Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Things that could make a cataloger cry

The little orange folder on my desk which was left by the previous librarian from here on forward to be known as E (more than seven years ago) is my key to the library.  It contains the call number as connected to the subject, as connected to the Dewey number.  It has information about some cataloging tips and other pieces of information.

On the first page of this fourteen page bible of mine are instructions about how to catalog something that is in both Hebrew and English.  Here is a translated quote from the book "When there is a book written in two languages, you don't want to catalog the book twice, you want the searcher to be able to find the book in two languages."  Ahhh E, how right you are.  I tried and tried to follow your instructions, but I couldn't get it to work.  The book is sitting on my desk waiting for me to get a spark of brilliance, or new software to get it right.

So, I decided to try to find another book which was in two languages that E previously cataloged.  And I found one! Browsed the shelves until I found something clearly in English and Hebrew.  I searched for the record by title, opened the record....but no Hebrew.  Then I got concerned.  Did a search by call number, and what do you know?  Yes, E cataloged the record twice. I guess I'll just put it in once and make a note when we finally get the software updated/changed I will add the second language and clean up all the double records in the catalog.