Sage Catalog Committee Meeting October 5th , 2020
Attendees: John Brockman (Baker), Beth Ross (Sage), Jon Georg (Sage), Heather Spry (Baker), Laurie O’Connor (Harney), Dea Nowell (UCSLD), Lisa Hauner (OTLD), Mary Reser (Gilliam)
Minutes: John asked if anyone had questions, or corrections. John called for someone to approve the minutes. Heather Spry motioned to approve, Laurie seconded. John asked for anyone to disapprove, no one did. Minutes passed.
CAT subcommittee
John was super happy that all the work from the CAT subcommittee was submitted to and approved by the Sage User Council. John gives big thanks to Heather Spry, Lisa Hauner, Ellen Mosier, and Leeann Baldwin for all their hard work!
New Catalog Committee Chair
John asked for nominations for the next chair as his term is at an end. Heather Spry nominated Celine Vandervlugt from Cook Memorial Library (La Grande), Lisa Hauner moved to vote Celine in and Laurie seconded. John asks for any other discussion and asked for any Nay votes. Celine Vandervlugt is our new Catalog Committee Chair, John Brockman is moving to the new Past Committee Chair which is a new position. This Past Chair position is to help with the clerical duties, taking minutes and being the liaison for any new applicants wanting to move to the CAT1 level.
Authorities
Beth is sending new records out on a monthly basis to Marcive for authority updates. Sent the latest batch (September records) out early October and already loaded the changed records and the new authorities. Beth is now working on the near matches for September.
Celine asked for clarification on some of the new tags that have been appearing in the returned records from Marcive. Authorities do still need to be checked from time to time since they are being updated all the time. John asked if you are importing a new record from Z39.50, do the Marcive tags that may be in those records, need to be deleted? Beth said that she is leaning towards yes since they are in a local field that doesn’t apply to us, she also asked what tag it was and no one could remember specifically. So please remove those Marcive tags from records that are being imported into the system.
GMD’s (245 $h)
The GMD is $h in the title statement (hopefully you all know this is 245) it was used in AACR and AACR2, it was used as an attempt to fit things that didn’t fit in records at a time. It was supposed to be used as extra clarification but isn’t really adequate. When RDA was implemented they split that information into three different fields which is why 336, 337 and 338 were created. When we fully move from AACR2 and transition to a full RDA catalog (scheduled for next year), these will no longer be used.
What this means for Sage catalogers right now: we are not going to be including the GMD in RDA records anymore. If you are importing an RDA record (obviously has 33X fields) do NOT add the GMD. If you are cataloging a new item and attaching it to an existing record, do not add the GMD. If you are working in an AACR2 record, you do not need to delete the GMD, all of that will be taken care of when we fully transition to RDA next year. Beth gave further clarification that the reason the mentors came to the decision was because they aren’t included in the new records we import from z39 and that we are going to move towards that. It’s one less step for everyone to worry about. Next year when we tackle the difference between AACR2 and RDA, one of the things we’ll talk about is GMD and 33X fields.
General Cataloging Questions
Dewey
Laurie’s library (Harney) is reorganizing some of their non-fiction shelves to make it more logical and was wondering if someone was an expert on creating Dewey numbers. She wondered if there was any sort of online training or information. There are strong feelings against Dewey but it is the tool that we have despite its failings. John mentioned a cool article about how a library in British Columbia is using a different classification system that was developed by one of the local tribe’s librarians that was made for their collections. Laurie was wondering if people would be interested in a Dewey online training or discussion, John expressed an interest.
John keeps the longest Dewey number he’s ever come across on his desk for sentimental purposes. It was 398.245297725089979435 (folk lore of wolves, from the Pend d’Oreille tribe). John said he would see if he could find some either free or paid training for creating Dewey numbers. OCLC Classify is a good resource if you didn’t know it existed. You can search a couple different ways there and it will give you most used Dewey number and information. John often curses Melvil Dewey from his office.
Collections
Laurie asked how people were adjusting their collections to help parents during this the time of Corona. Harney has cataloged their Early Readers to make it more accessible for their parents. Cook Memorial and Lake County has separated their Readers from the rest of their collection to make it easier for parents. Baker has their Readers pulled and relabeled and a Parent Resource collection. John remarked that with everything that happened this year that the Parent Resource collection needs to be more defined. Making subjective decisions are sometimes difficult when most of cataloging is supposed to be objective. Laurie asked if Perry had any links to the article that he mentioned about libraries have a Bridging fiction section in an email.
John was interested to know how things are going to look in the future compared to the past way of doing things and Laurie mentioned that it seems like their local parents might never want to go back to how things were done previously. Beth was curious if the non-fiction Readers at everyone’s libraries were being grouped with the Early Readers or with the non-fiction. Harney, Cook Memorial and Baker seem to be putting their non-fiction Readers with their Readers collections instead of non-fiction but are approaching it in different ways.
School Libraries
Laurie was wondering if anyone knew what was happening with their local school libraries or how those things were being rearranged. It was mentioned that budgets of school libraries have been cut so much that there is often only one person who is in charge of two or three school libraries in the area. Jenny mentioned that they have a bus that drops off books and lunch at schools one day a week. Mary Reser still takes books to the K-3 classrooms and has them all ordering books from the public and school library.
CAT Level Documentation
The four documents that were approved were the Cataloging Policy, Core competencies, CAT1 Requirements, and the CAT1 Application.
The Core Competencies were revised to be more specific about what each competency was and what each level should be able to do. It has been clarified and expanded. If you look at the CAT2 competencies and see some things you don’t know how to do, please reach out to your mentor or look into how to do them properly.
The Cataloging Policy terminology has been changed to be more consistent and taken out the obsolete information. There has been some clarification of what the Bibliographic records must include. There is an asterisk * mentioning a standard that will take effect next year. Sections VII Reporting and resolving problems and VIII Review of Continued Privileges have been updated. Section VII has a list of things that should be reported to the committee chair and things we do not want to see in records. Section VIII is if we continue to see problems from a Specific library or cataloger and trying to address the problem in a way that was objective. This graduated process was designed to try and fix a problem in steps, it does end in regression of privileges if all the steps fail.
The CAT1 Level Requirements is for people who are interested in moving up to CAT1; this process needed a lot of attention and how it was before wasn’t really working. This has been revised to be more clear and objective and if anyone is interested in moving up to CAT1 this document is the first step. There are now assessments to move to any CAT level. Current CAT catalogers do not have to take a test to maintain their level of competency, it’s only for moving up. The tests are now finalized and in place for anyone who is ready to move forward!
The CAT1 Application had a couple questions added but is really only for people looking to move up to CAT1, anyone who is CAT3 and interested in moving up to CAT2 should email their mentors for the test. At this point the 75% pass rate is for the CAT2 and CAT1 secondary assessment, CAT3 test is for teaching purposes and making sure the applicant knows how to do things properly and the CAT1 primary assessment is for more detailed training for CAT1 candidates.
If you have applied to be CAT1 or CAT2 in the past you do have to reapply, we know this may be frustrating but it really is going to be a faster streamlined process. Things should be much more clear and straightforward so you can start working towards passing the tests. Please apply and don’t be intimidated! If you have any questions or concerns please contact a mentor to help you and don’t be daunted by the application, it is by no means the biggest part of this, don’t be intimidated! We genuinely want people to move up, we want to improve our catalog and records and have more people able to serve on the Mentors’ Committee.
Next meeting is December 7th, 2020 with our new Chair Celine!
Recording Link: https://youtu.be/iC-t8kpwPjo