Tag Archives: cataloging

General, Public

GRRL has a new catalog

mushroom photoContrary to popular belief, change CAN be a good thing! At the beginning of this month, the Great River Regional Library premiered a new catalog system. This new catalog has a responsive design, meaning it adapts to the format of whatever device you are viewing it on. This makes it mobile friendly!

When searching on the new catalog, you may find that you get more results. These are broken down into different topic areas, and even by format (so you know which are DVDs, eBooks, etc). There is also an autocomplete function that brings up suggestions based on what you are typing, so your search may go even faster.

And not to worry, they are continuing to run the original catalog for a time while people get accustomed to the transition. Have you used the new catalog yet? Be sure you offer helpful feedback to GRRL as you test out this new exciting tool.

 Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Manuel Barroso Parejo), licensed under CC0 1.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Treasure trove of old seed catalogs

everything for the gardenWarmth in the air, sun on your face, the feeling of soil between your fingers…welcome to springtime gardening! After the gray and depressing landscape of winter, we are itching for a change – preferably one that is colorful, sweet-smelling, and edible!

With gardening on the brain, you may be interested in this article, which explains that Archive.org is currently working on expanding their collection of over 18,000 seed and nursery catalogs. The National Agricultural Library has been working on digitizing the Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, a huge undertaking since it includes more than 200,000 catalogs!

These seed catalog collections are important because they teach us about agricultural history, including changes in landscaping, seed prices, and plant hybridization. They also showcase some beautiful line drawings.

An excerpt from Everything for the Garden: 1922 urges readers, “For your health’s sake, grow and eat plenty of vegetables,” advice that we would still be wise to follow today!

Image credit:https://archive.org/details/everythingforgar19pete_19
Academic, General, Public

Need a free book about FRBR?

FRBR: Before and AfterFor those hard-core catalogers and metadata librarians, Karen Coyle has done you a favor. First she wrote a great book on FRBR called FRBR: Before and After. The book gives a great introduction to FRBR explaining, among other things, what a Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item all are in simple, easy to understand text. Second, she released it under the CC-BY license. Basically this means its free! Read the whole book now.

On her site, she explains why she did it:

“As promised, as of January 2016 the full contents of book available for Open Access with a CC-BY license. If you (or your library) can afford the hard copy I encourage you to purchase it. I earn $0 from sales, but ALA Editions generously allowed me to exchange potential royalties (which would have been quite small) for the privilege and advantage of having a professional publisher. This book would not have happened without their effort, and I greatly appreciate their willingness to make this exchange that is, in my opinion, a win-win-win (for me, for ALA Editions, and for readers).”

We hope this, along with other authors, increases the amount of books and articles under the Open Access umbrella. Well done!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Seven Apps for Cataloging Your Home Library

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

“Do you ever spend too long looking for a book that you just know you already have? Have you ever accidentally purchased a book twice?”

Thus begins, Inside Higher Ed’s look at seven apps that can help you catalog your home library. Inspired by last years look at using Goodreads to organize your home library, Emily VanBuren looks at the pros and cons of each app and breaks down their features. Some of the apps even go beyond just books and can help you catalog your CDs and DVDs as well.