[DCRM-L] Program planning for rare materials catalogers

Mon Mar 1 07:38:46 MST 2021

Dear all,

Thank you all for your interest in this topic! I appreciate all of the discussion, both on the list and from email sent directly to me. I have noted all of your suggestions and recommendations. The Program Planning Group will continue our planning process and will be in touch as plans are further underway.

Thanks again!

Elizabeth.

--
Elizabeth Hobart
Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
Cataloging & Metadata Services
126C Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16801
(814) 865-1756
she/her/hers

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> On Behalf Of Person, Mary
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2021 10:06 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Program planning for rare materials catalogers

This topic is of great interest as one so many fascinating things while cataloging rare books, yet much of it either doesn't fit into a catalog record or if it does fit it's tricky for patrons to find. Usually I've just shared discoveries or tidbits with a colleague or two. (I'm the only rare book cataloger at our library.)
Joan, like you I've started some documents and photos on our departmental drive. They only contain a fraction of the tidbits that I've found so interesting over the years and could better organized, alas.

The library used to have informal brown bag lunches for library staff where we could give a presentation on a topic of interest (work-related or not.) I did that a couple of times and it was fun to be able to share these things. (The library used to provide dessert at these events, so there was always an audience --even if a few eyes occasionally glazed over!)

For a while our department had a fairly active blog on the library's website, and I'd occasionally contribute to that. But we were never sure how visible the blog was in a website chock full of information. These days, the library has an Instagram account and every now and a colleague will highlight a tidbit unearthed in cataloging. They're just snippets and feel ephemeral, but are better than nothing, I guess.

I'd love to hear what other libraries are doing!

Mary

Mary Person
Rare Books Cataloger/Reference Librarian
Historical & Special Collections
Harvard Law School Library

From: DCRM-L [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Joan Milligan
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2021 3:38 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Program planning for rare materials catalogers

A few years ago I started a Google doc called "Collection highlights and interesting facts." I think the idea came because we were talking before a meeting about how a letter from Bram Stoker was found in a book years ago -- something like that -- and I was aware that this wasn't the kind of thing you could discover in the catalog if you didn't know to look. It was around the time a librarian who had been at the university for 50 years retired (yes, 50). There has to be a way to pass on these little tidbits. I also wondered how other libraries did this.

I started small. The Google doc is meant for internal use, open to anyone in Special Collections. Example categories:
Age - our oldest books and manuscripts, incunabula
Owners - A Spanish missionary's worn breviary from his travels in the Philippines, for example
Bookmaking - I make note of books with pretty illustrations and bindings, etc.,  but also note those with visible binding structure or manuscript waste in the binding. (Some of these aspects can be tagged in 655s too.) Recently I had a manuscript partially written with iron gall ink (I believe), which has eaten through the paper.

When one new librarian started a while ago she thanked me for the list, especially the notes about the physical aspects, because visitors are often most interested in these. I'd love to hear about how bigger libraries manage to share this information among staff.

Joan

Joan Milligan  I   Special Collections Cataloger  I   University of Dayton Libraries
[A button with "Hear my name" text for name playback in email signature]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 3:01 PM Margaret F. Nichols <mnr1 at cornell.edu<mailto:mnr1 at cornell.edu>> wrote:
It sounds like there may be interest in the topic of publicizing the interesting things we catalog (in addition to the topics already listed, all of which sound interesting to me).

A few years ago we came across a book with a nice example of fore-edge painting. We posted on our Facebook page a video of a staff member handling the book in such a way as to show the fore-edge painting clearly. The video was quite popular, much viewed and shared.

Margaret

_______________________________

Margaret F. Nichols
Rare Materials Cataloging Coordinator
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
2B Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-5302
Tel. (607) 255-9667

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Piscitelli, Felicia A
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2021 2:30 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Program planning for rare materials catalogers

Hello again,

A few weeks ago I gave a presentation on the organization of materials to a Museum Studies class, in which I included a segment on "The Cataloger as a Detective". I used items lacking covers,  title pages, front matter, and colophons (hence, the most common sources for identification and basic bibliographical description) as examples of "mysteries" I've solved. One of the slides was a picture of my hand in a white cotton glove, holding a magnifying glass over an 18th-century book.

Felicia

Felicia Piscitelli, M.M., M.L.S.
Associate Professor
Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloger and Italian Resources Librarian
Cushing Memorial Library & Archives
Texas A&M University
f-piscitelli at library.tamu.edu<mailto:f-piscitelli at library.tamu.edu>

5000 TAMU | College Station, TX  77843
Tel. 979-458-7880 or 979-845-1951
Fax: 979-845-6238
http://library.tamu.edu<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.proofpoint.com%2Fv2%2Furl%3Fu%3Dhttp-3A__library.tamu.edu%26d%3DDwMFaQ%26c%3DWO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ%26r%3DEkkQFOGUCtF2osSJj7hvtyM31K6sxQSo34Z9RQpCmDw%26m%3DDYrTTuEHYCdROMnVL6pyDkpsvv6ktAEkOf2VveYaMOc%26s%3DYXboEu9D33uHjnvPic_THuYPLMaxrTZOoEp0IjwDNvQ%26e%3D&data=04%7C01%7Cefh7%40psu.edu%7C774e5d6b7fd34704531008d8da038812%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C637499056003094531%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=fUHoKp0I9da59%2Frce%2FE6HM7dHhXs6KxAjCWRDWkIHYU%3D&reserved=0>

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Rich, Allison
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2021 12:29 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Program planning for rare materials catalogers

Hey Josh:

In the "before times", I took an interesting item I had catalogued that month and wrote a short blurb about it, why I found it interesting and / ot challenging and called it "Adventures in cataloguing". It went up on our website.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 1:00 PM Joshua Hutchinson <jchutchi at uci.edu<mailto:jchutchi at uci.edu>> wrote:
Along with what everyone else has said, I would be interested in hearing how other catalogers highlight the interesting things that they catalog. This is related to the 'selling the utility of cataloging' aspect. I'm sure my library isn't the only one where we see something cool, catalog it, and then it disappears into the stacks with only the catalog record to show for it. Do other catalogers blog about their material? Talk to the rare books outreach librarians? Host exhibits? Keep a (mental) list of cool things that you've looked at?

Additionally, re: " Tools to make working from home easier (including OpenRefine and MarcEdit)" -- I think I'd be interested in hearing about how others identify projects that don't require viewing the material. What's a catalog enhancement project that can be done remotely (either working from home or just... not accessing the rare books stacks all the time) vs one that requires individual consultation of the material.

Thanks-- looks like a great series of webinars!

Josh

Cataloging & Metadata Services Department (Monographs)
UCI Libraries
University of California, Irvine
Irvine CA 92623-9557

He/him/his
Science Library Room 327 - (949) 824-8938
jchutchi at uci.edu<mailto:jchutchi at uci.edu>

> Dear colleagues,
> The Program Planning Group of the RBMS Bibliographic Standards
> Committee is investigating the possibility of offering webinars on
> topics related to rare materials cataloging. We are still in the early
> planning stages and are seeking input from the rare materials
> cataloging community. Right now, some of the topics we're considering include:
>
>   *   Cataloging realia
>   *   Cataloging graphic novels
>   *   Tools to make working from home easier (including OpenRefine and
> MarcEdit)
>   *   Conversations between catalogers and non-catalogers
> We are especially interested in hearing if these topics would be of
> interest to you, if there are additional topics we should consider,
> and any tools you might like to see covered in addition to OpenRefine and MarcEdit.
> If you're proposing an additional topics, suggestions for presenters
> would be welcome but not required.
> Thank you!
> Elizabeth.
>
>
> --
> Elizabeth Hobart
> Special Collections Cataloging Librarian Cataloging & Metadata
> Services 126C Paterno Library University Park, PA 16801
> (814) 865-1756
> she/her/hers
>
>

--
********************************
"Outside of a dog,
a book is probably man's best friend,
and inside of a dog,
it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx"

Allison Rich
Rare Materials Cataloguer

ESTC and NACO Coordinator
John Carter Brown Library
Providence, Rhode Island
Allison_Rich at brown.edu<mailto:Allison_Rich at brown.edu>
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