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[Agricultural Adjustment Administration documents related to Kentucky] (OCLC #891104587)

(Cataloging flash mob!)

For this month’s Third Thursday (cataloging discussion and professional development), we did a “bring your cataloging problems” session. I brought one that had been lurking on a nearby shelf in cataloging for years.

Those 39 volumes were not actually books; they were a bound archival collection (of letters, forms, and other documents related to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in Kentucky) but our Archives/Special Collections did not want them in their collections. Though the volumes contained some federal government documents, they also contained many state government documents (all mixed together!) so they did not belong in our federal documents collection either.

There were so many decisions to make: Should they be disbound, and the pieces cataloged separately and sorted into their appropriate locations? Should they get a detailed finding aid, or a briefer collection record? Should we gather more opinions from staff who might remember more about the collection, or change their opinion about which branch it should live in?

One thing that was clear was that the books were getting no use sitting on my shelf, and with all of my analysis paralysis going on, that’s where they were going to stay unless I got some help. At the problem session, I passed out volumes and a skeletal record to the group, and told them my basic plan: keep the volumes bound, collection record only, shelve in main library. Together we examined the materials and muscled through the record, discussing each questionable field until we had consensus, and adding more subject access points to make it more discoverable by researchers in the field. It took about 40 minutes – now that shelf is clear!

If there is interest, someone may eventually re-visit this collection and give it a more thorough description, but for now, its discoverability has been significantly improved.

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Grun-tu-molani / Vidyan Ravinthiran. (OCLC #868082716)

Our main library’s general collection spans three floors, and we set the location manually in the catalog for each book based on call number. The distribution is currently:

  • Third floor: A – DX
  • Fourth floor: E – PR2749
  • Fifth floor: PR2750 – Z

For books close to the boundary (like this one at PR6118: English literature, 2001- , Individual authors starting with R) I peek up at the sign to check their placement. For books slightly further away, I often sing at least part of the alphabet ( … L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S … ) to just make sure. Apparently even all of my practice doing quicksort by hand has not solidified that part of the alphabet’s ordering in my head.

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Hold me tight [videorecording] : conversations for connection / director, Rich Danby ; producer, Elia Saikaly. (OCLC #472671144)

This video was requested by one of our patrons through interlibrary loan. As other libraries can be weird about lending media, we find that it can be quicker and cost-equivalent to just purchase the requested title – so that is exactly what we do if the title is available for purchase, and can be shipped quickly at a reasonable cost.

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Chiral catalyst immobilization and recycling / edited by D.E. De Vos, I.F.J. Vankelecom, P.A. Jacobs. (OCLC #43970726)

This book was recently returned to the library, having been overdue since 2006! Following our missing/lost books policy, we purged the records from the catalog long ago; we had also not replaced the title in the meantime. A lost book is usually quite easy to add back to the collection; we are reasonably sure that there is a good record for it in OCLC, and the piece is still labeled and barcoded, so can be quickly copy cataloged and returned to the shelf.

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Penser la laïcité / Catherine Kintzler. (OCLC #869720975)

After being identified as problems by our copy catalogers, non-rush books go to the problem shelf where they may sit for a couple of months before I address them.

This title had only a skimpy record in OCLC when the book arrived in February (no call number, no subjects), but between then and now, somebody (TZT? C3L? DEBBG?) has completed it. Thanks!