The Friday, February 17 Cataloging SIG met at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge and was facilitated by Marla Gruner.
LB – What is your cataloging workflow? she precatalogs, exports into Aleph, does tweaking when the book comes in, sometimes has to re-catalog. Do you have an acquisitions program?
MC: They have a big staff so acquisitions chooses the OCLC record – if they can’t find it, they just make an “on order” Aleph record. Sometimes they change the record after the items come in. A person in receiving checks the books before they come to cataloging. It ends with processing.
LB: They like to have the records first so that reference can see the status of the book – on order, processed, circulation, etc.
NA: Some of the libraries use vendors that supply MARC records and they do batch loading of them. They leave the record in the catalog without touching it until close to the release date. Libraries do all the processing themselves.
TS: They have a record of when things are published in the brief record so patrons can see upcoming dates.
DD: They get the basics from ISBNs. Movies that are coming out now are already in the system, and they try to get the date in there for when it will come out.
LB: They use Gobi / YPP but a lot of the information is off, so you tweak when it comes in.
MC: OCLC wants to unify all the records so they aren’t so messy, but it’s not clear how they will do that.
TS: They pay OCLC per record, so they use other methods that come from vendor records, Bookware. They use other databases from other libraries. It’s less expensive than OCLC, which costs a dollar a record.
DD: They use Symphony within the interface and they can use all the libraries that they have a connection to. He uses MARCEdit to search ISBNs from other libraries. You can export records and make batch changes. It’s a free resource.
MC: Uses MARCEdit for Ebrary records
CBG: We have expertise on MARCEdit in the room – Tara, Marta, Zack
MC: LC Classification is the service they use to get call numbers, or use the LoC page for subject headings. Also, look at what other libraries have done.
MG: they have a lot of local history items that don’t have records anywhere else to compare. LoC will assign Cutter numbers within Connextion. Tools > [assigned a Macro] Sometimes they check SUNY New Paltz to see if someone else has assigned a record for it.
Asha: The state library has odds and ends. Carla – how are you balancing PastPerfect with HRVH?
CL: They double enter. Past Perfect hasn’t evolved much beyond the late 90’s. Once you have it, you can’t get rid of it. It crosses over between collections management and membership. You can get a multi-media upgrade to attach a digital item to your record.
Asha: You can import, but you need to make sure everything aligns
CL: They had a mis-match between item numbers and accession numbers from a bad data sort. She captured the information from Lotus Approach.
Asha: Cataloging for archive’s sake just to record that you had a record.
CL: They have a reference library that has yet to be cataloged. Is the only way to share that through their website?
CBG: They might be able to use the Southeastern special catalog.
Asha: What is your vision of library land if you had money? What would make it easier? How could communication be easier?
DD: Catalogers make things accessible to the public, and that’s the most important thing they do. When people can’t find things, they get angry. They don’t bother anyone when its accessible.
LB: Every day you tweak little by little. What is metadata? And the BIBFRAME idea, is that coming soon.
MC: Metadata is what we’ve been doing since we started. The tools we have are very sophisticated, but you have to know to find them and students might have never used a catalog.
MG: Getting the students to know that the information exists is a huge hurdle
DD: There is a program that maps your library – gives a layout
CBG: Go to advocacy day to get people talking about getting librarians in schools
CW: Her education in library instruction stuck with her she took a class on gamification
DD: Principals need to be involved. The libraries that reached out to the kids were campus-wide
TS: The good teachers worked well with media specialist, both would stay to do instruction together. They collaborated, and not just once a year. Disconnect with public schools and public libraries. If you don’t start that at the elementary level, they don’t know where to go when they get to college. Public and school librarian need to collaborate.
Asha: Their community is small enough that the public library and the school work together. The principal at the school invited her to the school and that was a great way to get the conversation going.
CW: Pleasant Valley children’s librarian has been active in the school and she brings in kids for their first application.
MC: Book talks and book trailers are a good way to get kids involved in libraries – Social Redia
Asha: They can meet in a local pub and have their book club there.
DD: A professor at his daughter’s boyfriend made them use the microfilm for research, and the students are excited about the old technology.
TS: Do you merge a lot of records?
LB: Sometimes they have different holdings for the same records
DD: A board book is a separate edition than a picture book of the same work. Most movies come out on DVD, Blu Ray and combo packs – he has three records for one title. (MHLS does the same) The system is set up … if the member library puts in their item in the field properly, the patron can select which item they want. He has to create the records and let people see what it can do.
MG: Are the BluRays and DVDs shelved together?
Asha: They are, patrons looks through cards to find what they want. They have streaming video through Overdrive, but they’re not in the catalog.
MG: They just started Kanopy, but they’re not in the catalog. It’s mostly documentaries and not much entertainment. They also have foreign films.
MC: The Kanopy videos are only circulating for a year, so putting them in the catalog would mean getting them in and out.
MCk: They only catalog things that they bought, not things that they license.
Carla Lesh Hudson River Maritime Museum
Courtney Wimmers Mid-Hudson Library System
Dan Donohue Ramapo Catskill Library System
Judy Gitlin Dominican College
Louise Boyle SUNY - Ulster Community College
Lynne Golliher Ellenville Public Library & Museum
Marla Gruner SUNY - Ulster Community College
Marta Cwik Marist College
Matthew Cummings SUNY New Paltz
Megan Coder SUNY New Paltz
Nina Acosta Mid-Hudson Library System
Tara Stohr Mid-Hudson Library System
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday, May 8 from 1pm-4pm