LC sorting in small academic library when not everything has an LC number (or is even a book)
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1skilibrary
Hello, I'm a non-librarian new to LibraryThing and TinyCat, but experimenting with them for our small academic research institute. We have a print collection of about 1000 items on the shelves lining our medium-size conference room/library.
After full cataloging, I'd like to rearrange the books from their current in-house topic arrangement to something more universal, probably Library of Congress, in keeping with the academic standard. This seems like it would be one-time labor-intensive, but otherwise straightforward. I'd like to avoid screwing it up too badly the first time around.
Does someone have experience they could share with a library of similar size and scope (basically all science-themed books, so all "Q" entries)? In particular:
- Some of the books are old or foreign, lacking LC call numbers. Do we take our best shot assigning one based on the LCC guidelines? Is there a preferred system to use instead of LC?
- I'd eventually like to incorporate digital resources (ebooks, etc) and non-book resources (historical scientific instruments, shared tools) into the catalog if possible. Apparently this displeases some corners of LibraryThing, as the item names interfere with book titles. Aside from making sure to list those items as non-books, should I be aware of other issues?
- Note that we have an old print *journal* collection too, a whole other beast; I'm only asking here about books. Reference books, popular books, med/scientific textbooks, collected volumes from conferences, etc.
Thank you for any insight! I am still figuring out how to navigate archived threads but haven't found anything answering this issue so far.
After full cataloging, I'd like to rearrange the books from their current in-house topic arrangement to something more universal, probably Library of Congress, in keeping with the academic standard. This seems like it would be one-time labor-intensive, but otherwise straightforward. I'd like to avoid screwing it up too badly the first time around.
Does someone have experience they could share with a library of similar size and scope (basically all science-themed books, so all "Q" entries)? In particular:
- Some of the books are old or foreign, lacking LC call numbers. Do we take our best shot assigning one based on the LCC guidelines? Is there a preferred system to use instead of LC?
- I'd eventually like to incorporate digital resources (ebooks, etc) and non-book resources (historical scientific instruments, shared tools) into the catalog if possible. Apparently this displeases some corners of LibraryThing, as the item names interfere with book titles. Aside from making sure to list those items as non-books, should I be aware of other issues?
- Note that we have an old print *journal* collection too, a whole other beast; I'm only asking here about books. Reference books, popular books, med/scientific textbooks, collected volumes from conferences, etc.
Thank you for any insight! I am still figuring out how to navigate archived threads but haven't found anything answering this issue so far.
2MarthaJeanne
You have used Amazon as a source quite often. To get LCC numbers, it would be better to use LoC as your source, or other library sources, such as OverCat. You will also get LCC numbers if someone else has used a source that includes it, if your copy is combined in the same work.
So one thing you can do is to try to combine your singletons. I don't recommend deleting your current entries, but you could check them for accuracy (Data from Amazon on older books is often bad.) Does the book include cataloging info on the copyright page?
Try looking the book up in LoC. You can do this from the work page. If LoC has given a LCC, you are best with that. Or you can use WorldCat to find other libraries that may have assigned LCC. It looks like RE771 .A779d might be the LCC for Diagnostico Y Tratamiento Del Estrabismo (see https://search.library.berkeley.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991076974389...
Die mikroskopie des lebenden Auges is in LoC. https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=mikroskopie+des+lebenden+Auges+&a...
LCC is RE81 .K5
So one thing you can do is to try to combine your singletons. I don't recommend deleting your current entries, but you could check them for accuracy (Data from Amazon on older books is often bad.) Does the book include cataloging info on the copyright page?
Try looking the book up in LoC. You can do this from the work page. If LoC has given a LCC, you are best with that. Or you can use WorldCat to find other libraries that may have assigned LCC. It looks like RE771 .A779d might be the LCC for Diagnostico Y Tratamiento Del Estrabismo (see https://search.library.berkeley.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991076974389...
Die mikroskopie des lebenden Auges is in LoC. https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=mikroskopie+des+lebenden+Auges+&a...
LCC is RE81 .K5
3skilibrary
>2 MarthaJeanne:
Thank you so much for this reply!
When doing the initial entry, I did go with LoC when possible, although in the slog of cataloging, that didn't always happen, and my cataloging buddy may not always have favored the LoC entries. Also, for quite a while, we were just working from the "old catalog" (an Excel file) but it is easier now to physically check the books for cataloging info. In any case, you're right that our catalog merits another pass for those. Thank you in particular for the time and effort to highlight the examples you cited.
Still, some very specialized works, e.g. a series of in-house published technical reports, will definitely not have LCC or any other official designation, and I'm trying to figure out a reasonable scheme to include those. Any other thoughts are welcome!
Thank you so much for this reply!
When doing the initial entry, I did go with LoC when possible, although in the slog of cataloging, that didn't always happen, and my cataloging buddy may not always have favored the LoC entries. Also, for quite a while, we were just working from the "old catalog" (an Excel file) but it is easier now to physically check the books for cataloging info. In any case, you're right that our catalog merits another pass for those. Thank you in particular for the time and effort to highlight the examples you cited.
Still, some very specialized works, e.g. a series of in-house published technical reports, will definitely not have LCC or any other official designation, and I'm trying to figure out a reasonable scheme to include those. Any other thoughts are welcome!
4Keeline
One of the LT-specific data sources is called OverCat. It is a catalog of records imported by other LT members. I guess these could be Amazon sources ultimately but I think generally they are "library" sources.
I would search for items in that to see if they have cataloging material that doesn't happen to be in LoC.
You could try https://WorldCat.org to see if one of their libraries has the book with the LC classification that you want to use. There's no data connection between LT and WorldCat because they are unfriendly rivals. But sometimes we need to use them both to get the job done.
James
I would search for items in that to see if they have cataloging material that doesn't happen to be in LoC.
You could try https://WorldCat.org to see if one of their libraries has the book with the LC classification that you want to use. There's no data connection between LT and WorldCat because they are unfriendly rivals. But sometimes we need to use them both to get the job done.
James
5skilibrary
>4 Keeline:
Thanks James! OverCat is the first place I looked generally, and often they didn't quite have the right edition on hand. Occasionally, as you said, they did link back to Amazon (I think...it's been some months).
>There's no data connection between LT and WorldCat
This is interesting to know, thank you. I did note that they seemed strangely disconnected when other catalogs, like for university libraries etc, were easily interlinked.
Thanks James! OverCat is the first place I looked generally, and often they didn't quite have the right edition on hand. Occasionally, as you said, they did link back to Amazon (I think...it's been some months).
>There's no data connection between LT and WorldCat
This is interesting to know, thank you. I did note that they seemed strangely disconnected when other catalogs, like for university libraries etc, were easily interlinked.
