Wednesday, August 12, 2009

This and that

Well, whew, done with the North Texas 23 Things, and just ahead of the deadline, too.

I've been working hard this week on cataloging an entire book truck full of Children's Gift Books that we received from our SLIS Department, from a SLIS faculty member who is a official reviewer of new Children's materials, which she regularly donates to us afterward, at the end of summer. We have a children's collection owing to the fact that we have a SLIS program geared towards training future School librarians and also Public Librarians who may have to work with children as part of their primary work responsibilities. These donations are of value to us because it allows the library to acquire very recent titles at no cost, so that we can devote the money we otherwise would have spent acquiring these titles on other things, like more academically rigorous material such as new monographs, or another electronic subscription that we otherwise couldn't afford, etc.

It's not hard (copy) cataloging, just tedious; one has to be especially mindful of subject headings; We do not use LC Children's headings, but rather use the Adult headings with subfield $v Juvenile literature for nonfiction and $v Juvenile fiction for works of fiction. I often listen to music while copy cataloging mass quantities, to help pass the time. Or I listen to other YouTube videos of somewhat longer content, especially monologues from my favorite fellow users. It can be more entertaining than television at times, especially at home. Yesterday while finishing up the book truck, I caught up on a political research podcast that I'd fallen behind on in recent months. It helped relieve some of the drudgery. Unlike adult monographs, children's book cataloging can turn into drudgery because they are so small and there are so many of them that can be crammed onto a book truck. Last week I cataloged 113 titles, and that was only 1 side of my truck. This week I've knocked out 132 titles on the opposite side of the truck in question. I also had to physically remove little round stickers from the back cover that had been applied by the SLIS reviewer(s) but that are no longer needed.

There are probably more children's books requiring my attention besides these, and then beyond that there are always the un-cataloged vault materials that need attending to, etc. Job security, right?

Also have other projects in the works, and trying not to freak out about them.

Anyway, more later, perhaps.

2 comments:

Jesse Ephraim said...

You have done a truly GREAT job on all of your posts! It's obvious that you have put a lot of thought and time into them. Congratulations on completing 23 Things!

- Jesse

Jesse Ephraim said...

You have done a truly GREAT job on all of your posts! It's obvious that you have put a lot of thought and time into them. Congratulations on completing 23 Things!

- Jesse