Cataloging: Who Knew It Was Community Service?

Erin Stalberg, Head, Metadata and Cataloging Laura Abraham, Library Technician, Metadata and

Cataloging

North Carolina State University Libraries

58th NCLA Biennial Conference

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

What is a Flash Mob?

Goals

to introduce the Metadata & Cataloging staff to Web 2.0 technologies for cataloging and to experiment with the concepts/principles of user created metadata and of tagging v. LCSH

to contribute towards increasing the accessibility of small library collections

to lend our particular expertise to a community service project

Logistics

finding a museum or small library whose materials were uncataloged

free wireless

adequate space

volunteers & laptops

publicity

What is LibraryThing?

• LibraryThing helps you create a library-quality catalog of your books. You can do all of them or just what you're reading now.

• And because everyone catalogs online, they also catalog together. LibraryThing connects people based on the books they share.

• Can scan the item using a barcode reader, type in the ISBN, or just type in the name and author.

• Get data from Amazon, Library of Congress, or other resources.

Clear, accessible way of showing data.

NEW FEATURE: COLLECTIONS

Helps display basic contents of work and links to and from similar works

ORGANIZATION TYPESORGANIZATION TYPES

For collections and individuals who want their library private

• Where people can find it, contacts

• The community it is a part of

• Can add upcoming events, connect to the public

Durham’s Central Park School Durham’s Central Park School for Childrenfor Children

It was so much fun, we decided to do it again!

And with more people!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-erin/sets/72157622517667960/

Lessons Learned & Observations be prepared!

expect chaos (wireless & workflow)

know that people have way more books than they estimate

decide who to use as your record source

expect some amount of original cataloging

Lessons Learned & Observations Original cataloging

Joel Lane “manual entry”49/239 = 21%

Central Park School “manual entry”24/933 = 3%

Manual entry means that a cataloger did not find copy quickly (usually between LC & Amazon) and entered it into LibraryThing themselves. It does not necessarily mean copy does not exist.

Lessons Learned & Observations Original cataloging

Joel Lane materials not already in LibraryThing

73 books (32% of their collection), including:

○ Raleigh 1792-1992 : a bicentennial celebration of North Carolina's capital city

○ A short history : The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, The Delaware Society of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America

○ North Carolina's state historic sites○ Chameleon on the Crabtree: The story of Joel Lane○ The Poems of Governor Thomas Burke of North Carolina

Lessons Learned & Observations Original cataloging

Central Park School materials not already in LibraryThing

Far fewer (so few, I stopped looking), but including:

○ Mother Teresa: A Life of Kindness○ Great American Indian leaders: Special Exhibit Catalogue○ The great Philadelphia cheesesteak book

○ And a few picture books in Spanish

Lessons Learned & Observations figure out in advance what to do about

serials/multivolume sets/duplicate copies

database maintenance

http://www.librarything.com/

http://www.joellane.org/

http://www.centralparkschoolforchildren.org/

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/