT can change all of these entires at once. Also when dealing with the NC DOCKS Anne Marie always checks the professor’s or student’s name to see if they already have an LC Name Authority File. If they already do, then of course that is the file that will be used when the file is cataloged.

Jennifer Ormsby

Jennifer Ormsby was next on my list to interview. She is the Processing Manager and Copy Cataloger. Jennifer spoke with me about the old government documents that she has been cataloging lately. Jackson Library has many old government documents that have not been cataloged, so they are not in the catalog and they cannot be searched. She said her main problem with these items is that first off the cataloging rules have changed since the items were published. Second, the groups that were originally responsible for the publication of many of these items have either changed their names, are no longer in existence or have merged with other organizations. This poses a huge problem when trying to find a uniform title for the corporate name that is attached to an item. Jennifer must do lots of research in OCLC in order to make the best guess on what the corporate should be in the MARC record.

Mac Nelson

Mac Nelson is Jackson Library’s Cello Music Cataloger. He works mostly with original cataloging since much of the material he is working with is held exclusively by UNCG. He catalogs many collections of sheet music. Mac deals with authority control issues frequently. The 700 field is a very important field in music cataloging because music items often contain unrelated works, and these unrelated works will be noted in the 700 field. Another use of the 700 field includes a work of music that is known under many titles. The established title under which items that have been published under various titles is placed in the 240 field. Alternate titles are placed in the 700 field, as are arranger and performer listings for a piece. The 240 field contains the uniform title under which the work is now known. The 400 field is also used to list alternate titles the work has been published under. Mac also must make the decision when dealing with theses and dissertations, from the School of Music, if the item is in fact a book or a score. Mac believes that authority control is so important to music cataloging because if you consider classical music, consider the number of languages it is composed in, the number of centuries that have gone by since much of it was written, the whole notion of what is classified creates a published history that is mind numbing. Bibliographic intellectual content is a complete mess without authority control. Physical content varies so authority control is also very important where that is concerned too. What hope does scholarship have without authority control? There must be rules that are followed so that order can be brought to the chaos of information.

Independent Study, 9/16/09

Today I worked with an two separate Excel spreadsheets. One was on genre headings and authority work and the other spreadsheet was the 655 field report for the UTLC (University Teaching and Learning Center). We are going to use the genre headings and authority work spreadsheet to see which headings are correct and which ones are no longer valid.

While going through these headings, I found interesting patterns during this exercise. We did not have 155 authority records for most of these records. However, when I looked at the actual bibliographic records the 655 fields did not come up UNAUTHORIZED. Mary Jane is going to contact Marchive about this.

I was thinking that maybe they are seen as authorized, because they are cross-referenced in some authority records as 455 fields. I cannot think of any other explanation for this strange occurrence.

Independent Study, 9/9/09

This morning Mary Jane and I went over some of the questionable subject headings I ran across last week. We corrected some of the bibliographic records that contained the Kosovo (Serbia or Republic)--History--Civil War, 1998-1999 headings. They need to be changed to Kosovo War, 1998-1999. I started a Guide to Subject Headings that can be Changed by Students, so that student workers can go in and change these subject headings at a later date.

Another problem heading I ran into was Utah Expedition, 1857-1858. This heading was changed from a subject heading to a name heading. Mary Jane and I believe that is why the heading did not change over automatically like they were supposed to. The fields changed from a 650 to a 611 and this caused confusion in the authority records.

Last week I had also run across some name authority records (100 and 700) that were not in the system. Today Mary Jane instructed me in how to download these records and add them to the system. I downloaded three records using SmartPort in the SirsiDynix Symphony WorkFlows system. (Hartmann, Michael E.; Parajon, Christina; Farkas, Evelyn N.)

I worked in the Catalog Service Bulletin again today as well. I only changed three records though. Last week I changed 96. Mary Jane said I just got lucky. When she has went through these in the past, she typically only finds very few. Today I changed (2 records) Contrast media to Contrast media (Diagnostic imaging) and (1 record) Contrast media to Radiographic contrast media.

I also worked with cataloging new books as well. I cataloged 11 new books total today.

Independent Study, 9/2/2009

September 2, 2009

Today I worked solely on LC Subject Headings. Using the Cataloging Service Bulletin that is put out by the Library of Congress, I went through the catalog and replaced the subject headings that had been revised with their new subject headings. The cataloging department at UNCG's Jackson Library uses the newest version of WorkFlows to maintain their biblographic records. To search for subject headings I entered the Modify Title screen and browsed by subject.

I changed a total of 81 records today. In the bibliographic record, if a subject heading is no longer vaild it will say UNAUTHORIZED out beside of it. The subject headings that I worked with are as follows:

• Kosovo (Serbia) to Kosovo (Republic). I changed 34 bibliographic records that had this as its main subject heading. I only changed the main heading. I did not alter any sub-divided headings that used this subject. For example aNationalismzYugoslaviazKosovo (Serbia) was not changed, but aKosovo (Serbia)xEthic Relations was. These were the most involved records that I worked with today.
• Soap operas to Television soap operas. I changed 30 bibliographic records with this subject heading. This subject heading was very simple, and I found no instances of it being sub-divided. I was just surprised we had so many books on soap operas.
• Soap operas to Radio soap operas. One (1) bibliographic record changed.
• Television serials to Television series. One (1) bibliographic record changed.
• Prize to Prizes (Property captured at sea). Seven (7) bibliographic records changed.
• Prizes to Prizes (Property captured at sea). Nine (9) bibliographic records changed.
• Pluralism (Social sciences) to Cultural pluralism. Two (2) bibliographic records changed.

I checked other subject headings as well that did not need revising. Jackson Library outsources its authority control to an outside vendor. It is their job to make sure that the library's authority records are in fact correct. I will have to look at many more records before I decide whether or not they are doing their job. Tomorrow I will be attending a department meeting.

Independent Study, 8/26/2009

My independent study on authority control has begun. I will be in the cataloging department every Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. While there I will be under the supervision of Mary Jane Conger who is the head cataloger. I will be working on authority control for UNCG's Jackson Library. I prepared for this independent study by reading articles on authority control. Some of the articles I read include"Authority Control to the People!" by M.E. Bates which appeared in EContent and "Series Authority Control at Oregon State University after the Library of Congress's Series Policy Change" by R.E. Saphon-White which appeared in Library Resources and Technical Services. Both articles were published in April 2009. I have also checked out some books from the library on authority control so that I may better understand it.

August 26, 2009

After meeting with Mary Jane briefly in her office, I was taken around the department and introduced to everyone. I then took the OCLC tutorial on Authority Record Searching. After completing that Mary Jane and I worked on replacing subject heading in the catalog that had been changed by the Library of Congress. The subject heading we worked on today was Adventure Films has been changed to Action and Adventure Films. There were 12 records in the catalog that needed to be changed.

At 11:00 a.m. I began working with Anne Marie Taber on new book cataloging. Anne Marie walked me through the process. she then watched me do one on my own before leaving me with a cart of books to work on by myself. I worked on those until time for me to leave at 1:00 p.m. Anne Marie will be on vacation next week, so we thought it best that I return tomorrow to go over the new books I had cataloged. Hopefully I did not make any mistakes.

August 27, 2009

Seven out of the 12 books I cataloged were perfect. The 5 that had problems were very minor. On one in the 300 field the word maps was supposed to be map. Most of the mistakes were similar in nature, so overall I was pleased with how well I did, and Anne Marie was as well.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 15 (7/15/09)

I arrived at the library at 8:30 a.m.

This morning I completed the textbook guide, (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tilE_OoTnHlFSzgnCTLoO9w&hl=en) and I finished going through the textbooks in the CMC, completing the missing publishers list. (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tSLfhTo9ZjDN6n8F7jJXldw&hl=en)

After lunch at Chick-fil-a (Jennie's treat) I began copy cataloging a set of books that are designated for the BB&T Ethics in Capitalism collection. The library received a donation earmarked for this collection. The collection consisted mostly of books on economics and capitalism.

I left the library at 6:00 p.m. thus completing this practicum. :)

I feel this practicum was a valuable experience for me for many reasons. It was my first look at how a technical services department runs in an academic library. Also it gave me a look at an academic library during a time of great financial strain and uncertainty. In today's economic climate I feel that this in itself was an important experience. Things do not always go as planned in a library, as was demonstrated during this practicum. It requires librarians to be creative and think outside of the box. Even with the absence of Classweb I was able to complete one of my main objectives, the textbook guideline. It is good to know that in a pinch there are alternatives to paid services for some situations.

This experience also confirmed that I do want to be a cataloger. I look forward to working in the technical services department at UNCG next semester. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two schools.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 13 (6/22/09)

I arrived at the library at 9:00 a.m.

First thing this morning Jennie and I discussed what all I had accomplished while she was on vacation the previous week. We discussed in depth what I had learned while examining library fan pages. I also told her about some of the things I learned at the Metrolina Information Literacy Conference that I attended in Charlotte last Thursday. Jennie says she plans on having the library's fan page up by the first week of school. After that I did some copy cataloging.

After lunch I continued to work on copy cataloging, and I began processing books. Jennie and I also had a talk. Classweb is still a problem, and Jennie does not believe that their subscription will be reactivated until the next fiscal year begins on July 1. Therefore we decided that I would not return to the library until I can use Classweb. I have 16 hours remaining to fulfill my required 120 hours for my practicum. These hours will be completed sometime after July 1.

I left the library at 6:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 9 (6/10/09)

My birthday! :)

I arrived at the library at 9:00 a.m.

I began the day by continuing my work on the JSTOR journals that the Jones Library subscribes to. I worked on adding an 856 field to each journal's catalog record. I finished the list right before lunch.

After lunch I went to the catalog to check every journal that I had added an 856 field to. I wanted to check and make sure that the links were valid and would actually take a patron to the right journal in JSTOR. All of the links worked.

I left the library at 3:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 8 (6/9/09)

I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

Today, after copy cataloging a gift book, I worked on processing the books that I had previously copy cataloged. This involved putting the spine label on the books, and the security strip in the books.

After lunch I began working on adding an 856 field to the journals that are in the catalog. This field is used by Jones Library to add a link to their catalog records so that each journal is more easily accessible through JSTOR.

At 3:00 p.m. Dr. Bird arrived for a site visit. Jennie gave Dr. Bird a tour of the library and introduced her to everyone that works in the library.

I left the library at 4:30 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 7 (6/3/09)

I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

Jennie was not scheduled to be in until 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. So yesterday afternoon, we had put together some items that I could work on before she arrived. This morning I worked on copy cataloging reference books, as well as circulating books. I also copy cataloged a couple of books for the Levy-Loewenstein Holocaust Collection.

After lunch I returned to working with the thesis collection that I will be cataloging this summer. I read through the remaining thesis abstracts, again pulling keywords that I could use to construct subject headings. I was not able to begin actually constructing the subject headings because Jones Library is still having issues with Classweb.

When Jennie arrived, we again discussed the reports she runs every month. The Unicorn WorkFlows cataloging software they use has many different options for type and coverage of each available report. I ran an item count report on my own. I then reviewed the reports that Jennie had ran this week.

I left the library at 6:30 p.m. in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 6 (6/2/09)

I started my day today at 9:00 a.m.

The library is still having issues with Classweb, so I spent today going through thesis abstracts and making note of keywords that could be used as or lead to subject headings. Whenever the Classweb woes are remedied, I will take my keywords and begin to construct subject headings and call numbers for the theses I will be cataloging this summer here at Greensboro College.

I left the library at 6:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum Day 5, (6/1/09)

I arrived today at 9:00 a.m.

Jennie had planned that I work with Classweb this morning, but they are still have issues with their Classweb subscription. So I began this morning with some copy cataloging. I worked on a reference book by myself. It is the first reference book I have cataloged. It was entitled Session Laws of North Carolina. Since this is a series of books that Greensboro College keeps, I had to add a call number to the existing record. I also cataloged a book that already had a very brief record in the catalog. For that I had to find the brief record, then download the record from Smart Port over top of it. It was the first time I had cataloged something like that too.

On the first of every month Jennie runs several cataloging reports. Among those are the new book reports. This report list every new book the library has acquired in the past month. Jennie uses this list to update the new book section on the library website. Other reports include a list of every book that has been cataloged in the past month. After lunch, Jennie attempted to run off a label report so that I could put labels on all the books I had cataloged so far. She was attempting to use a new system to print the book labels. She ran into some trouble with it, so I tried to help her figure it out. I went through the Report training manual for Unicorn Workflows and it was useless. It covered every report, except for the label report.

I left the library at 4:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 4 (5/27/09)

I began my day at 9:00 a.m.

Jennie was working the afternoon/night shift, so she was not scheduled to come in until around 3:30 p.m. I spent this morning copy cataloging again using Unicorn WorkFlows by SirsiDynix. The records are downloaded from OCLC using the Smart Port wizard within this software program. After entering the ISBN number for the book I am working on I choose which record out of the ones provided is appropriate for use. I then capture and download the record. After the record is downloaded, I add the necessary extra fields and the bar code. I write the call number on the first page of the book in pencil, then I move on to the next book. I cataloged thirteen books before lunch.

After lunch I began working on some ILL requests that the library had received. I worked on that for the remainder of the afternoon, while helping Jennie man the reference desk.

I left the library at 6:30 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 3 (5/26/09)

I arrived at the library today at 9:00 a.m.

Today I spent all day copy cataloging education books that had been donated to the Jones Library. I started the day by reviewing the copy cataloging part of the Sirsi Dynix manual. After I had re-read the copy cataloging section, Jennie showed me how she does the copy cataloging for the library. I was assigned my very own cataloger code (KQXC) and then I began copy cataloging. The first book I ever copy cataloged was called Getting to Got It by Betty K. Garner. I tried to put a link to it on here, but the library's catalog would not pull it up. However, if you search the catalog at http://www.greensborocollege.edu/library/ you will surely find it.

I'm so proud of myself I cannot hardly stand it. :) I cataloged a total of 19 books today. I'm not sure if that is a lot or an average amount for a cataloger or what. Anyhow, I am glad to be doing some real cataloging. :) Tomorrow I will be doing more of the same.

I left the library today at 4:00 p.m.

Greensboro College Practicum, Day 2 (5/21/09)

I began my day at 9:00 a.m.

This morning I worked with Unicorn WorkFlows which is the Jones Library's cataloging software. It is a product produced by SirsiDynix. After I read through the Cataloging and Authority Control training guide I began to explore the program. I pulled up some MARC records with it, and studied them to compare which fields were used and which were omitted. When I felt comfortable, I created a MARC record of my own from some books we will be cataloging this summer. The Jones Library is having problems with Classweb, so I used WorldCat to access classification information. From there I was able to compare the record I had created to other libraries' records.

After lunch Jennie and I went down to cover the reference desk. From there Jennie let me take care of the ILL requests that had came in this morning. Using FirstSearch I located and requested the books that a professor needed for his summer research. I also prepared a book to be sent out to a requesting library. Also during that time two professors came in to pick up books they had requested through ILL.

When we were finished covering the reference desk, Jennie and I went up to her office so she could look over the MARC records for the books I had cataloged. My records were all correct. Jennie then walked me through different aspects of Unicorn WorkFlows. She showed me a template that I will be using later when we catalog the theses.

After Jennie left, I continued to work with Unicorn WorkFlows and I also read over the TSARS manual that Jennie made available to me. TSARS stands for Technical Services and Resources. It is a group of technical services librarians that represent each of the NC-PALS institutions. The TSARS manual goes over different rules or standards for using WorkFlows at one of the NC-PALS institutions. Different NC-PALS institutions are assigned different MARC fields for different uses. Greensboro College is assigned fields 970-979.) Each institution is given a "call number" to represent it. (Greensboro College's is KQX.)

I left the library at 5:30 p.m.

Cataloging Independent Study

I found out yesterday that I was chosen to do independent study in the cataloging department of my university. The head cataloger had previously told me that several students from my program had expressed interest in this opportunity, which I find hard to believe. I know of only one other person who wants to be a cataloger in the entire department. Cataloging is typically on the bottom of every librarian's list of ideal library careers. Anyway I couldn't careless if I was the only person who applied for it. All that matters is I got it. :) I almost feel like a real cataloger.

Part of my time next semester will be spent working in the Interior Architecture Library in the Studio Arts Building on campus. The library got a huge donation of interior architecture books, and that is what I will be helping to catalog. I am so excited. I will be given the chance to work on some original cataloging which I realize is a nightmare for some people, but it is a golden opportunity for me. I hope to one day be a cataloger in an academic library. I couldn't ask for a better opportunity then this.