A portal to my Cataloguing Aids website

Technology included

Fictionophile — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:14:38 +0000

For some years now we have been seeing CD-ROMs and DVDs included with some books.

Today broke new ground for me. Our department catalogued a title with a USB Flash Drive included!

Name authority problem noted

Fictionophile — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:25:20 +0000

I have just finished cataloging the new Clive Cussler novel “Storm” which is co-authored by Graham Brown.

The dust jacket reads: Graham Brown is the author of Black Rain and Black Sun, and is a pilot and an attorney, he lives in Arizona.

The authority for Graham Brown, 1969- no2010062412 states

670 – |aHis Black rain, 2010:|bt.p. (Graham Brown) cover p. 3 (b. in Chicago, Ill. ; is a pilot and attorney ; lives in Tucson, Ariz.)

Obviously the correct choice.

HOWEVER…

under the authority for Graham Brown (with no date), n 81067181 which was amended in March of this year you can find the following:

670 – |aStorm, 2012:|bECIP t.p. (Graham Brown, co-author with Clive Cussler)

I have notified LC of the error and hope they will amend the affected authorities sooner rather than later…

Originality in titles

Fictionophile — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:13:59 +0000

Before I began working for a library, I was under the misconception that titles had to be original. Wow! What a wake-up call! There are myriad duplicated titles by a myriad of authors.

Case in point. Today, while cataloging Danielle Steel’s latest offering “Betrayal” I realized that the single word ‘Betrayal’ is a favorite title for novels. We have in our database 24 novels with that title by 24 separate authors! These authors include: Danielle Steel, William Deverell, Robin Wasserman, Fern Michaels, Karin Alvtegen, John Lescroart, Sabin Willett, Lee Nichols, Jerry B. Jenkins, Allie Scott, Christina Dodd, Beverly Lewis, Fiona McIntosh, Aaron Allston, Grace Cavendish, Douglas Bond, Helen Dunmore, Gillian Shields, Ann Jungman, Patricia Finney, Lois Tilton, Scott Wallens, Raymond E. Feist, and last but not least, Gwen Hunter.

That of course is not taking into account the countless novels beginning with the word Betrayal. Does that not prove that we fiction readers are a jaded lot who want to read about this unpleasant subject?

Seems to me – if I was an author, I would want to try for a title that was just a tad more original…..Just saying….

010 LCCN input practices

Fictionophile — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:34:34 +0000

Lately I’ve noticed that a lot of libraries no longer input 2 spaces before the LCCN in the 010 tag.

It was always my understanding that the input convention was to enter two spaces before the Library of Congress Control number. Has this rule changed? If so please let me know…

History of Information Organization

Fictionophile — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:34:21 +0000

From Mindjet — an info-graphic on the “History of Information Organization.” It traces the progression from the original lunar calendar to the first library card catalog to Google: http://blog.mindjet.com/2012/03/from-cartography-to-card-catalogs-the-history-of-information-organization-infographic

RDA implementation date set !

Fictionophile — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:39:18 +0000

The official announcement from the Library of Congress declares the official implementation date for RDA to be March 31, 2013. One short year away!

The U.S. National Agricultural Library and National Library of Medicine, as well as the British Library, Library & Archives Canada, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and National Library of Australia, will also
target early 2013 for Day One of their RDA implementation.

Many dread the date. Many feel that it is unnecessary. Some can hardly wait. What do YOU think?

Either way, with all of the major libraries choosing to convert to RDA, we smaller libraries will have no choice but to follow in their footsteps. There are some already choosing RDA and when we download those records we simply cut out the RDA input (with no detrimental affect to our records and no influence on access). With software overlays such as AquaBrowser it seems redundant to implement RDA when many of the goals of utilizing FRBR are covered… As a cataloguer who strives for consistency, the thought of many different qualities of records in our database is disturbing to say the least.

Genres

Fictionophile — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:38:44 +0000

We use many genres in our marc records. The most frequently used are those from the Library of Congress ($2lcgft) and the Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual works of Fiction, Drama, etc. ($2gsafd)

In copy cataloging I often see the acronym $2eflch and although I have tried searching ‘eflch’ on Google, I cannot find its meaning. Can anyone tell me what the acronym stands for? Also, is there a readily available list of terms?

ISBNs for ebooks

Fictionophile — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:17:33 +0000

I’ve been cataloging a LOT of ebooks lately and I wonder….

Why is the ISBN the same for epub and pdf versions of some titles – while other titles have two separate and distinct ISBNs for the two formats? If anyone knows the answer I’d love a reply.

Authorities and coding

Fictionophile — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:17:59 +0000

I’ve often wondered about the coding LC uses in some of their authority records. There is a or b coding as to whether the authority should be used as a main or added entry, a subject, or a series. With a meaning YES and b meaning NO.

If you see aaa then the authority can be used for all three. baa means it cannot be used as a main or added entry, but can be used as a subject or series. bab means it can only be used as a subject. bba means it can only be used as a series, etc. etc.

Why then do the authority records for airplanes, ships etc. have the coding aab? This denotes that the airplane CAN be a main or added entry. When is the last time you saw a work written by an airplane? Is there any instance when the authorities for airplanes, boats, ships, etc. should display in the author authority database?

WebDewey icons

Fictionophile — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:16:44 +0000

Many of you will have noticed the inclusion of new icons to identify built numbers and manual notes.

Built numbers are represented by a puzzle piece icon.

Manual notes are represented by a book icon.

Both types of icons are included in search results. For example, the search results for a search on 005.3 include the manual note 005.3 (identified with the book icon) and the built number 005.3742 (identified with the puzzle piece icon). The puzzle piece icon also is used to identify built numbers in browse results. On the individual record display screen, the Manual icon appears next to the number and caption for the Manual note (for example, look at the Manual note for 005.3). In hierarchical displays for built numbers, the puzzle piece icon can appear anywhere in the hierarchical display for the number. For example, display the record for 338.47004 Computer industry. In the hierarchical display, the built number icon appears next to 338.47004, and also next to two built numbers in the downward hierarchy, 338.4700411 and 338.470046. (If you don’t see the icons associated with the aforementioned examples, it may be because relevant information has been cached in your browser. If you want to see the icons immediately and do not want to wait until the cache is refreshed, you can press + inside a WebDewey screen associated with one of the examples, which will cause your browser to reload the cached information.)

This information was copied from The DeweyBlog, a great resource for those who use WebDewey.