Copy Cataloging Unit
Annual Report 2006/2007
Overall this year has been one of consolidation and continuity. During the past two years, change has been the operative word in our unit, indeed throughout the whole library. We faced the challenge of learning an entirely new LMS, cataloging non-print formats and providing increased support to Special Collections through the creation of EADs for greater patron access. This past fiscal year, we had some time in which to consolidate all the new knowledge and experience we acquired during the previous two years. Below are some of the units activities in FY2007:
- Doug Smith worked with Carol McAuliffe, Jorge Gonzales and Jimmie Lundgren to revise how Map Library material is reviewed, searched and cataloged. This will allow the Science and Social Science Unit to focus on other cartographic material and speed up the review and search process.
- Judy Rummel and Doug Smith finished their training with Peter Bushnell in the copy cataloging of sound discs for the Music Library. They (principally Judy) cataloged approximately 260 sound discs.
- An on-going goal for our department is to provide cataloging support in order to make Special Collections material more available to patrons. Our unit provides cataloging and support for several types of Special Collections material. Patsy Mongo has worked with the Florida History Collection material for several years Judy Rummel and Fern Carlson created 84 EADs (encoded archival description) records for a variety of archival collections, including the papers of several former university administrators. They provided increased access to these collections both through the creation of finding aids on the Special Collections website as well as through the catalog. During the past fiscal year, Judy and Fern completed all of the EADs they were originally asked to do by John Nemmers in Special Collections. The project will continue creating EADs once Special Collections staff can catch up with those already completed. Fern Carlson has also worked 1/3 time for several years providing support to the Baldwin grant which is currently cataloging nineteenth-century children’s literature. Fern’s work with the Baldwin grant ended in October 2006, but will resume in October 2007.
- The unit continued its support of the library of the P. K. Younge Developmental Research School, searching material in OCLC and exporting it to Aleph.
- Todd Chisholm began doing CONSER level serials maintenance.
- Several workflow changes took place in FY2007.
- In December 2005, the handling of shelf-ready material was transferred to the Acquisitions and Licensing Department to increase throughput time. The library also began to obtain records for titles received shelf-ready through PromptCat. We were left however with the problem of how to deal with the five to ten percent of the titles that presented cataloging problems. In order to catch the majority of these problems, Michael Jay in the Acquisitions and Licensing Department created a program that scans the weekly PromptCat file for keywords and certain MARC fields. Reports are generated which Copy Cataloging staff review on a weekly basis. The program has been invaluable in catching many problems that would otherwise have gone undetected. It also allowed us to ensure more consistency in our treatment of traced series by detecting all records with 490 fields and a first indicator 0. Catalogers review the series authority to verify the treatment and make any chages that are required. This approach has helped us cope successfully with the increased number of records with series entered as untraced, a consequence of the Library of Congress decision to no longer trace series in their records as of June 2006.
- This past year Todd Chisholm, Judy Rummel and Doug Smith met with Raimonda Margioni to improve the efficiency of the serials workflow between Copy Cataloging and the Serials Unit in Acquisitions. The majority of serial adds will now be done in Serials, not in the Copy Cataloging Unit.
- The reopening of Library West required significant changes in workflows between the Cataloging and Metadata Department and Library West. Judy and Doug worked with Ben Walker and Accesses Services staff to facilitate the transition.
- Doug and other Copy Cataloging Staff worked with Jason Fleming to create a macro that generates DVD and VHS accession numbers for both Library West and Journalism collections.
- The unit participated in three reclass projects.
- In conjunction with Database Maintenance, the unit started a project to reclass and move to West recently circulated material from storage.
- The beginning of the fiscal year saw the completion of the reclass of the West DVD and VHS collection from LC to accession numbers. Jason Fleming and Doug completed that project.
- Working with Preservation, we set up a small project to reclass storage Dewey material sent for repair.
- The unit participated in four special cataloging projects this year.
- The AFA Library in Paris Project. This was a small project involving about 150 titles which needed to be cataloged in a short period of time.
- A portion of a larger collection of material about the Spanish Civil War purchased by Special Collections. This collection consisted of about 500 titles. Cataloging was completed during the year.
- The Name-A-Book project: an on-going fund raising project undertaken by the library that began last year.
- The ILL Books on Demand project: The unit was involved in the initial set up phase of the pilot project, working out workflows and procedures with ILL. The pilot was a success and has been made permanent. We continue to be the primary contact with ILL and to catalog most of the titles sent to Cataloging.
- During FY2007 the unit employed on average 8 student assistants. Student assistants continued to be an integral part of the Copy Cataloging Unit. Students search approximately 90% of the new material coming into the department. They also catalog a significant portion of the DLC/PCC material. Student assistants from Copy Cataloging assisted the Science and Social Science Unit in the creation of brief records for a large collection of documents being cataloged.
- Doug worked with Mathew Daley and Rich Bennett to streamline the on line request form for rush requests. We also were able to allow hold requests on records a greater number of IPS codes.
- Todd Chisholm began representing Copy Cataloging on the Print Media Planning Committee. Judy Rummel and Fern Carlson served on the Cataloging Department’s Party Committee. Doug Smith served on the In-process Request Form Workgroup, the Storage Committee, the New Item Processing Status Workgroup, the search committee for the Technical Support and Training Librarian, Cataloging and Metadata Training Committee and the Approval Plan Review Committee.
- Todd Chisholm and Michael Jay collaborated on the creation of a macro that puts in correct ordered the titles of a numbered series, making it much easier for patrons to find titles when they search by series title. The macro checks the correct enumeration in the 642 of the authority record and compares the authority to the subfield b of the 440 or 830, correcting the bibliographic record if there is a discrepancy.
- Some basic statistics for the unit this fiscal year are in the table below:
| New Titles | Adds to Existing | |||||||||
| Monographs | Serials | Microfilm | Microfiche | CD-ROMs | Video | Audio | Original Monographs | ETDs | volumes | units (non-print) |
| 12,320 | 238 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 614 | 258 | 20 | 929 | 1,522 | 1,062 |
Prepared by Doug Smith
August 23, 2007
