Theme: Metadata / Cataloguing

A growing number of images from cultural heritage institutions around the world are available for use and re-use by scholars through IIIF (the International Image Interoperability Framework http://iiif.io). This framework and community facilitate comparison of materials across repositories through a common protocol. It also allows for the use of a number of lightweight tools that can be hosted at your institution, or on your laptop, for viewing, annotation, transcription, and collection-building.

No previous experience with IIIF is required. The workshop will be led by Dr Anne McLaughlin, Sub-Librarian of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, and Andy Corrigan, Cambridge Digital Library Co-ordinator.

Please note: This course will be cancelled if booking numbers are insufficient.

In 1906, Melvil Dewey wrote that ‘what we call books have no exclusive rights in a library. The name “library” has lost its etymologic meaning and means not a collection of books, but the central agency for disseminating information, innocent recreation or, best of all, inspiration among the people.’

Most libraries contain mostly books. But most libraries have other things in them too. Some of these objects – films, musical recordings, maps, sheet music – have established cataloguing standards, developed through communities of practice. Others are more problematic. What should we do with our flashcards, skeletons, jigsaws, bookstands, postage stamps, DVD players, and the other odds-and-ends we collate, curate and circulate?

Should these things be catalogued? Perhaps. Can they be catalogued? Certainly. This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of cataloguing ‘realia.’ Examples will be provided for group cataloguing activities, but feel free to bring along your own unusual library materials too.

This course is a short introduction to cataloguing in the Alma metadata editor. It’s suitable for beginners who have some knowledge of MARC or experience of editing holdings and items. We will look at creating records from templates, downloading records from external databases, editing information in catalogue records and practise cataloguing some novels.

This course is an introduction to the core fields in MARC21, the format we use for catalogue records in Alma. It’s suitable for beginners and also for those who have done some cataloguing but want a more formal training session in MARC. We will look at MARC coding for author, title, publication information and physical description, and highlight the important elements to check in control fields.

A two-hour session designed to introduce you to the skill of compiling back-of-the-book type indexes. Indexing is a useful skill for anyone working in a library or information environment and also provides opportunities for self-employment and working from home. We will touch on the basic processes, standards and conventions, the Society of Indexers’ course, and embedded indexing, and we will have a go at creating a basic index. Feel free to bring a laptop but they are not essential.

Do you see these subject headings in the catalogue records and wonder how they work? Do you add these subject headings yourself but sometimes wonder if you’re doing so correctly? Are you studying librarianship and would like to add some subject heading skills to your portfolio? This is an introduction to the workings of LC subject headings, an opportunity to ask all the questions you want, and get some practical experience of adding headings to catalogue records.

This course aims to provide instruction and practice in the creation of bibliographic records for rare books from the hand-press era so that attendees will be equipped with the basic skills to catalogue their library’s early printed books to national standards. Focus will primarily be on 17th-18th Century books printed in England and/or in English.

Basic knowledge and familiarity with MARC21 and AACR2 is essential. Laptop optional (paper templates provided for exercises)

This course will look at how to create metadata for online catalogues and digital libraries, concentrating on special collections material. We will be using TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) as the most suitable metadata standard for the description and presentation of manuscripts and rare books in a digital environment. The course will focus on the descriptive element of TEI, but will also touch on the possibilities for transcription, translation, and the presentation of digital images. There will be a taught element (1 hour) followed by the opportunity to have a go at creating a description in TEI yourself.