Cataloging and Metadata Services Unit: Student Assistants

Processing

Students are responsible for making sure that materials are physically ready for shelving. This includes checking the shelf-ready titles against guidelines; labeling DVDs; protecting juvenile book covers; and creating book flags for rare books and special collections.

Research item holdings

Students research item holdings and circulation history for damaged items, gifts, and other projects as assigned.

Withdrawing items

Students are responsible for withdrawing pre-determined items from the catalog and disposing of them in Thrift books or in recycling.

Ongoing projects (as of Fall 2020)

• Collection refresh
• Damaged book repairs

Check the Trello board for which carts to work on.

• pull books list: pull these carts from the shelves and bring to cataloging for review
• withdraw books list: follow weeding procedures to withdraw these books from the catalog
• remove books list: take these carts to Thrift books

Instructions, with screenshots, for the collection refresh project are located in the I: drive > Cataloging Metadata Services > Student Workers > Weeding. A simplified version is below.

Stacks weeding procedures

Pull Books (Access Services)

• list of books for weeding is labeled SW###, carts have matching label
  • keep list with cart at all times
• write your name on the sheet
• pull all books on the list
  • keep in call number order
  • call numbers should match exactly
  • check title/author/date and barcode to make sure book matches the one on the list
• write X next to books that are missing
• place on book truck labeled “SW###” along with matching spreadsheet and bring to Cataloging

Check Books (Cataloging)

• check Trello board for which cart to work on; it will be in the list withdraw books [students]
• open spreadsheet stacksweeding_students_2019 to tab corresponding with number on spreadsheet
  • this will be linked on the Trello card and is on Google Drive
• open Aleph Cataloging and check that the book is the correct copy compared to spreadsheet
  • Item Bar: scan Barcode 
• if the record doesn’t match the book or there is no record, place the book on the shelf for Anna with a note about what the error is; select “for review” in Notes column in spreadsheet
• if a book was marked missing, select “not present” in Notes column

Withdraw Books (Cataloging)

• to withdraw: in Aleph, go to Item, [L] Items List, tab 2. General Information (1)
  • change Collection code to WDRWN
  • check box Temporary Location
  • click Update
• use a permanent marker to strike through the barcode
• stamp WITHDRAWN over LNDL stamps on title page and top edge
• in spreadsheet, select “withdrawn” in Notes column when a book is withdrawn

(from http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit03/libraries03_04.phtml)

Read call numbers line by line.

LB
Read the first line in alphabetical order:
A, B, BF, C, D… L, LA, LB, LC, M, ML…

2395
Read the second line as a whole number:
1, 2, 3, 45, 100, 101, 1000, 2000, 2430…

.C65
The third line is a combination of a letter and numbers. Read the letters in order, then the decimals in order. Some call numbers have more than one letter-decimal combination. For example:

.C65, .C70, .D66, .D66 B3, .D66 B7, .D67

1991
The last line is the year the book was published. Read in chronological order:
1985, 1991, 1992…

Duplicate copies of a book will be indicated by either a copy number statement (copy 1, copy 2) or a letter following the date. For example:

LB2395.C65 1991

LB2395.C65 1991a <–this is copy 2

Sometimes, journals will have library of congress classification and will include volumes, issues, and/or years. Organize in publication order. For example:

DO: LB2395.C65 vol.1 1991, LB2395.C65 vol.2 1991, LB2395.C65 vol.1 1992

DON’T: LB2395.C65 vol.1 1991, LB2395.C65 vol.1 1992, LB2395.C65 vol.2 1991

Volume 2 of 1991 was published before Volume 1 of 1992, so even though reading from left-to-right volume 1 comes before volume 2, putting the journal in publication order means putting Volume 2 of 1991 before Volume 1 of 1992.