SouthWest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries

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Catalogers Interest Group - October 26, 2006 Meeting Notes

Time: 1:30-4:00 pm

Present:

Brandy Babb (Campbell County Public Library), Susan Banoun (University of Cincinnati), Charles Dyer (Hamilton Public Schools), Chris Hill (Wilmington Public Library), Carol Macmann (BWI), Kelly Chambers (BWI), Aaron Smith (Clermont County Public Library), Doug Williams (Campbell County Public Library)

Preliminaries

We opened with a look at Catalogablog, a relatively popular cataloging weblog, using it as the basis for some brief discussions on current topics, leading to:

Sources for MARC

We discussed the questions of sources for MARC records, and revisited (as we do nearly every meeting!) the controversy of using Bookwhere and other Z39.50 mining tools as an alternative to OCLC.

AUTOCAT

We looked at the new inclusion of "Typo of the day" features on the AUTOCAT listserv, and then spent a little time talking through the current discussion on the ultimate fate of that listserv in light of the University of Buffalo's recent decision to stop hosting it.

Shelf-marking

We talked about the issues involved in taking the time to create unique Cutters or shelf-marks for materials. How important are unique shelf-marks? We concluded that the size of the collection was a very important variable, and agreed that academic and public collections required necessarily different approaches. We also noted that the training of pages and shelvers is impacted by the decision, and in some ways such training can compensate for decisions to use shelf-marks that are not unique.

FRBR

Applications of the principles of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records has been much less prominent in recent months, suggesting that a major change in the way we do things is not pending soon. Crosswalks between existing MARC and FRBR hierarchies are still being developed, and it looks like it will be a long haul.

Authority control

There are apparently some significant lacks in terms of authority control on some of our local systems. It is clear that all local institutions have taken significantly different paths to authority work, from outsourcing to ignoring. Again, library type, ILS (integrated library system) and collection size are pivotal variables.

Tagging vis-a-vis controlled vocabulary

The currently popular trend of tagging (assigning terms to assist in retrieval) of all kinds of materials may become a possibility in describing library materials, as well. Is there a way that controlled vocabulary (LC Subject Headings) and voluntary tagging (along the lines of a wiki) can be combined to describe materials?

Upcoming events on the SWON-L calendar

• Intermediate cataloging, with Carol Bradsher - November 30, at SWON-L headquarters
• Cataloging sound recordings - January 16, at Springfield
• Cataloging sound recordings - January 17, at SWON-L headquarters, Blue Ash

Tentative events to come in 2007

• MARC Bibliographic and Authority Formats: An Introduction Preparations continued for a third offering of this event, this time in the northeastern corner of the SWON-L territory. We need to schedule this offering soon to keep it on our radar and to arrange for the flexible time.
• More SCCTP training events (in Dayton vicinity?)
• Music sound recording cataloging workshop

Ongoing questions

• Will there be an Advanced Cataloging to follow up on the Intermediate program? If so, what might be the content?
• Will there be a video cataloging session to match the sound recording sessions in 2007?

Next meeting

Thursday, 18 January 2007, 1:30-4:00 pm, SWON-L offices, Blue Ash

Respectfully submitted,
Aaron Smith
Cataloging/Reference Services
Clermont County Public Library