Hello everyone,

I used to have responsibility for training cataloguers and agree that it 
can be a huge investment of time so you need to know the person will 
have time to spend practising those skills.

I got most of my initial cataloguing training during a one-year graduate 
trainee role, where I spent 50% of my time on cataloguing so the 
investment in my training was worthwhile and this is a useful model but 
not everyone has the luxury of a graduate trainee or that amount of time 
to spend on cataloguing training.

Amy - I absolutely sympathise with not having things written all in one 
place, congratulations on getting it all into Sharepoint! In my 
experience, cataloguing documentation can often be very piecemeal and 
all over the place in an organisation, so that you really need to almost 
know it exists in order to find it. Training people really helps you to 
notice this kind of problem with documentation.

Celine


On 2014-11-25 10:40, Amy Staniforth [mws] wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I’m at Aberystwyth and 0.5 of my job is cataloguing and we have one
> other 0.5 role. I started in April 2013 and have only just (this week)
> finished the first stage of a cataloguing manual and put it on
> sharepoint. Nothing about what we do, how or why, was in writing in
> one place.
> 
> So, I have been reluctant to take on volunteers although this is often
> proposed here as a solution to uncatalogued material. Like Bernadette,
> I’d need to know the volunteer was going to stay on after training,
> and to be honest, I would rather some members of staff here understood
> things like LCSH and the point of RDA.
> 
> The library often has graduate trainees here for the year and in
> January I’m hoping to spend some time with this year’s as he has a
> strong interest in special collections but he usually only gets a day
> at a time with a team so that makes cataloguing training tricky.
> 
> If I manage to get organised before we get our new LMS next year I
> would like to ask staff who run our librarianship courses if they or
> some postgraduates would be interested to sit in on the process –
> they don’t teach cataloguing currently, which I think is a real
> shame as I would have loved it!
> 
> Amy
> 
> Dr Amy Staniforth
> 
> Arweinydd Tîm Cadwrfa Sefydliadol a Metadata /
> 
> Institutional Repository and Metadata Team Leader
> 
> Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth / Information Services
> 
> Llyfrgell Hugh Owen Library
> 
> Prifysgol Aberystwyth University
> 
> Aberystwyth
> 
> SY23 3DZ
> 
> Ffôn/Tel 01970 622085
> 
> E-bost/E Mail [log in to unmask]
> 
> Cadair: http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/ [1]
> 
> _"TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR SUBMISSION TO THE POST-2014 REF, AUTHORS’ FINAL
> PEER-REVIEWED MANUSCRIPTS MUST HAVE BEEN DEPOSITED IN AN INSTITUTIONAL
> OR SUBJECT REPOSITORY ON ACCEPTANCE FOR PUBLICATION"_
> 
> HEFCE Policy for open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence
> Framework [2]
> 
> FROM: CIG E-Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] ON BEHALF OF
> Bernadette O'Reilly
>  SENT: 25 November 2014 10:26
>  TO: [log in to unmask]
>  SUBJECT: Re: [CIG-E-FORUM] Getting started - Session 1
> 
> I hate to say it, but volunteering is not always a practical answer
> for organisations which use international standards such as RDA and
> LCSH. The training is a really big investment both for the
> organisation and for the cataloguer – I reckon about 100 hours’
> work for the cataloguer. And training is not enough – it takes
> practice to get up to speed. We wouldn’t offer training to anyone
> who was not committed to putting in a lot of cataloguing hours after
> training.
> 
> I wonder whether there are ways in through less-than-full cataloguing?
> We have volunteer language specialists who create brief records
> (reduced description, no access points or subject headings, records
> not exported to OCLC), which requires very little training.
> 
> Does anyone have experience of volunteering (either as volunteer or as
> manager)?
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Bernadette
> 
> *******************
>  Bernadette O'Reilly
>  Catalogue Support Librarian
> 
> Bodleian Libraries,
>  Osney One Building
>  Osney Mead
>  Oxford OX2 0EW.
> 
> For cataloguing advice: [log in to unmask]
>  For course enquiries (cataloguing, holdings & items):
> [log in to unmask]
>  For other correspondence: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 01865 2-77134
> 
> *******************
> 
> FROM: CIG E-Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] ON BEHALF OF
> Doyle, Helen
>  SENT: 25 November 2014 10:10
>  TO: [log in to unmask]
>  SUBJECT: Re: [CIG-E-FORUM] Getting started - Session 1
> 
> I think the first question there is a real problem! If you have no
> experience, how can you start applying for cataloguing jobs?
> Volunteering is the usual answer, but it’s very hard to do that if
> you are already working in a full-time job.
> 
> Are there any managers out there who would consider an applicant who
> had no cataloguing experience at all?
> 
> Helen.
> 
> FROM: CIG E-Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] ON BEHALF OF
> Bernadette O'Reilly
>  SENT: 25 November 2014 09:57
>  TO: [log in to unmask]
>  SUBJECT: [CIG-E-FORUM] Getting started - Session 1
> 
> [Apologies if this crosses with other posts and introductions –
> there can be a delay of several minutes before posts appear]
> 
> Hello all, and welcome to the first session of this e-forum!
> 
> In this session, from now until 1.00 p.m., we would like to focus
> particularly on recruitment, and we hope to hear not just from people
> who are starting but also from people who have experience and advice
> to offer. These threads can continue during other sessions – we know
> that many people will be able to look in only occasionally – but the
> other sessions will introduce other topics.
> 
> My own job includes providing training, documentation and advice for
> the 200+ cataloguers in about 100 locations who contribute to the
> Oxford Libraries Information System (OLIS), ranging from the Bodleian
> Libraries’ full-time cataloguers to multiskilled staff working in
> one- or two-person libraries. Many OLIS cataloguers cannot make time
> to attend long courses and some do not have much inhouse support, so
> it’s a challenge to devise training which is manageable but
> reasonably comprehensive – a lot of it has to be through
> self-tuition modules. If one of the smaller libraries needs to recruit
> a cataloguer they may not have any other cataloguing staff, so I am
> sometimes asked to help with recruitment.
> 
> Just to get things started, here are a few questions which occurred to
> the moderators. Please jump in with your ideas on them, or any other
> questions and/or ideas which occur to you.
> 
> - How can someone with no cataloguing experience acquire enough
> knowledge/skills to make a convincing job application?
> 
> - Can anyone suggest books, online resources, courses or other
> resources (especially inexpensive ones) which would help someone
> hoping to move into cataloguing to make a convincing application?
> 
> - Do most people have experience in other library roles before moving
> into cataloguing?
> 
> - What if you were trained in AACR2 and the jobs now seem to specify
> RDA?
> 
> - Managers: What knowledge/skills do you look for in applicants? What
> else is important?
> 
> - Do you use “objective” tests in recruitment (or have you
> experienced objective tests)? If so, can you give examples? Did they
> help?
> 
> - How important is it for applicants to offer knowledge/skills in a
> range of metadata types, e.g. Dublin Core, MODS?
> 
> - How important is it for applicants to offer knowledge/skills with
> non-book materials?
> 
> - What can/should organisations do to help employees interested in
> cataloguing to acquire relevant skills before applying for cataloguing
> roles in that organisation?
> 
> - Is the balance changing between professional cataloguing roles and
> paraprofessional roles (e.g. downloading external records,
> non-structural checking, editing and upgrading, adding
> holdings/items)? If so, is this a good thing?
> 
> - What are the career prospects in non-traditional cataloguing
> agencies, e.g. outsourcing firms and e-resource suppliers?
> 
> Looking forward to hearing from you.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Bernadette
> 
> *******************
>  Bernadette O'Reilly
>  Catalogue Support Librarian
> 
> Bodleian Libraries,
>  Osney One Building
>  Osney Mead
>  Oxford OX2 0EW.
> 
> For cataloguing advice: [log in to unmask]
>  For course enquiries (cataloguing, holdings & items):
> [log in to unmask]
>  For other correspondence: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 01865 2-77134
> 
> *******************
> 
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-- 
Céline Carty
Librarian
Lucy Cavendish College
University of Cambridge
Lady Margaret Road
Cambridge CB3 OBU

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