The One, the Only

So it’s been a while, but the last three weeks have been mostly helping download records directly from OCLC; however, last week I really began to get into assigning subject headings. One snag: the Surpass CL software doesn’t recognize the 690 MARC tag for local subject headings, which will make using the Quaker Subject Heading list difficult. So far, though, I’ve been able to find good LCSH for the items. I’ve started in the “Conduct of Life” section. Wait, back up: One of the major projects that the last intern completed was to create 12 main subject browsing categories for the library:

A: Quakerism
B: Biographies
BC: Biography Collections / Collective Biographies
C: Conduct of Life
D: Spiritual Life
E: The Bible
F: Religion & Theology (non-Quaker-specific)
G: Social Concerns & Society
H: History
I: Peace & Nonviolence
J: Literature & the Arts
K: Children & Young Adults (further broken down into KP–Picture Books, KN–Non-fiction, KF–Fiction, etc.)

So, I skipped over Quakerism and Biographies and went to the C: Conduct of Life section because it’s small and more secular, and I thought that would be good practice. And, as I said, LCSH has been proving very flexible and useful. One of the hardest principles to stick to — and one of the most work-intensive aspects — is to apply a SH that is as narrow as possible. Some of the books in this section can only be called “Conduct of life,” along with some related terms (RT). Some can be assigned narrower terms (NT) within “Conduct of life.” But, as all the books are collocated in the C browsing section — as they would be under any other call number system — library users should be able to find what they’re looking for, or come across something new.

Today I also did some original cataloging for the first time: a little prayer book assembled by the young members of the First Day School (Quaker “Sunday School”). The book consists of 17 pieces of 8.5×11 paper with words, prayers and/or pictures and paintings bound in a three-prong (for three-hole-punched paper) folder. There is an ad hoc title page labeled

“The Prayer Book”
Children’s Edition
Feb 17, 2008

So I did this:

008          080313s2008 paua b 000 0 eng
245  04     The prayer book / $c [Written and illustrated by the First Day School of the {City} Monthly Meeting].
250          Children’s ed.
300          [17] leaves, bound : $b ill. (chiefly col.) ; $c 30 cm.
650  _0     Children $v Prayers and devotions.
650  _0     Experience (Religion) in children.
650  _0     Prayer $x Christianity $x Society of Friends.
710  2_     {City Name} Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends {City, State}

I am still getting a handle on the bytes of the 006/008 fields, but I did this as a manuscript. Whew!

14 February 2008 (on site): 11:00am-3:00pm
21 February 2008 (on site): 11:00am-3:00pm
28 February 2008 (on site): 11:00am-5:00pm
06 March 2008 (on site): 11:00am-4:00pm
13 March 2008 (on site): 11:00am-5:00pm