I volunteered for a few hours today at a new regional library the county is opening. It's a beauty. I got to talk to the architect, too; he happened to be in today and I overheard him say to a colleague, "They're filling up my beautiful building with all these damn BOOKS!" and I laughed. He started to apologize, but I was obviously enjoying the comment so much he relaxed.
The library will be opening within the next month but I'm not sure exactly when. They have a brand new building, new furniture, and all new books. I swear, somebody ought to help librarians figure out how many books they are going to need in cases like this. I was shelving in the kids department, and one of the librarians said they are only putting out about half the copies of books that are coming in, because the shelves are filling up too fast. I don't know how you'd figure it out, but surely somebody, somewhere, has a clue. Even if the catalog had the thickness of the book, however, it'd be a real pain to try to calculate how many linear feet of books you're ordering. Cameron Village had the same problem, exacerbated by the fact that they were weeding old books from an existing collection, too.
The other weirdness was in some of the assigned catalog designations. I shelved several juvenile-level biographies, and found the following: Le Bron James was marked "LeBron", the bio of Yao Ming had some books marked "Yao" and some marked "Ming," and Magellan's bio was marked "Magallahao" which is apparently the Portuguese spelling. Of course, that spelling was nowhere visible on the cover, so the nearest librarian and I were stumped on that one. When she talked to the cataloger she found out the explanation, but I'm not sure if that one will be changed. I imagine "LeBron" will, or at least I hope so; I don't know what the justification would be for using his first name. I overheard the librarian venting to a colleague later, and she was citing the placing of Leonardo da Vinci under "Leonardo" as another error. Erm, well..... see, Leonardo was all the name he had, really; the "da Vinci" part just means he was born in Vinci. True, what with us being arrogant 'Murricans and all, most people using that library won't know that, and think it's his NAME, like Smith or Jones. I kept my mouth shut on that one since the librarian was on a rant at that point.
Every now and again I get deluded and think I might be interested in working as a cataloger, but then I run into a situation like this, and I change my mind again. I know most catalogers in smaller library systems use copy cataloging, so there really aren't a lot of decisions to make. During the cataloging exam last year I was, needless to say, overwhelmed with decisions, so that would seem to be a good thing, until you get whacked with something truly stupid. Yep, I can see how, by following the rules exactly, that's what you'd come up with, but damn, yo, it's certainly not what any normal user is going to be looking for.
I may have been the first volunteer ever at this branch; at least they all seemed befuddled about what to do with me. Several people thanked me for helping. It must have been the director of the Cameron Village branch who was behind having snacks for staff and volunteers when we were unpacking and prepping to open there; she kept the goodies coming. Not so at this branch; after shelving kids books and getting up and down from my knees a gazillion times this afternoon I was in dire need of rest and sustenance and there was none to be found. I wound up stopping for Mexican food for dinner before I even got home.
One of the librarians used to work at Cam when I started there and she recognized me today. I allowed as how I might be convinced to return, and she said Thursday would be a good day since they had a big shipment coming in. It's adult stuff, which I feel more comfortable with. I'm going to try to get back over there then, but the timing will be tight. I have a dentist's appointment at 12:30, and class in the evening, so I'll be keeping to a schedule instead of going with the flow. Or whatever it is you kids say nowadays.
The library will be opening within the next month but I'm not sure exactly when. They have a brand new building, new furniture, and all new books. I swear, somebody ought to help librarians figure out how many books they are going to need in cases like this. I was shelving in the kids department, and one of the librarians said they are only putting out about half the copies of books that are coming in, because the shelves are filling up too fast. I don't know how you'd figure it out, but surely somebody, somewhere, has a clue. Even if the catalog had the thickness of the book, however, it'd be a real pain to try to calculate how many linear feet of books you're ordering. Cameron Village had the same problem, exacerbated by the fact that they were weeding old books from an existing collection, too.
The other weirdness was in some of the assigned catalog designations. I shelved several juvenile-level biographies, and found the following: Le Bron James was marked "LeBron", the bio of Yao Ming had some books marked "Yao" and some marked "Ming," and Magellan's bio was marked "Magallahao" which is apparently the Portuguese spelling. Of course, that spelling was nowhere visible on the cover, so the nearest librarian and I were stumped on that one. When she talked to the cataloger she found out the explanation, but I'm not sure if that one will be changed. I imagine "LeBron" will, or at least I hope so; I don't know what the justification would be for using his first name. I overheard the librarian venting to a colleague later, and she was citing the placing of Leonardo da Vinci under "Leonardo" as another error. Erm, well..... see, Leonardo was all the name he had, really; the "da Vinci" part just means he was born in Vinci. True, what with us being arrogant 'Murricans and all, most people using that library won't know that, and think it's his NAME, like Smith or Jones. I kept my mouth shut on that one since the librarian was on a rant at that point.
Every now and again I get deluded and think I might be interested in working as a cataloger, but then I run into a situation like this, and I change my mind again. I know most catalogers in smaller library systems use copy cataloging, so there really aren't a lot of decisions to make. During the cataloging exam last year I was, needless to say, overwhelmed with decisions, so that would seem to be a good thing, until you get whacked with something truly stupid. Yep, I can see how, by following the rules exactly, that's what you'd come up with, but damn, yo, it's certainly not what any normal user is going to be looking for.
I may have been the first volunteer ever at this branch; at least they all seemed befuddled about what to do with me. Several people thanked me for helping. It must have been the director of the Cameron Village branch who was behind having snacks for staff and volunteers when we were unpacking and prepping to open there; she kept the goodies coming. Not so at this branch; after shelving kids books and getting up and down from my knees a gazillion times this afternoon I was in dire need of rest and sustenance and there was none to be found. I wound up stopping for Mexican food for dinner before I even got home.
One of the librarians used to work at Cam when I started there and she recognized me today. I allowed as how I might be convinced to return, and she said Thursday would be a good day since they had a big shipment coming in. It's adult stuff, which I feel more comfortable with. I'm going to try to get back over there then, but the timing will be tight. I have a dentist's appointment at 12:30, and class in the evening, so I'll be keeping to a schedule instead of going with the flow. Or whatever it is you kids say nowadays.