LARS Cataloguing Group

Minutes Thursday, November 18, 2010

Meeting was held at the Brillion Public Library. Cheryl Nessman opened the meeting. Members present were: Cheryl Nessman, Ginger Brochtrup, Dahle Enneper, Chris Moede, Chris Cerkes, Kathy Tolksdorf, Ann Reimer, Amy Eisenschink, Julia Davis, Terry Kuske, Becky Petersen, and Steve Thiry.

Minutes from May 27th: There were no questions on the minutes.

Subcommittee reports: Procedures & Policies- Chris Moede reported that the LARS group has approved the LARS Cataloging Policy. The group will now work on procedures.

Cataloging issues and questions

NetLibrary title deletion list – All libraries should continue work on the deletion list. They

should make a note of titles not found. Cheryl Nessman will send out an email reminder in

January checking up on everyone’s progress on the list.

Calling Ginger when reports get hung-up (Cell) If you run a report and it gets hung up, notify

Ginger at MCLS. If she is not available to take the message, talk to Connie or Becky. If need

be, contact her cell at 920-915-5301. Try to talk to a live person.

ILL fast adds: Procedures will be developed by the policy/ procedure committee for adding

ILL items. It was suggested that every title begin with ILL- item title; It was suggested that

items be deleted and not discarded. Some of the libraries scan the item barcode for the

catalog. Group was reminded not to close the fast add window using the corner X. Anyone

with a procedure for ILL fast adds, should share it with the policy/procedure committee.

On-Order Records: Item Types must be correct for Holds: It was recommended that item type

(cd, dvd, large print) be placed in parenthesis after the title on an on-order record for items

other than books. Cheryl Nessman will send out a list of what words to use for each type.

Serials issues: It was suggested that we work to have all periodicals of the same title display similarly. One suggestion is to use the year as the call number, rather than the title of the magazine.

Standards for cataloging

On Order Records for non-B&T vendors – Ann Reimer demonstrated how Manitowoc uses their

Acquisitions module to place on order records in the catalog for non Baker & Taylor orders.

She creates funds. Prices show up at the discount paid. The brief record includes: ISBN (both

10 and 13); Author’s name, title in capital letters, & year. Call number is set to auto-

generated. Becky will check on cost of acquisitions module and LARS group will discuss if this

will work for the other libraries.

LARS cataloging policies: Policy has been adopted. No one in the group had any questions

on the policy.

LARS cataloging procedures:

Copy cataloging: SmartPort vs. Connexion Client: Chris Moede and Any Eisenchink gave

demonstrations on each. Connexion allows you to upload records to World Cat. Amy also

explained how to withdraw materials using Connexion. A credit is obtained for updating

withdrawn items. Ginger uploads catalog records to Wiscat regularly.

Which method should be included in future training?: Chris will send Manitowoc SmartPort

procedures and MPL will try them and come back with their recommendations.

Cataloging tips: There were no tips offered.

Next meeting: The next meeting will be on May 19th at 9 a.m. at the Chilton Public Library. The

meeting adjourned at 10:47 a.m.



Minutes recorded by Chris Moede

Library of Congress Blocks Access to WikiLeaks on it's Computers...is this right or wrong?

From The Library of Congress Blog:

Why the Library of Congress Is Blocking Wikileaks



December 3rd, 2010 by Matt Raymond


The news media are reporting today, accurately, that the Library of Congress is blocking access to the Wikileaks site across its computer systems, including those for use by patrons in the reading rooms.

I wanted to provide here the same statement we’ve been giving to reporters and patrons who are asking about it:

“The Library decided to block Wikileaks because applicable law obligates federal agencies to protect classified information. Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents do not alter the documents’ classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents.”


The White House’s Office of Management and Budget today provided the guidance that “[f]ederal agencies collectively, and each federal employee and contractor individually, are obligated to protect classified information pursuant to all applicable laws, as well as to protect the integrity of government information technology systems.”



My own opinion is that it's very wrong of Wikileaks to endanger people and National Security, however, I also think that the Library's reaction to this goes against the Library Bill of Rights, in which we all agree to "provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues." And that "materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval."  Oh yeah, and what about our duty to challenge, not create, censorship? It's a tough stance to take, but it's one we agreed to take when we became Librarians.


So, what do you think? Is it right or wrong for them to censor this information?


***********************************************************************

2010 WLA Conference

Here’s a brief summary of the Catalog-Related information I gathered at the 2010 WLA Conference.  Each section title is hyper-linked to the WLA archive of the presentation, so you can view the handouts/powerpoints yourself if you'd like to.  Or, you can just go to the WLA Conference site and see everything that they have saved.


Dewey or Don’t We: Dewey vs. BISAC

BISAC classification (used by bookstores /vendors) is based on natural language—Dewey is obviously not.

BISAC is not a huge change & patrons adapt to it and find materials using it immediately.

Easy to get materials catalogued this way by vendor (no need to worry about individual library practices)

Complete change to BISAC not recommended for large libraries because BISAC lacks subject depth.

BISAC works well for small libraries—creates a more browser-friendly, bookstore atmosphere.

Libraries that are doing it in one form or another: Rangeview Colorado Library (anythinklibraries.org),

Topeka & Shawnee County PL, and Frankfort PL.

Foreseeable issues: Bisac owned by Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and classification is market based—inevitable bias and loss of long-term categories. Supports browsing in wide categories only—no subject depth. However, OCLC is a BISG member and has put mapping of DDC to BISAC before DDC to LCSH! Hmmmm.

Creative outcomes of changing to BISAC: Ability to easily move popular collections to front of library (gardening, wedding, cooking, etc.) Allows for more creative shelving—shelve kids books face out (like CD’s at a record store), color coded labels and mapping, shelf tags that clearly define subject areas. Patrons spending more time browsing in library, instead of coming in for the one thing they were looking for.

Slideshow at: http://www.slideshare.net/fpld/wla-november-2010


Cataloging in a Public Library System – Jane Richard

Trends: Cataloging is being done outside of libraries by vendors. In-house cataloging focused on getting item out on shelf as fast as possible, not on creating the most accurate and complete record possible (user-focused).

Biggest challenges: Database maintenance (dupes & errors), AV cataloging, keeping libraries informed and trained, authority control, time constraints, customer service vs. quality, creation of cataloging standards, & holding costs down.

Top questions: Is MARC dead? Is RDA/FRBR a likely long-term solution to evolving needs? Will ILS’s be ready to handle RDA? How can ILS’s use our catalog data to create tools such as, “If you like…then you might also like…”.

What makes for a quality record?: good subject headings, authority control, no dupes in system, no spelling errors, no coding errors.

How do we achieve quality?: Report errors regularly, improve records along the way, proofreading, use of automated tools like MARC edit and Connexion authority control, following national guidelines, have ALL library department s look for and report cataloging errors in a consistent manner. (Have errors emailed to one contact/library, saved to “error” file, and share with system libraries.

Something to read: “Online Catalogs: what do users and librarians want?” http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/fullreport.pdf

Cataloging Trick: Change 490’s 1st indicator from a 1 to a Zero and delete 800’s in order to have series show up in correct order in catalog. (I have not tried this myself)

Have a question for Jane Richard? Her email is: jrichard@wils.wisc.edu
See the results of the survey she emailed to us.

Testing RDA: how will it really work?

Copy Catalogers won’t need to worry much about the changes except knowing what new fields should look like (looking for obvious errors) and knowing whether or not your Library System has decided to use RDA records or not (we are not currently using them).

More important for Catalogers to understand FRBR at this point than RDA, as RDA is based on FRBR. Read: “FRBR: A Conceptual Model for the Bibliographic Universe” by Barbara Tillett. http://www.loc.gov/cds/downloads/FRBR.PDF

(Again, no real need for Copy Catalogers to look at this, unless they really want to!)

University of Chicago has RDA records displayed in their ILS if you’re interested in looking at them.

RDA Relationships Overview
RDA Handout - Lee Miller



OH! AND DON"T FORGET ABOUT LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY!!
(you can even participate online :)



If you attended a session and would like to share it with everyone, please email the information to me and I will post it. Thanks.

13 Tips for Dealing with a Really Lousy Day. (note the fittingly unlucky number)

I stole this directly from Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project website:

We've all had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. A bad work evaluation, a disappointing grade, a potential crush who turns out to be interested in someone else, a fight with your mother, a worrisome report from a doctor, a broken resolution…lousy days take many forms.


Here are some strategies I use for coping with a lousy day:

1. Resist the urge to “treat” yourself. Often, the things we choose as “treats” aren’t good for us. The pleasure lasts a minute, but then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the lousiness of the day. So when you find yourself thinking, “I’ll feel better after I have a few beers…a pint of ice cream…a cigarette…a new pair of jeans,” ask yourself – will it REALLY make you feel better? It might make you feel worse.

2. Do something nice for someone else. “Do good, feel good” – this really works. Be selfless, if only for selfish reasons. A friend going through a horrible period told me that she was practically addicted to doing good deeds; that was the only thing that made her feel better.

3. Distract yourself. When my older daughter was born, she had to be in Neonatal Intensive Care for a week. I spent every hour at the hospital, until my husband dragged me away to go to an afternoon movie. I didn’t want to go, but afterward, I realized that I was much better able to cope with the situation after having had a bit of relief. Watching a funny movie or TV show is a great way to take a break, or I often re-read beloved classics of children's literature.

4. Seek inner peace through outer order. Soothe yourself by tackling a messy closet, an untidy desk, or crowded countertops. The sense of tangible progress, control, and orderliness can be a comfort. This always works for me – and fortunately, my family is messy enough that I always have plenty of therapeutic clutter at hand.

5. Tell yourself, “Well, at least I…” Get some things accomplished. Yes, you had a horrible day, but at least you went to the gym, or played with your kids, or walked the dog, or read your children a story, or recycled.

6. Exercise is an extremely effective mood booster – but be careful of exercise that allows you to ruminate. For example, if I go for a walk when I’m upset about something, I often end up feeling worse, because the walk provides me with uninterrupted time in which to dwell obsessively on my troubles.

7. Stay in contact. When you’re having a lousy day, it’s tempting to retreat into isolation. Studies show, though, that contact with other people boosts mood. So try to see or talk to people, especially people you’re close to.

8. It’s a cliché, but things really will look brighter in the morning. Go to bed early and start the next day anew. Also, sleep deprivation puts a drag on mood in the best of circumstances, so a little extra sleep will do you good.

9. Remind yourself of your other identities. If you feel like a loser at work, send out a blast email to engage with college friends. If you think members of the PTA are mad at you, don’t miss the spinning class where everyone knows and likes you.

10. Keep perspective. Ask yourself: “Will this matter in a month? In a year?” I recently came across a note I’d written to myself years ago, that said “TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I dimly remember the panic I felt about dealing with taxes that year; but it’s all lost and forgotten now.

11. Write it down. When something horrible is consuming my mind, I find that if I write up a paragraph or two about the situation, I get immense relief.

12. Be grateful. Remind yourself that a lousy day isn’t a catastrophic day. Be grateful that you’re still on the “lousy” spectrum. Probably, things could be worse.

13. Use the emergency mood tool-kit. For an emergency happiness intervention, try these tips for getting a boost in the next HOUR.

~Gretchen Rubin

Cool (and free) Tech from WLA 2010

Here's a list of cool tech ideas from the Macgyver vs. Have You Heard? session at WLA:

Netgalley is an inexpensive and green way for publishers to share their digital galleys (advance copies of books created expressly for generating press) securely. Professional readers—reviewers, media, bloggers, journalists, librarians, booksellers and educators—can all use NetGalley for FREE to read and request galleys they want to review. Some of the titles require that you download Adobe Digital Editions (free) before viewing content on your computer or mobile device.

Bluefirereader allows you to download Adobe E-pub content from many different venders onto your iPhone or iPad.

Google Chart Tools make it easy to create clean, colorful charts of all shapes and sizes, and then provides code which can be copied into emails, blogs, and web pages.

Jogtheweb is a web-based tool that allows anyone to create a synchronous guide to a series of web sites. Its step by step approach of taking viewers through web sites allowing the author to annotate and ask guiding questions for each page is great for teaching others about websites with shared subject matters, such as job search, health, or academic resources.

FillAnyPDF is a free tool that lets you turn any PDF form into one that can be filled in online, instead of by printing it out on paper and filling it in by hand.

Online-Convert converts file types. It can convert videos, images, music, and documents, to file types that are compatible to your cell phone, computer, and e-reader, and more.

PrintWhatYouLike allows you to do just that, print what you like! This tool is for those who like to print content from web pages, such as articles, sport scores, graphs, etc., but don’t want all those extra sheets you get because of advertisements and wacky web formats. When you download PrintWhat YouLike, the tool is placed in your web browser toolbar, ready for use. Click on it when you see something you wish to print, and cool frames appear on the page as you scroll your curser over the page—print when the frame appears around the content you want. You can even highlight just a few lines of information and print it!

Instructables.com is a site that helps release the tinkerer in all of us . Some of the off the wall but completely functional projects you will see there include, build-your-own digital antenna, how to make a touch screen work with gloves on, how to make a huge printable poster out of your iTunes cover art, or even a MP3 player solar charger—really!

Clicker lets you find, share, and watch TV online.

Delivr QR Code Generator: QR codes are two dimensional barcodes that can be sanned by most smartphones today. They look something like this: and can be used in many innovative ways to share information about yourself, your business, and the world around you. Here are a few suggestions for use that I found on the web:

1. Users can embed code with text or links to their favorite images, music and sites. Upon creating a QR code, Snappr then offers you a chance to transfer the bar codes to hats, mugs and even baby gear. Because the point of the code is to provide additional info to passersby, there are a ton of potential uses for it. You can proactively provide speed dates with background info, fundraise on-site during charity events, or simply advertise.

2. A pilot program between CitySearch and Antenna Audio began in Spring 2008. Reviews and audio snippets were embedded into codes on San Francisco historical landmarks and restaurants. Foodies and tourists enjoyed self-guided tours of the Bay. If a QR code is linked to a public review site, a wiki, or a forum, anyone can lend a hand in chronicling a site’s history. Obviously this has its pros and cons.

3. In 2007, the Pet Shop Boys released a single criticizing the British national identity card concept. The single came complete with a QR code linked to the critique. Fine, you don’t like the Pet Shop Boys. Still, it’s interesting to see that the codes can be used to subvert regimes.

Or how about putting QR labels on books, music, or movies in the library that lead people to related resources within your library?

PollEverywhere replaces expensive proprietary audience response hardware (clickers) with standard web technology (cellphone text messaging). It's the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, tv, print — anywhere.

ZohoCreator allows you to import existing spreadsheet data which is then saved and used to automatically create an online form and database for subsequent data.

Linguee , a German-based startup, is a contextual translation search engine that walks the middle ground between machine translation (Google page translations) and online dictionary (with some crowdsourcing mixed in for good measure). The tool offers support for English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French.

SearchTempset is a search aggregator for Craigslist which allows you to divide results by location. All you need to do is enter your zip code and search terms.

Google Voice with Google Number: Sign up for a free Google phone number that can automatically forward calls to existing phones, save and transcribe voicemail messages (which can be emailed to other parties). Not sold yet? Well how about free calls and text messaging (can be made from a computer or your phone) within the US, inexpensive international calls, AND…you can use the Google number to list stuff on Craigslist, in the newspaper, or on forms without worrying about giving out your home or cell phone #.

WLA - 2010

Who's going to the 2010 Annual WLA Conference and which days will you be attending?

What sessions are you planning on attending?

Are there any sessions that you can't make it to that you think someone should try to attend and report back to the committee on?

WLA Program

Meeting with Jane Richards from WiLS:

Here's a recap of the meeting we had with Jane yesterday.  If there's something you have a question about or that you don't see mentioned here, please feel free to send me an email.

• All libraries have full access to OCLC Connexion.  This means that you can download as many records into Sirsi as you need to, and you will not be billed extra (over the amount paid for the subscription...and Becky said she will be getting this information out to the individual libraries).
• You may continue/begin to use SmartPort choosing the OCLC symbol to search for bib records.  This may or may not be putting MPL's symbol on the records in OCLC, but it doesn't matter as this will not affect MPL's subscription, and the holdings will be fixed when Ginger runs her reports. Ginger is going to look into adding an OCLC link for each library, so the appropriate holdings are attached from the start.
• You may also download bib records directly from OCLC into Workflows by using OCLC Connexion (web based), or OCLC Connexion Client (which must first be downloaded onto you computer).  Workshops/Webinars and Tutorials on how to use these tools this are available through WiLS and Minitex.  Perhaps we could set up a session that a group of us could attend?
• Ginger is, I believe, thinking of running OCLC cleanup reports more often in order to delete OCLC holdings from items we have discarded, and to attach holdings to items that we own.

• Did you know that your library gets a monetary credit from OCLC every time you MANUALLY remove your library's holding in OCLC for deleted items?  Yup, they credit you $0.25 per record.  Amy has been doing this for MPL for years, and she says that we get hundreds of dollars back every month. Downside: it's a time-consuming process. You do not get credited if your holdings are automatically removed from OCLC through the reports that Ginger runs. 
• Libraries also get credit for creating original records and updating existing records in OCLC--however, unless you have been trained to perform original cataloguing, you should not be doing this.
• Jane also informed us of an OCLC service called Cataloging Partners. We had actually looked into this at some point, but found the cost to be prohibitive (when looking at doing it with Baker & Taylor).  But then Jane told us that she believes Amazon For Libraries (free service) works with OCLC to provide bib records to libraries for free!  This could fill our need for On-Order Records for DVDs purchased through Amazon right?  Ann Reimer and I signed MPL up for the service this morning, and we'd be happy to let you know how it goes.  You can find a full list of vendors that work with OCLC here.

I think that's about it!

Minutes from LARS Cataloguing Policy Committee Meeting

Held Thursday September 23, 2010 at Lester Public Library 9 am.

Attended: Cheryl, Amy, Chris and Kathy


Chris welcomed everybody and Amy volunteered to take notes.


We finalized the wording on the Cataloguing Policy to send it LARS for recommended adoption.


Fast Adds and Use of Connexion and Smart Port: Most of this discussion was tabled until after we meet with Jane Richards (from WILS) and find out what exactly smaller libraries are paying for and what services they get. It was decided that until we get some answers ONLY MPL should be using the OCLC link through Smart Port. When other libraries use this it is MPL’s holdings that get attached.


We talked about MPL doing all of the cataloging on OCLC and what financial impact that might have. This would be accomplished through reports.


At the next LARS Catalog meeting (9am, November 18th, @Brillion) Amy will demo how she catalogs on OCLC. Ann will demo how she creates an Amazon order in SD, so we can see how non-B&T on-order records are created. Amy will also bring MPL’s ILL procedures and any other procedures that MPL has finished.

Discussed possibility of using one agreed upon format for magazine records, including putting the year in front of the call number for each issue. This discussion will continue at the full cataloging meeting in November when the magazine people are there.


We discussed again, the differences in using a serials record vs. a single record for travel books. We talked about using the serial record and going back to removing the subfield c in the 260 line like we did when Lisa Bruere was here. We also discussed graphic novels and with them we ALWAYS want one book, one record and do not duplicate.


Fixed fields…wait until after conversation with Jane to make decisions.


Training…what level do libraries need? How often? Who will do it? None of these questions got answered but we will discuss again in the future.


Original cataloguing …MPL will continue to do for everybody (10 per year and evaluate at end of every year to see if this is too much or too little), especially local history stuff. Using a fast add or short record for ephemeral stuff may be acceptable.


We discussed “Ag in the classroom” material and how/who it should be cataloged. MPL will continue to catalog those on OCLC as in the past.


There is a LARS cataloguing meeting on November 18 in Brillion at 9 am. At that meeting we will set the date for the next Cataloguing Policy Committee meeting.

LARS Participants Council Meeting on Oct. 1st

The LARS Cataloguing Committee &  Subcommittee will be bringing the following items to the LARS Participants Council Meeting this Friday, Oct. 1st:

• Overdrive Records (Ginger has finished cleaning up the Overdrive records so that in no longer looks as though we have no copies available)

• Meeting with Jane Richards from WiLS ( LARS Cataloguing will be meeting with one of our WiLS reps to discuss the new OCLC package--how much is it costing libraries, what's included, etc.)

• Chris Moede will be submitting the new LARS Cataloguing Policy, that was created by the LARS Cataloguing Subcommittee, to the Council for approval.

If anyone has anything else that they think we should mention at the meeting, please leave a comment or send an email.

LSTA GRANT NEWS!!!

Becky handed in the "Enhancing Use of Technology in Libraries and Library Systems" LSTA Grant that we've been working.

If accepted, the grant will help us make the most out of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC, also known as our Sirsi E-Library) we currently have.

Glimpse of our current OPAC:

The project will focus on:

Design - larger & more consistent font sizes, layouts that look good on any size screen and that don't look so generic and unappealing.

Results - continuing to tweak our settings in Sirsi so patrons get the best search results the system can offer.

Content - adding content to the OPAC that the patrons want, such as, series information, "if you like this you might also like...", virtual bookshelves, format icons (for books, CDs, DVDs, e-books), etc. 

Sounds good, right?  So cross your fingers toes and eyes for us!

We Are Visible

Homelessness appears to be on the rise, and while it may not be as prevalent in our small communities as it is in cities like Milwaukee and Madison, it does still exist.

Mark Horvath, the head of Invisible People, has started a project called, We Are Visible, which is designed to help homeless people connected with the rest of the world via social networking.

The site teaches people how to set up Gmail, Twitter, Wordpress, and Facebook accounts, and urges them to choose one or more mediums to share their stories, their daily lives, and their knowledge with other homeless people as well as the rest of the world.

It would be nice if we could find an innovative way to share this information in our own libraries.

Any ideas?

Skyriver suing OCLC:

I received the following in an email message and thought I'd share:

The following statement is from Larry Alford, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees, and Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO:

“On July 29, SkyRiver Technology Solutions and Innovative Interfaces, Inc. filed suit against OCLC, alleging anticompetitive practices. We at OCLC believe the lawsuit is without merit, and we will vigorously defend the policies and practices of the cooperative.

OCLC’s General Counsel, working with trial counsel, will respond to this regrettable action by SkyRiver and Innovative Interfaces following procedures and timetables dictated by the court. This process will likely take months or even years, not days.

In the meantime, we want to assure the OCLC membership and all 72,000 libraries that use one or more OCLC services that these spurious allegations will not divert us from our current plans and activities. These include maintaining and enhancing existing services, pursuing an ambitious agenda in library research and advocacy, and introducing new Web-scale (cloud) services. Indeed, OCLC has been a global leader in providing cloud-based services for libraries since 1971, and the next generation of these services holds great promise for reducing member library costs.

It is worth noting that our current strategy represents a collective effort by librarians around the world, developed through ongoing dialogue and consultation with the Board of Trustees, Global Council, and Regional Councils in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We will continue our active engagement with OCLC members and governance participants as, together, we move our cooperative forward.

Inclusion, reciprocity, trust and the highest standard of ethical conduct have guided the OCLC cooperative in the past and will guide us in the future. As always, OCLC’s public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the rate of rise of library costs remain paramount.”



—Larry Alford, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees

—Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO

Flash-Mob Cataloging

Margie Verhelst and I attended WiLS World a couple of weeks ago, and attended a session given by LibraryThing's creator, Tim Spalding.  He had lots of interesting things to say about such things as E-Books, the future of libraries and book stores, OCLC, and Flash-Mob Cataloging.

What is Flash-Mob Cataloging?  Well, here's a description taken directly from Tim's blog:

Flash-Mob Cataloging is when a horde of LibraryThing members descend on some small library with laptops and CueCat barcode scanners, catalog their books in LibraryThing, eat some pizza, talk some talk and leave them with a gleaming new LibraryThing catalog.


Why do it? There are many small libraries that use LibraryThing as their online catalog–museums, organizations, churches, schools, synagogues, temples, even some embassies! It’s an easy cheap solution to library automation. (More on organizational LibraryThing accounts here.) And having a flash-mob do the cataloging makes it easy and fun to do the data entry! Emphasis on the fun, trust me.


We’ve done two so far (Rhode Island Audubon Society and St. John’s Church in Beverly MA), to great success. Both were in New England because, well, that’s where the most LibraryThing employees are located. But the concept isn’t limited by location! Anyone can organize one–hence, the new Flash-Mob Cataloging group. So come join us and plan your own flash-mob event. We’ll help you get organized, blog it for you so you can get the word out, and we’ll even send you some CueCats, tshirts, and laptop stickers to give away.

Call me crazy, but I think this sounds like some good ol' off-the-wall fun!
 
Is anyone interested in trying something like this out?  And if so, do you know of a place that would benefit from something like this?
 
Leave a comment!
 

The Canton Museum of Art in Ohio

(CantonArt.org, CantonArt on LT, blog post announcing event)

Over two days, catalogers managed to add 1,090 books in a total of about 7.5 hours. They had seven catalogers on Saturday, four on Sunday, and a dedicated book lugger (also the father of the flash-mob organizer) for both days
from Thingology Blog

RDA WEBINAR

Don't forget to attend the RDA Webinar this Thursday, 10-Noon, in the MPL Board Room.

Again, libraries will be moving from AACR2 to RDA some time after the final testing phase which is set to begin October 2010 and end December 2010. 

It's true that the change may affect some of you only minimally, but it's important to know what's coming ahead of time so you can see how your job will be affected (even if it's only being able to recognize the new format once it's been launched).

This is big, so let's stay on top of it.

RDA Webinar at MPL

MPL will be hosting the RDA Webinar through OCLC/Minitex that I mentioned last week.

It will be held in our Board Room on July 29th from 10am - Noon.

Please let other interested staff members know about this as well.

If you would like to shoot me an email letting me know how many you think will be attending from your library, that would be helpful.

Description


This information session will introduce participants to Resource Description and Access (RDA), the new manual of cataloging rules designed to succeed AACR2. The instructor will present a thumbnail sketch of RDA's contents, how these guidelines differ from AACR2, and what effects these may have on your library catalog. Information on the RDA Toolkit and the U.S. national libraries' RDA test will also be addressed.

This is the first in a series of training sessions Minitex will offer on RDA and the RDA Toolkit.

Who Should Attend?

Catalogers and other interested library staff.

Prerequisites

Basic cataloging knowledge and a familiarity with AACR2 and the MARC record.

MPL EMAIL IS BACK UP :)

Our email is up and running again.  Thank goodness!

Cheryl

Email Down at MPL

Hi Folks,

I just wanted you to be aware that our email is down in Manitowoc.  There was a power outage that affected the City's server yesterday, and things are still not working properly.

~Cheryl

RDA Training Session

Hi All, I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend =)

I have just signed up for a webinar through OCLC & Minitex called,

"RDA: What It Is, and What It Means to You"

Session Date: Thursday, July 29, 2010

Session Time: 10:00 AM - 11:45 AM

If anyone is interested in coming to MPL to view this webinar, please let me know and I will ask Margie Verhelst to set us up in one of our conference rooms if possible.

Email me at: dncnessman@gmail.com

You may be able to access this yourselves without coming to MPL, as it is supposed to be free to all Wisconsin Librarians.  Try the following link to see if it works for you: http://www.minitex.umn.edu/Training/Details.aspx?SessionID=302


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Des Moines Public Library Moves to SkyRiver

While reading the June issue of ALA Tech Source's Smart Libraries newsletter today, I saw that the Des Moines Public Library (DMPL)was the first library with a SirsiDynix (Horizon) system to switch over to SkyRiver's Catalog Service.  SkyRiver, which was founded by the creater and co-founder of Innovative Interfaces (ENCORE), is a new, and less expensive competitior of OCLC Cataloguing Services.

The head of Technical Services at DMPL stated that "There really was no disruption in our operations. SkyRiver just worked from day one. Even better, our suggestions for enhancing the service were appreciated and are being implemented."

The article suggests that DMPL is "saving significant dollars by moving to SkyRiver", and the Director of DMPL, Saul Amdursky, has been quoted as saying, "It's great to know that you are helping move the library community forward while at the same time saving money for your own library."

Hmmm.  Could it really be this good?  Would anyone like to look into this further--maybe after we've made some progress on some of the other projects we're working on?  Let me know if you're interested.

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RDA Toolkit Free Trial

Has anyone been preparing for the switch from AACR2 to RDA? 

The new standards will be formally tested this October through December, with implementation probably occurring sometime in 2011.

RDA will not be available in print (unless you download the pdfs and print them out yourself....yikes!), but will instead be available through the ALA's RDA Toolkit, which has an open-access free trial going on as we speak, and is set to last until August 31, 2010.

To sign up, go to the following url: http://www.rdatoolkit.org/openaccess and follow the instructions under the "Complimentary Open-Access Period" heading.

According to Damian Iseminger of the MLA SCC,

"The planned pricing of the RDA Toolkit is as follows. The annual license fee will be $325, and only covers

one user. Each additional concurrent user will cost $55 for 2-9 concurrent users, $50 for 10-

18 concurrent users, and $45 for 20 or more concurrent users. So, for example, an

institution wishing to have 5 concurrent users would pay $600 for 1 year of access to

RDA ($325 + (5 x $55= $275)=$600). It should be pointed out that each institution can

have an unlimited number of user profiles, but has a limited number of concurrent users."
                                                          http://www.mlascc.org/mla2010/Iseminger.pdf


This is something we will need to consider.

You may also wish to view:

RDA Toolkit Webinar Archives


Making the Most of RDA Toolkit's Open-Access Period (originally presented June 17-18, 2010)

RDA Toolkit—A Guided Tour (originally presented Feb. 8-9, 2010)
 

Catalog Sites

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I ran across a couple of interesting websites last week, and I thought I'd share them with you.

The first one is called dewey.info and it is a collection of linked Dewey Decimal Classification Summaries. Click on one of the Ten Main Classes to see how it works.

The next site is out of OCLC and it's called Classify. I get a kick out of this one because you can plug in a title, ISBN, author, or even subject and Classify will spit out a pie chart showing you what percentages of libraries are classifying an item/subject one way, and how many are doing it differently. It's pretty cool.

If you have any links you'd like to share, either email them to me so I can add them as a new Post, or include them in a comment to this Post :)

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Shadowing

I sent out an email earlier this week about a title that wasn't showing up in Workflows when we performed an EXACT title search. We later realized that parts of the record had been shadowed (thanks Ginger), and we had simply forgotten to remove the shadows due to the amount of time between shadowing and original cataloguing. Once we removed the shadows, we were able to find the item using EXACT title search in Workflows the next day.

This did bring up some interesting questions, though. First of all, I was under the impression that shadowing did not affect Workflows, and that it only affected the patron's view of the catalog. And why did shadowing only affect the EXACT search?? We were always able to find the item using the KEYWORD functions--hmmm, very interesting.

It also brought about Chris Moede's question to Ginger about running a report to show each library which of their records are shadowed in some way (title, call number, etc.). She also noticed a title that wasn't showing up in her system, and later found that the title had been shadowed. Amy Eisenschink wonders if these reports might not be too large (for some of us, anyway) to be of much use.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Is this a very common issue?


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News:

Welcome to the LARS Cataloging Group's new blog!  The purpose of this blog is to make it easier to share Aquisistions, Cataloging, and Serials information between the 6 MCLS Libraries. 

Please feel free to comment on posts.

If you would like to have something posted to the blog, send it to me at cnessman@manitowoc.org, and I will add it for you.

If at some point we decide that it would be easier for everyone to post there own information, we can move to a wiki format--just let me know!

If anyone needs help navigating this site, I would be happy to assist you in any way I can. 



Happy blogging!