I finished the cataloging project on bombing surveys. Quite of few of the "problems" from Tuesday turned out to be typo errors in the call numbers or other fields. Several of the items that I thought were missing records completely had records with the call number having an 8 instead of a 6 or something like that. Since I was searching by call number and then using that list to go down the shelf, my problem books were appearing to be either physically missing or missing their catalog record. So the good news was I only had half as many problems as it first appeared. Once the cataloger or I fixed the typos in the record, the missing books/missing records "appeared" in their proper place.
I have modified or deleted over 1500 records in my cataloging projects!!!
Today I also attended a short training session on the customer side of the new Millennium ILS and a short birthday cake social.
7 hours. (I have shortened my hours in an attempt to avoid 5pm traffic jams.)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Cataloging and Half-way point
More cataloging! I finished the project of entering 505 contents fields for the Foreign Affairs Headline series and started a new project linking records for bombing surveys from WWII. Which would have been slightly less interesting except that there were quite a few....problems?.... anomalies?...Things I didn't understand? I'm not sure what the word is but there was exactly one cart full. Still, I was able to finish about four shelves, which is most of Europe, successfully. I will find out more/work on the problems on Thursday and finish up the Pacific.
I have completed half of the minimum hours needed for my internship credit.
7 Hours. ( I left a little early)
I have completed half of the minimum hours needed for my internship credit.
7 Hours. ( I left a little early)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Feb 16 and 18: Cataloging
I worked on a project in cataloging this week. I was entering Marc 505 contents fields to item records. By luck (I think) it was the Foreign Affairs Headline Series. My undergrad degree is in Government so it was really fun for me to see familiar authors and topics. It was also interesting because the dates were spread over a range from before WWII to the seventies. I was reminded how country name changes could dramatically affect search results.
The actual work was slow going at first but I picked up speed as I went along. At the beginning I was spending a lot of time looking at examples trying to decide to capitalize or not, how to treat certain punctuation, etc. As I filled in records I saw examples of how other parts of the record were done or situations I had already looked up and so I moved along faster.
7.5 + 7.5 =15 hours this week
The actual work was slow going at first but I picked up speed as I went along. At the beginning I was spending a lot of time looking at examples trying to decide to capitalize or not, how to treat certain punctuation, etc. As I filled in records I saw examples of how other parts of the record were done or situations I had already looked up and so I moved along faster.
7.5 + 7.5 =15 hours this week
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Cataloging
I enjoyed my first day of cataloging. I linked catalog records in the new Millennium ILS so that the users can more easily find Congressional Hearings which had been bound together. I was surprised how fast the day flew by.
Although the work was repetitive, it was interesting to look at the various books and I found I had many questions. Instead of interrupting the cataloger every time I had a question, I set the books aside and twice during the day we went through the pile.
A couple of times I made mistakes. Once when a book was misshelved I didn't notice at first and changed the wrong catalog record by mistake. After that I was more careful about checking every call number and record. And isn't that what cataloging is all about?
7.5
Although the work was repetitive, it was interesting to look at the various books and I found I had many questions. Instead of interrupting the cataloger every time I had a question, I set the books aside and twice during the day we went through the pile.
A couple of times I made mistakes. Once when a book was misshelved I didn't notice at first and changed the wrong catalog record by mistake. After that I was more careful about checking every call number and record. And isn't that what cataloging is all about?
7.5
Monday, February 1, 2010
I worked two more days at the reference desk this week. On Tuesday I worked at reference desk and at my desk in the reference office on a couple of new questions and continued to work on two pending longer term research questions.
I will be moving to cataloging next week. so for my last day the head reference librarian set aside time to "answer my questions." This was great because I had questions about the library that don't come up at the reference desk. We talked about:
the work schedule
relationships/division of labor with other departments (esp. the virtual library)
relationships with our different customers
work responsibilities besides reference (instruction, liaison work w/schools)
7.5+7.5 hrs for Tues and Thurs.
I will be moving to cataloging next week. so for my last day the head reference librarian set aside time to "answer my questions." This was great because I had questions about the library that don't come up at the reference desk. We talked about:
the work schedule
relationships/division of labor with other departments (esp. the virtual library)
relationships with our different customers
work responsibilities besides reference (instruction, liaison work w/schools)
7.5+7.5 hrs for Tues and Thurs.
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