Cataloging Department Annual Report
2002/2003
Summary of Cataloging Department Productivity
Including Contracts, LAS, and MUS:
| New Receipts: | 35,842 |
| Projects: | |
| Thesis retocon: | 9,070 |
| Analytics retrocon: | 8,667 |
| Monograph retrocon: | 4,747 |
| CMT: | 4,956 |
| Cat Sub-Total: | 63,282 |
| Hebrew Contract: | 633 |
| Slavic Contract: | 665 |
| CJK contracts: | 479 |
| Languages &Area Studies: | 3,170 |
| Music Library: | 3,162 |
| Other Sub-Total: | 8,109 |
| Total: | 71,391 |
Details of accomplishments:
- Cataloging New Receipts:
Department continues to provide access to newly received library materials by managing cataloging operations and maintaining a constant, uninterrupted flow of materials. All materials are cataloged as they arrive at the library, and no backlogs are being created. This includes the unexpected overflow materials coming from the Monographs Department. This year the Cataloging Department cataloged 35,842 titles (this includes all the new receipts in Western languages, non-Roman languages, and non-book format materials).
- Cataloging Projects Related to Renovation of the Main Library:
In addition to keeping current with the cataloging of the new receipt, cataloging was very successful in cataloging several projects. These projects were designed to meet the renovation of the Main Library goals and to move a large number of materials to STX. Cataloging designed several retrocon projects for all short bibliographic records for materials residing in the Main Library. By implementing this plan of converting short records, Cataloging will reduce the number of books sent to the department at a later time and at the same time, do the cataloging up-front to facilitate the move of the library. In addition to these plans, Cataloging surveyed all the backlogs of Slavic and Hebrew materials, as well as additional materials from OSU Special Collections, to determined what is the best way to completely eliminate these backlog before renovation. Because of the brittle nature of these materials, Cataloging negotiated an on-site cataloging contract with OCLC TECHPRO for both languages, Slavic and Hebrew. These are in addition to the current contract cataloging for these languages. The projects that relate to renovations are:
Cataloging materials received from CMT: 4,959 Cataloging short records for books in Main Library: 4,747 Cataloging short analytics records in Main Library: 8,667 Slavic contract cataloging on site: 665 Hebrew contract cataloging on site: 633
- CJK Contract Cataloging:
In 2002 the Cataloging Dept. initiated another contract with OCLC TECHPRO to catalog CJK materials. OSU sends between 200-300 titles a month to OCLC. As of June 2003, 479 titles were cataloged.
- Theses and Dissertation Retrocon:
In July 2002, Cataloging planned and implemented the pulling of about 40,000 thesis and dissertation short cards from the main card catalog. This project was done in two and half days, in time to move the card catalog to the depository. The reasons for pulling the thesis cards were: 1) these materials are not present on the OCLC database; 2) they represent unique scholarly work; 3) there are constant requests from ILL for these materials; 4) they represent early OSU scholarly work.
The second step was to plan and allocate staff and students assistants to work on cataloging the theses retrocon project. Regardless of the heavy workload for each cataloger in the Cataloging Department, the thesis retcon did not stop The conversion state in September and as of June 2003, 9,070 cards were converted in 1,014 hours on an average of 10 cards per hour (mostly student hours). The Cataloging is depending on student assistant to do the inputting and the catalogers are producing and exporting the records to OSCAR.
- Planned for the Overtime Projects:
I designed and supervised a project to complete the cataloging of analytics retrocon and microforms that were earmarked for relocation to STX. The Cataloging Department used overtime hours to catalog 15,622 titles (among these, 8,469 were microforms) in 1,828.7 hours. The overtime project started in April and ended in September. The project helped the department to increase productivity and make materials available to patrons. In addition, it was rewarding to see the Cataloging Department reduce the cost of cataloging to about $5 per title.
- Polar Library Cataloging:
Planned for cataloging the Polar Library collection phase II which is Copy cataloging (50 titles every week).
- Goldsmiths’-Kress Library:
Planned for cataloging the large Goldsmiths’-Kress Library of Economic Literature as an analyzed set. In 2001, 3,943 titles were added to OSCAR.
- Cataloging EL Project:
Continued planning to catalog 22,000 titles which were not sent for retrocon processing (these are the non LC classes (EL, AH, and PREAs). By the end of the year, 1,388 titles were cataloged (from the EL group)
- Cataloging of Senior Geology Theses:
The cataloging of Senior Geology Theses is progressing slowly. Mary Scott is inputting brief records using CatME and Jim Murphy is reviewing and exporting the records into OSCAR. The Cataloging Department is pleased with this cooperation with the Geology Library to effectively process these materials
- Cataloging Interface Working Group:
The Cataloging Interface Working Group concluded its work and met the September 1st deadline. The full report was submitted to the assistant director and is available from the Cataloging and Technical Services websites. Because charge of this Working Group was related to cataloging issues, the Cataloging staff were involved in testing the Cataloging Millennium software and contributed their comments.
- Connexion Field Test:
As part of implementing the Cataloging Interface Working Group’s recommendations, OSUL’s staff, including many catalogers and librarians in Technical Services, particularly from Cataloging, continue to participate in the Connexion field test. Magda planned and implemented the test, and Deb Cameron planned for downloading the software on each workstation for the participants. There was an online training by OCLC, which was attended by OSUL’s participants in addition to Law and Health Sciences staff. The test was going well and OSUL’s staff are sending their comments to the Connexion field test listserve.
- Cataloging Local Practices:
As part of implementing the Cataloging Interface Working Group’s recommendations, Cataloging was given the assignment of investigating the OSUL’s cataloging local practices and come up with a plan to eliminate them. Based on this assignment, Cataloging worked on surveying these local practices, discussing them with the TS department Heads and the Assistant directors, selecting five practices that could be eliminated, creating a report on them addressing the prose and cons, and how it will impact public services. The final report was discussed with various groups, the Cataloging Department, TS department heads, Technical Services staff, and collection managers' forum. A PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate the issues is on the Cataloging web site.
- Eliminating the Cataloging Local Practices:
Cataloging planned for the implementation of new procedures that eliminate the five local practices. A document on how to eliminate these cataloging local practices with specific examples was created for all technical services staff and is available from the Cataloging website.
- BIBCO Training:
As part of implementing the Cataloging Interface Working Group’s recommendations, Cataloging planned for BIBCO training. This includes contacting Library of Congress BIBCO liaison, contacting the trainer, setting up the training, writing and distributing announcements, selecting the staff who will participate in the first phase, etc.
- OSUL is BIBCO Library:
Despite the daily heavy workload, OSUL’s Technical Services gained independency in contributing PCC records to BIBCO. This is a very important international cooperative project and will reflect very well on Ohio State University Libraries' cataloging.
Participation in BIBCO came as a result of a recommendation of the Cataloging Interfaces Working Group. The participating catalogers in this program deserve special commendation for their achievement and commitment to carry OSUL into this level comparable to other peer institutions.
The contributors are: Vera Enesey Shirley Rhea Stephanie Nicol Mary Harris
Magda worked with Beth on the workflow for contributing records to BIBCO. Three staff members from cataloging and one staff member form Special Collections will be contributing first. These staff will later train the other catalogers on contributing records to BIBCO.
- Staff Continuing Education:
Cataloging Department continues to provide educational support and education for cataloging staff and faculty. Many staff and librarians were sent to workshops and seminars. For example, a number of staff attended copy cataloging, subject headings, classification, MARC, authority file and other workshops at OHIONET.
- Policy Revisions Added to Website:
Many cataloging policies were revised and added to the Cataloging Department website. This work continues as policies change.
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