Cataloging Committee Minutes – August 6, 2018
Attendance: Jon Georg—Facilitator; Beth (Longwell) Ross—Co-Facilitator (Sage System); Jenny Simpson (Nyssa PL); Lisa Hauner (OTLD); Joyce McCurdy, Valeria Gardner, Darlene Johnson (Ontario CL); Anna Lim (Hood River); Leeann Baldwin (Hermiston PL); John Brockman (Baker LD); *Heather Estrada (Blue Mtn. Community College); Barbara Telfer (The Dalles); Michele Timmons (Elgin PL); Recorder—Laurie O’Connor, could not sign into GoToMeeting, created minutes from the recording. (The recording did not activate until a few minutes into the meeting, during Jon Georg’s report on “Search problems update”.)
Meeting minutes – June 4, 2018 : Motion to approve made by Lisa Hauner; seconded by Leeann Baldwin; all approved.
Search problems update—Jon Georg
(Recording started here.) We have not been able to isolate the issue, and have been working with the technical service that we contract with (Equinox), but they don’t have any answers either. We are all hoping that restarting the servers daily, along with upgrading to the new version of Evergreen, will resolve the problems with search voids.
Server updates—Jon Georg
Jon has been working on installing the upgrade on the Sage server, which is our test server, and ran into multiple issues where the server would not accept the upgrade. Jon finally got through that, and will now begin upgrading Evergreen onto the test server, in order to have a clean launch when it is time to install on the live system servers.
Beth assured us that they will keep all of us in the loop, and will notify us ahead of time when they will be actually upgrading the live system. It will most likely be scheduled for a Sunday, as most libraries are closed on that day, and will hope to keep the “down time” to a minimum. There will also be a message on the public OPAC to let patrons know when the system is down during upgrade work.
Anna Lim asked if Jon and Beth still want catalogers to let them know when they are experiencing search problems, and which details should we share with them in order to track examples of search voids? Beth said just let them know when they have problems, and there is no need for specific details as the system records are not detailed enough to be able to trace specific problems.
General overview/updates on some things being looked into by Sage Cataloging Mentors—Jon Georg
- Read alongs—Jon Georg: Anna Lim has been working diligently on this complex cataloging guide, has generated very detailed documents related to Sage protocol on handling these items, and is close to finalizing the guide and training outline for sharing in a future online Sage training. Anna shared the history of this project, and why it is important for all Sage catalogers to use standardized procedures for these items, whether they are read alongs or accompanying materials, etc. It will be ready to post and train on in the near future.
- —Jon Georg: Laurie O’Connor is trying to generate a new guideline for series, how to handle publisher or assumed changes in series, how catalogers should determine authorities for series and/or alternate series entries, and how/when to include series’ information in the 245 field. Splitting series, continuing series when the original author dies, various non-authority series’ sources—all are causing a lot of inconsistency on the Sage catalog. Please send us your concerns.
- Audiovisual items – 300 field, etc.—Jon Georg: We are working to standardize procedure for different media types, to help unify display issues and identify specific media types for patrons.
- Realia – The mentors have just begun to identify cataloging needs for “things”, for equipment, Maker Space items, sharing of tools and household objects through library collections. Question: How many libraries are starting to catalog or add these times of things to their collection? Please contact us with specific items that they may want to catalog.
- General questions from catalogers regarding above items—Jon Georg: No comments or questions from catalogers in attendance at this time.
Sage website review—Beth Ross:
If you go to the main Sage Cataloging page, you can find many resources for catalogers. Under “Instructions” you find links to the recordings for all of the online cataloging classes that Beth has offered in recent months. You will also find the policies, contacts for the Mentors, various resources related to cataloging instructions, cataloging tips. Beth has also been updating the Sage contacts sheet, and using it to make sure all Sage catalogers are on the Sage Cataloging List Serve (email list), so they will receive all news and tips of interest to catalogers.
Sage-Cat email list & being on it (see above)—Beth Ross:
Beth has been updating the cataloging email list to assure that all catalogers see any guidelines or tips that other catalogers are “discussing”, and to hear about meetings or trainings. If you are not on the list serve, there are instructions on how to be included, and also a search bar just to search former “Cataloging Tips” that circulated on the list.
Subject Indexes—Beth Ross: For several years we did not maintain the 6XX \1 Children’s subject index, but we decided to add it back in, and to provide a special search box for this index. It may not get used a lot, but we decided to add it back in for those who wanted to use this special search index.
Upcoming cataloging sessions/trainings topics & dates:
Beth has not yet chosen the topic for the next training, scheduled for August 16 at 1 p.m. via GoToMeeting. If anyone has suggestions for trainings, please contact Beth at blongwel@eou.edu Beth wants to encourage catalogers to send questions out on the Sage Cataloging List! We are all here as resources for each other.
Jon reported that they have cleaned up the old eBook records, and Beth added they have removed the old links to government documents that were held by EOU, both projects should help clean up the catalog.
Jon said he agreed to lead this Cataloging Committee as a formal introduction to the whole group, and wanted everyone know that you can contact him with any questions or concerns. He is glad to be working with Sage, and looks forward to your feedback and questions. jongeorg.sagelibrary@gmail.com
Next scheduled Cataloging Committee Meeting – October 1, 2018 @ 11am (PDT) via GoToMeeting
recording of meeting: https://youtu.be/zfb9-idWOUM