Open Up

Last was spent researching OPAC options instead of working on SH, unfortunately. And although it was educational—exploring Evergreen and the impressive Scriblio—ultimately it breaks down like this: The members of the Library Committee change yearly, and they may not include anyone who is familiar with information technology. The best way to maintain online access to the catalog will be to use the ILS’s OPAC—Surpass Safari. We’ve requested a 60 day free trial, but I’m pretty sure we’ll go with them permanently.

This week I had to use OCLC Connexion to add some older books on Quaker history. I can already see how working at the university library is helping my cataloging! I also worked on my SH for these books, including my new favorite form subdivision, Pictorial works.

08 May 2008 (on site): 1:30pm-8:30pm (Library Committee meeting)
15 May 2008 (on site): 1:30pm-5:30pm

Copy Cat

Things have been slow-going because Mary was out of town for three weeks, so I was supervising the copy catalogers, not leaving much time for subject heading work. Two weeks ago we had big trouble with the DSL connection that couldn’t be fixed, so we had to cancel library committee work. The problem is something to do with how we are connecting the laptop to the Veriz*n DSL. Aida had to speak with Veriz*n reps three weeks ago about this (Mary was out of town), and it seems to be something like… if we just connect directly with the phone cord, and don’t enter the login information through the Veriz*n login screen, it looks like we’re illegally accessing the connection… I hope this is straightened out.

This week I also came early to help with copy cataloging because one of the volunteers couldn’t make it. We did focus on the Quakerism (A) section, though, which requires more looking at OCLC than other sections, which is work I would have to do anyway.

New LCSH of interest: Human ecology.

27 March 2008 (on site): 11:00am-5:00pm
3 April 2008 (on site): 8:30am-2:30pm
10 April 2008 (on site): 9:00am-3:00pm
17 April 2008 (on site): 8:30am-10:00am (technical difficulties day)
1 May 2008 (on site): 8:30am-2:00pm

Subjective

I met with Mary to discuss using the Quaker Subject Headings list; developed jointly by Haverford College, the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, and the American Friends Service Committee. The list is based on LCSH: Headings that are allowed in LC are listed as 150s; when more specification (i.e., free-floating subdivisions) or different headings altogether are requred that are not allowed by LC, the heading is listed as a 190. The format of the list is kind of unwieldy; I said I would put the information into a spreadsheet and see what I could do about making it more readable for us.

Also! It looks like they’ll be going with the Surpass Online Backup. This means that, not only will all the files be safe, they’ll be able to access the collection from any computer on which the Surpass software is installed.

Thursday, 17 Jan: 10:30-2:30 (onsite)

Changing the Subject

Okay! Found some links to resources to start creating a local thesaurus for the library:

http://www.swarthmore.edu/x7873.xml
http://www.quaker.ca/Publications/qbs/2008-09-QBS-booklist.pdf / http://www.quaker.ca/Publications/qbs/qbs.html
http://www.haverford.edu/library/technical/Cataloging/quaker.htm

Also! It turns out our software (Surpass CL) offers an Online Backup Service; I’m going to talk to Mary tomorrow and see about setting that up for the library.

Things are looking even better!

Wednesday, 16 Jan: 8:30-9:30 (research)

Beginnings

After last week’s somewhat confusing start, I have a better idea of how the Surpass software works. Mary and I decided that I will come on Thursdays around 11 or so to overlap a little bith with the volunteer staff hours; they will work on copy-cataloging and processing, putting aside complicated items or those items needing original cataloging. When I arrive they can brief me and ask questions. Then I’ll research or catalog the items they’ve left me as well as work on subject headings.

As for subject headings… Mary gave me a few suggestions for places to look for thesauri ideas, namely the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Catalog, Earlham College, Quaker Theological Seminary, and maybe Haverford and Swarthmore. We also discussing putting the collection on LibraryThing so it can be shared as soon as possible as well as to generate interest in and awareness of the library.

I also became aware of a big problem: The catalog is stored on the laptop, and nothing is being done in terms of backing up the files. I don’t know if this is within my scope of responsibility, but I don’t feel comfortable moving forward without taking steps to ensure that the files will be safe. Hopefully this can be resolved next week.

Thursday, 10 January: 9:00-12:30, 6:30-8:30 (onsite)