Friday, August 3, 2012

More Cataloging, More LibGuide

The past two weeks have been a flurry of cataloging. I finally finished my huge list of LGBTQ books, as I reported in my last post, and last week I put the finishing touches on organization of the list and prepared to catalog.
However, one can’t just jump right in to cataloging. First, with Amy’s help, I had to find Library of Congress subject headings that corresponded to each of my categories. Some of them were easier than others; for example, Gay Culture is a Library of Congress subject heading, but my category of homosexuality in other countries around the world is harder to classify. I’ll probably have to break some of the categories up when I assign them to subject headings, or just be content with the headings they already have. I’ll find a way of posting my list of titles, or have a part on the LibGuide that shows the different subject headings that are pertinent.
The way I have unified the LGBTQ titles—all 700-odd of them—is by using a local information field in the catalog. Quick cataloging lesson for you non-librarians: when I talk about subject headings, for example Gay Culture, those go in a field designated by the number 650. This means that it’s a universal, standardized field and that the headings in those fields will be recognized anywhere. For local subject headings, those that are only used within one library (ours, in this case), the field is designated by the number 690. I’m using one of those 690 fields with the heading “LGBTQ Resources” so that if you want to see all of the books in the collection that relate to more than one part of the LGBTQ acronym, you can do a search for subject and input LGBTQ Resources, and you’ll get the list.
Okay, now you can feel free to rid your brain of that lesson. There’s no test, I promise.
I started cataloging the Gay Culture books, and I’m almost finished. Those books will probably be finished in the next week, and I’ll either start a new category or pull together enough other sources to make the LGBTQ Culture LibGuide page.
Speaking of my LibGuide, I made some changes to the landing page so that it’s a lot more helpful. Now available on the main page are links to websites, databases, online reference books, and magazines and journals. Plus, it’s rainbow-colored. (I probably had too much fun making it rainbow-y, but I have to amuse myself somehow, right?) I also changed the URL to make it more user-friendly. You can now find my LibGuide at the easy-to-remember address:
I only have one more week of working in the library before I take a few weeks to gear up for the coming semester. I will of course continue working on this project during the year, but I unfortunately can’t devote as much time to it with all those pesky classes to attend and such. (Just kidding; I’m super excited about the semester.) I’m happy that I’ve established the LibGuide, and I look forward to adding to it. Check in next week for my summer wrap-up post! J

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