Summary of Technical Services Roundtable

Yesterday the latest technical services roundtable was held at the North Adams Public Library.  At the meeting:

The attendees stated that they would like to see more activity on the CWCAT message board. Janet Schrader encouraged us to use CWCAT to communicate with each other about all tech services topics – whether or not C/W MARS cataloging is involved.  The attendees agreed that if we have more continuous activity on CWCAT, then we can send fewer messages to WMRLS and CWINFO.

The MLA Technical Services Section is seeking a candidate for Vice-Chair (2 and a half year committment) to fill an immediate vacancy, as well as candidates for Vice-Chair (3 year), Secretary (2 year), and Member-at-Large (2 year) to be elected at this year's conference in Springfield.  If interested please contact Cecile Bianco (Cecile.Bianco.umassmed.edu)

Libraries were reminded that they are obligated to follow the street dates for materials provided to them by their distributors. 

C/W Mars is actively working on customized templates for libraries seeking to print spine labels from Millenium Cataloging.  If you are interested and your library uses a laser printer, please contact Janet Schrader (jschrader@cwmars.org), if you use a continuous feed printer please contact Tom Corbett (tcorbett@cwmars.org).  It is also recommended that you send C/W Mars an example of your label stock along with its item number.  Click here for further information.

Libraries are strongly urged when adding items containing multiple parts to clearly label on the container what parts are included.  When cataloging these items it is recommended that you only use one barcode for the set as a whole. This is intended for items that circulate throughout the network and on which patrons/staff can place holds. The single barcode is so there will not be multiple item records for what is actually a single item.

A list of all current itypes has been posted to the C/WMars website for quick reference. 

Carolyn Platt wanted to know which products we prefer for attaching book jackets.  Some libraries like fiber or filament tapes, and no one worries about covering up information!

Laura Dankner of the Milne Public Library in Williamstown has volunteered to compile a list of commonly used supplies for covering books.  Please post your supply lists to the CWCAT list for this project. 

Jeremy Goldstein gave a talk on LibraryThing and LibraryElf, and will be happy to answer any questions on either topic (jgoldste@cwmars.org).

The next meeting will be held at the Westfield Athenaeum in February.