[DCRM-L] Administering call numbers in a group setting?

[Erin Blake]

Until about 2015, we used the paper shelf list. It was up to the cataloger to go to the drawer for the relevant classification and put dibs on whatever number was next (e.g. if ART Vol. f105 was the last card in a drawer, you'd write "ART Vol. f106" plus the short title and accession number of the item in hand on a 3 x 5 card, then put it in the drawer).

More recently, we switched to a call number browse. From this screenshot, I can see that the next call number at the moment would be "ART Vol. f288"
[cid:image002.png at 01DAD9E0.35AD1C10]
Again, it's up to the cataloger to put dibs on the number. You create an item record and save it right away, then write that number in the book and in the bib record.

Full disclosure: that's how the system worked until 2020, when we closed for renovation. Post-renovation, we're shelving everything by size, in eight categories, in order to fit more books into the same volume of space. Each item is barcoded, and the exact location on the shelf is recorded in Caiasoft. At the moment, ART Vol. f105 and ART Vol. f106 happen to be nowhere near each other. Whatever would have been next in the ART Vol. f classification will instead just keep its accession number as the unique identifier written inside the item.

Erin

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Erin Blake | she/her | Senior Cataloger | Folger Shakespeare Library | eblake at folger.edu

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