Lesson no. 10 Cataloguing Options

Once again I learned so much in this lesson!  It was nice to have a list of all the different possibilities out there for obtaining cataloguing records.  After looking into the various options and companies, I can see that in certain circumstances purchasing records might be the best option.  I’m still trying to figure out if this would be the best option for my school.  I feel like I should be able to do all my own cataloguing and not have to purchase the records.  I know it’s silly to think this when I only work 3 days a week and I’m slowly realizing that there is no other option.  What is most important is that the books are on the shelves and not in boxes!

Centralized cataloguing is fantastic and I wish the Catholic School Board had money to do this.  Unfortunately we are all left on our own.  Not only do I not have central cataloguing but I also don't have a mainstream library program so I can't copy catalogue either! I think I will have to invest in having some cataloguing done for me when I order the books. The only problem with that is I’m not sure how my library automated system works. I have an open source program that someone wrote. The good thing about open source is that the person who wrote the program can probably modify the program to allow for downloading of MARC records. This is something I’ll have to look into. I think it might be time for the school to invest in buying a more mainstream program such as Destiny or Horizons.  At least with a mainstream program I could do copy cataloguing which will cut my time in half. With the program I have now, once I get started, I can get through quite a few books in an hour but it’s not enough to keep up. I do copy information such as descriptions or subject headings from other sites. This helps but is still not enough.

I often order from ULS, mainly because I'm not very familiar with all the other publishing companies or jobbers, and have never ordered cataloguing. I always seem to think I can do it and I’m just too cheap!  In the end it’s the students who suffer since they don’t have access to all the great books I’ve purchased. After reading the lesson, I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and pay to have this service done. Hopefully it will be done properly!  I plan on purchasing cataloguing from a few companies to see which one I prefer.