Gettin' Stuff Done

Wow my desk is looking clean! I managed to work my way through those mystery deweys today, although I did take a bit of a short cut - rather than deciphering them I checked under subject headings on Libraries Australia and found that other similar, recent books were using the same numbers - a good tip I was shown yesterday!

I've also learned something really important about receiving gift copies - that you need to make sure you get the intended location exactly right, because if you just leave it as AUS and it's actually an AUSLPF copy, you're going to make another holding that will sit around and confuse people for years to come.

Looks like the Web 2.0 project is coming to a close soon, but I for one will be keeping this blog going (and possibly even taking it to whatever job I end up in next), purely for it's reflective quality, which I find really helpful.

Can't trust that day

Mondays are tough because the Sean Keaveny show hasn't happened in the UK yet, so it hasn't been uploaded to BBC6, and so I have nothing to giggle at and make people think I'm crazy.

However, I have managed to work through a couple of the weirder deweys that have been hanging around since last week - no small thanks to Kristy on that one. But there are still a couple to go, and since you're here, I might tell you aaaallll about them. Settle in.

Ok, so we've got this title called 'The invisible thread," see, and it's "The story of Moonambel." Its dewey is currently 994.0099458. Let's investigate.

So we know that 994 is Australia. I'm ok with that. But what's going on with the 00994 after it? Isn't that like saying "Australia: Australia"? And what's the 58? Cry!

The next one I have is for a book called "Maalika: My life among the Afar nomads of Africa." This has a dewey of 323.092. So it's a biography, which I'm happy with, but 323 just "civil and political rights, which just seems too broad. I want to make it about Africa...but then there's the whole not subdivinding biographies geographically...

The last one I have is called "No Peacetime Cinderellas," and it's about the war widow's guild of NSW. Dewey is 369.208654. 369.2 is 'military and patriotic societies,' which I guess is fine. But then we've got 08654, which I just can't seem to find anywhere.

Anyway, I'll have bit more of a think about these tomorrow and hopefully come up with some answers. (Cue thinking music.)

This week, I have been mostly...

• Learning how to cancel purchase orders properly! I can now also unreceive items, which is simple but very handy to know when you've clicked once too many times.
• Getting better at recognising when something that I shouldn't be cataloguing comes across my desk, although I'm still not very sure exactly what 'analytics' covers - at the moment I know that ANU epress are analytics and that if it has a date or number, called a 'project' or 'working paper,' or has a 440 field, it's probably an analytic. If anyone else has any tips for recognising them feel free to share!
  
• Working my way through the RAP list, although at the moment it's covered in post-its to follow up.
• Getting better at recognising strange deweys...and also understanding how to use the DDC books, which is kind of scary in a good way.
  
• Getting more handy dewey tips, such as that if you have a biography mark on your cutter, you'd better have a biography number in your dewey (duh!).
  
• Slowly but surely working my through the back log of dewey updates that go with my set of books.
• Giggling a bit too much at Shaun Keaveny's show on BBC6. I highly recommend it if you like overtired British ridiculousness.

Mystery of the two deweys - solved!

This was interesting - apparently the preference here at the NLA is to group works by subject, even if they do happen to be a biography (like the one I was talking about below) - that way all the works on that topic will be grouped together. Other libraries might group all their biographies together. In any case, it's ok to have two deweys on a record, I think it's just a matter of using the one that is goign to keep your book in the right section.

In other news - daylight savings omg! I've been here since 7:30am! Time to go home!

More Dewey Sweetness

So thanks to a very kind person who may or may not work near me, I've been having a few lessons in making Deweys today. It's been great! I'm finally able to go 'ok, this part means this,' which sounds lame I'm sure but it's a lot better than going 'what a pretty string of numbers that is.'

So, I've got this book here and it has two deweys in the record. That doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm going to try and decipher what each of them are, and then decide which is the best one. (Can you feel the excitement?) This is for a book called 'Holding up the Sky, an African life.' It's an autobiography.

Firstly we have 361.0092.

• 361 = 'Social problems and social welfare in general.' That sounds wrong already. Shouldn't we be starting with Africa? Or biography?
• 0092 is...well 009 is apparently 'historical, geographic, persons treatement' but then it says 'do not use, class in 361.9...Curioser and curioser.
  
• I really need to go get a cup of tea.
  
• Ok, so 092 is the biography part of that dewey. But I don't know where the extra 0 has come from.
  

Let's look at the next one: 307.146092

• Aha! I already know 092 is the biography part. I rock.
  
• 307 is about communities. There's also a .14 here that says 'development.' There's a star next to that which I know is significant...
  
• As I suspected, the 6 is the Africa marker. So if we put it all together it goes 'Communities - Development - Africa - Biographies.' It matches the subject heading pretty much exactly: ‡a Community development personnel ‡z South Africa ‡v Biography.
  

The second one sounds much better, as it actually says something about Africa. But now I'm thinking 'Shouldn't the Africa bit come first? Maybe it can't come first. Maybe you have to subdivide geographically after you come up with a more general topic. And maybe, just maybe, I need to ask someone for help with this one.' (Sorry, I think the assam tea I switched to is a little stronger than my usual.)

Thursday Tips

I understood my first Dewey today. Oh, my god, it was sweet.

But yes, Miss Eternal Student, I would like to look at some examples with you when you have a moment. And to anyone else who feels like talking about Deweys, I'm here to listen.

We had a bit of an interesting one today - a hardback of a fiction book that I noticed after I'd catalogued the paperback. What we decided on was putting the paperback in a polycover, giving them the same label and that way they get shelved together. Made sense to me.

So, we're back to manual reading this afternoon. Lack of sleep may mean this makes no sense. You have been warned.

• There's a little something in here about cataloguing hbk/pbk items actually - I won't try to interpret it here but it's on p. 132 of the procedures manual.
• Apparently more than six subject headings 'would rarely be required' even if you were doing high level cataloguing. I'm pretty sure I've done records with more than six!
• Oh oh! Punctuation tips! Why didn't someone tell me these were here? ;) I've been wondering about things like exclamation marks, and if we need to put a space before them in the title for searching purposes. It doesn't say anything about that in here (and I've seen other records that don't do that) so I'm guessing that's not necessary.
  

I think I might actually photocopy this little cheat sheet and post it on my desk. If you're keen to read it (fascinating I know) it's p. 141 of the procedures manual.

Another thing that's been on my mind is biographies. When is something a biography and when is it just a story about a family, or maybe just a certain time in a family's life? I'm sure there are procedures for this out there somewhere...

Blogging with Terry Wogan

My desk is looking much clearer these days - partially thanks to Lisa explaining to me how to add geographical subdivisions to subject headings. It's easy! All you do is go to the subject headings index, search under structed subject heading, and if it says 'May Subd Geog' next to the subject heading you want to use, you can simply stick a v subfield in your 650 line (for example...I'm not sure if you can do it with all the 600 lines...anyways) and then write 'Australia' or whatever. Then you just add 0994 to the end of your Dewey and you're done! Simple, right? Right.

Other exciting things - I've received about seven gift copies (N and NL) over the past few days, and I'm getting more confident with that process. I'm proud of myself for taking it slowly and paying attention to the details, which I'm finding is the Number One Thing I need to do to work well in this position.

I guess that's what I'd say in my next job interview - even if it's not for a library job I can safely say I've had experience working in both fast-paced, results-focused environments and slower-paced, accuracy focused environments. Of course, the first option is the one I'm more comfortable in, but I'm getting used to slowing down.

I'm also feeling less worried about the mistakes I keep making as I'm noticing these are mistakes that everyone makes from time to time - I've noticed this because I've actually got to a point where I can pick these up, when doing the trolley or updating someone else's record.

Most importantly, I have strategised to get myself through the afternoon drudge period with BBC radio online. Today it's Terry Wogan, who makes zero sense but is completely hilarious. I do with they would stop playing 'Mercy' by Duffy though. I mean, really, it's a good song but we can move on now!

Progress

No manual reading today, but I did want to take a moment to say that I smashed my record for books today - 21! I'm starting to think of the mainstream shelf as kind of my territory, and as such it must be as up to date as possible! I'm also getting more confident with my cataloguing, and am being given more free reign and decision-making responsibilities, which helps a lot when it comes to motivation.

Made my way through the RAP list and have done pretty much as many as I can, barring a few random phone calls to unsuspecting publishers.

Since not getting the APS3 position, I've decided to try and keep tabs on what it is I actually do, day to day, so as to make my next job interview a good one. In no particular order, here are some of the things I can think of that my particular job involves:

• contacting publishers (promoting Legal Deposit)
• checking/assigning dewey numbers
• assigning cutter numbers and title marks
• updating CiP records
• claiming material from publishers
• sorting new books as they arrive
• organising daily mail-outs to publishers

That's most of the day to day stuff...it doesn't look like that much! But I will keep adding to the list and think about the skills I've learned on the job in the next few posts.

Questioning

After making and unintentional and avoidable mess of the RAP sheet claims yesterday, I came in this morning determined to make less silly mistakes. Unfortunately, that only lasted for about thirty minutes. Nevertheless! I have decided today to keep a list of all the questions I am asking myself as I'm cataloguing, and hopefully this will lead to me writing down and therefore remembering the answers.

• Ok, so, if you write the foreword to a book, do you get to have a 700 field?
• What about if someone has the last name 'd Chand' and you want to make a cutter?
• Complicated cover titles! What to include? Where to include it? Me oh my.
• When there are two authors and their from the same family, can you just write 'Blah and Blahrina Jones?' Or do you separate the names?
• What if a book's copyright date is a year later than it's publication date? How could that be?!
• I know I made it sound like I knew all about breaking down Deweys if they are too long, but you see, I don't. Not a single thing about it. Deweys and me are still less than friendly. In fact, you could say we're acquaintances who avoid each other at all possible opportunities.

Some answers:

• The Manual says: "Treat names containing the prefix 'de' as they appear in the main entry and ignore capitalisation." So I was right on that one.
• I checked out an earlier book I did with two authors from the same family, and I did separate the names (and no one made a fuss), so I'm going to go with that (even the AACR manual was stumped on that) .
• Looking at the AACR, it seems like a foreword contributor would get a 700 field. But we'll see how we go.

More manual fun:

• Section 6.9 of the procedures manual has some information about conference material - it sounds like I don't need to claim it. It also goes into the criteria conference proceedings need to satisfy to be taken in as a serial.
• Omg! Plates are supposed to be listed in the a subfield in 300! Not in the b! I'm pretty sure I've been doing it wrong...So it should look like: '247 p., [12] p. of plates.' I think.
• The 530 field can be used in a similar way to the 856 page to record where you can get online access to the item.

I think that's about all the thinking I can do for today. Time to check my books again and head on out of here!

Radio, tea and manuals

You know, Ceylon tea just isn't as good as English Breakfast.

Well I'll be quietly satisfied - I've finished reading through one manual! Call number allocation and end processing is done - now on to the Australian Deposit Procedures Manual (of Doom).

• I don't get retro material - what is it? Why do we get it in? Most of all, what is the Hince collection and is it any relation? This must be resolved!

Can I just say that the search within the NLA website is possibly the vaguest I've come across?

Anyways, this manual doesn't seem to have much to say ot me today, which is a good thing. But I did discover an interesting bandwhile listening to the radio!

Making friends with The Manuals Pt. 2

Well, it's Friday afternoon and there's not much else for it - it's me against the manuals again.

Ok so where were we up to? Ah yes - numbers, initials and abbreviations.

• Acronyms are treated as if they are words when making cutters (e.g ASEAN)
• Russian author names are treated differently. Crazy Russians.
• Special biography rule: If the main entry is the title, use the Cutter for the biographee and don't add a title mark. (i.e Only one life: the Peter Crofts story would be C941). And I thought I understood biographies!
• AND, biography marks are used for catalogues of art exhibitions by one artist. The cutter comes from the artist and biography mark from the author. (Art catalogues are not my friend at this stage.)
• Title marks for translations should use the original language.
• Edition marks aren't used for novels (800s).

That's about all the interesting bits I can find so far...only four manuals to go...and then there's the Dewey...oh the Dewey....

This is a tired Friday afternoon Alice signing off - until next week!

Making friends with The Manuals

So, the manuals and I haven't been getting along. I ignore them, they taunt me with their correct procedures hidden deep within library jargon. So today I'm going to spend an hour (that's right, one whole hour of manual-related fun) reading the manuals, and recording any fun facts I might find along the way. Here goes:

General Stuffs

• N means Australian stacks! I have finally unravelled the mystery of N!
• Octavo means normal sized book.
• There's a stack directory! Praise be!

Call Numbers

• Books by or about Shakespeare have a special classification system. That's pretty awesome.
• The number of digits after a deciaml point in a Dewey call number can only be eight, but you keep the full number in the 082 field (you break it at a 'logical point' - if it can't be broken and still make sense, you just shorten it as much as possible).
• Literature of New Zealand can use the NZ prefix before the Dewey.
• Captain Cook and Lonely Planet also have special rules...

Cutter Numbers

• Criticisms of a writer are given special Cutter treatment (see section C.3.2 of the end processing manual).
• Hyphenated names are treated as if they were one word.
• Names with prefixes are also treated as one word (i.e Vanbrugh), but with the prefix 'de' just follow what's been written in the main entry (ignore capitalistion).

Phew! That's only 8 pages in to the first manual! I will save more learnings for tomorrow.

Wednesday normality

Not a whole lot in terms of huge cataloguing revelations today, but I did hit a record number of books (10!), and brached out into the claimed items area, which is actually easier than the normal items area. I'm getting faster at investigating publishers for possible claims too, which is nice.

I do feel like I'm consolidating what I already know though, and getting a better understanding of how everyone on this floor fits together 'to ensure that a significant record of Australia and Australians is collected and safeguarded.' This morning we had a whole section meeting, and that also contributed to bringing the pieces of the puzzle together. I realised that I was following 99% of what was being said, and that I really wouldn't have even a week ago, let alone when I started.

Like I keep saying, it's just the same as learning another language - good thing that's something I'm happy to do!

post-interview exhalation

So, after cramming on all the aspects of the NLA that I could dig up, I now have a better idea of what the NLA is up to these days and where it plans to go in the future. The most difficult question was 'what particular project or area are you most interested in?' I couldn't choose!

Back at my desk, I'm continuing to refine my 'Upgrading a Cip' cheat-sheet of doom. Things I am now pretty comfortable with, CiP-wise, include:

• Cutters and title marks, when they occur and how to make them (including biographical Cutters, which I made friends with today).
• Knowing when one of the main fields is missing (this helps a lot!).
• Formatting of the main fields (all those wonderous semi-colons, colons, commas and full stops).
• Most of the other basic things - give me a fiction book with no curly aspects to it, and I'll be fine.

Things I am getting there with:

• Subject headings and the creation thereof.
• Dealing with books with different types of responsibilities (translators, consultants).
• Adaptations (this involved lots of mess before I understood it).

Things I am yet to understand:

• The leader field. I mean, seriously, what does any of that mean?
• Ditto some of the 008 field.
• Reprints. Which date is the reprint date? Which is the copyright date? Which do we care about? Argh!
• Knowing when to include other random information, like established series info, related corporations, and various other things that don't make sense even after a lap of the balcony.
  

The DDC continues to be a mystery in a class of it's own, but I think I just need to take an hour to sit down with some books, tea and sugary things, and try to get it. But, I did find the Dewey Decimal System blog, which is awesome!

In totally exciting news to no one but me, I claimed my first item today! That's right, send us your book, or face the not-very-scary-at-all consequences!

Slowly but surely a larger percentage of my books are coming back with less mistakes. Interviews are done. Things are looking pretty darn good.

More learning

Today I've been wrestling with 700 fields. Here is what I have figured out so far:

The 700 field is where you put in names of authors other than the one who gets the (coveted?) main entry (the 100 field). In the event that one of these authors has contributed to an earlier version of the book (I've encountered this today with adaptations), then you'll need to make a sub-field 't' for the title, and maybe a sub-field 's' for the edition. Got it? Good cos there's a lot more where that came from.

The 710 field is used when a corporate body is attached to the book somehow, however there are numerous (really numerous) rules about what organisations can be deemed worthy for this field. There are also rules about how their names should be formatted.

There are seven more types of fields starting with 7 that I have yet to come to grips with. (Not to mention all the other numbers between 000 and 900... *cough*)

I also feel I've made progress understanding who gets what Cutter-Sanborn mark when. for example, that editors are far too lowly for this honour, but that authors of original titles (before a book has been adapted) will still get to keep their Cutter. And, of course, the trick of 'if in doubt, look at similar publications.'

Well, I think that's enough learnings for today. TGIF!

First post!

Yesterday I went to a seminar on what happens in the Music section, which was very interesting. They seem to go through very similar procedures to what we do in Legal Deposit, but with extra musical elements. Most useful was finally crystallising the differences between an ISBN, an ISSN and an ISMN, and realising that these are not randomly generated when the book is printed, but are actually requested beforehand. The numbers also mean various things (now I finally know what a check digit is, but don't ask me to explain it).

I think the people in Music might have something to say about this, i.e that it's prime library material!