Cataloging Home Cataloging Wiki

Libraries' catalog
Journals | E-Matrix
WorldCat NCLive | Beta
Public Department page
Staff server

Department
Annual reports
Directory
Personnel guidelines
Presentations
Production statistics
Tech Services requests

Department sections
Continuing & Electronic Resources
Metadata & Database Quality
Monographs

Cataloging tools
Cataloging agencies
Cutter tables
Design images classification
Format-specific tools
MARC documentation
OPAC tools
Reference sources
Remote OPACs
Special call numbers
Symphony tools
Training

Local procedures
Cataloging guidelines & procedures by topic
Metadata project procedures

News for catalogers
Recent news/events
Technical service e-journals

Metadata and Cataloging Department
  Annual Report 2008-2009

The Metadata and Cataloging Department contributes to the NCSU Libraries' mission, vision, and values by providing effective, accurate tools that assist our clients in locating information resources of value to them, either locally or remotely through the Internet. We organize and maintain these information resources in all formats and process them in a timely manner. In pursuit of these goals, Metadata and Cataloging had an active and productive year.

Electronic Resources

In support of the Libraries' efforts to increase both content of, and access to, electronic resources in our collections, Metadata & Cataloging:

• Completed a serials project to ensure accurate journal displays for titles that have long been ceased or cancelled (22,000+ titles), both for the benefit of the Endeca full record display and for the Journal List generated by E-Matrix. Earlier projects had resulted in the cleanup of data for active titles, but this final piece was required to present user friendly, eye-readable holdings statements in all of our discovery tools.
• Began implementation of the MARC record service, MARCit!, associated with our link resolver (SFX), in order to increase access for users while decreasing staff time spent in the processing of electronic journals. An initial load of 5,581 aggregator-only titles is now in the catalog, improving discoverability. These titles had not been reflected before in the catalog due to the extreme difficulty of managing these titles manually.
• Identified and loaded MARC record sets to provide access to e-titles and reduce the amount of staff time necessary for this work.
• Knovel record service, 1,552 titles
• Gale Virtural Reference Library records, 79 titles
• Duke University Press e-Books, 64 titles
• Added records to the catalog for the following free e-books sets at the request of Collection Management:
• eScholarship (California Digital Library), 308 titles
• E-Gutenberg, 29 titles
• Eastern North Carolina Digital Library, 48 free titles
• Collaborated with Collection Management to expand the use of the link resolver to include a select number of e-book packages to provide users better services to those resources.
• Participated in early conversations for the description and access of media that we will stream locally on our servers and developed a cataloging workflow for media that we license remotely (largely Films Media Group). There are now 65 records in the catalog and workflow processes flow nicely. Local streaming should be implemented this summer.
• Developed workflow and cataloged 277 Kindle titles to support the Amazon Kindle program initiated by Collection Management and RIS. Devices are circulating from the Learning Commons and users can discover available titles through Endeca.

Physical Formats

In support of the Libraries' goals to build strong print and non-print physical collections and to provide excellent customer service to Collection Management, the branches, and directly to users, new physical formats cataloging totaled 66,645 volumes. These volumes either came physically through Metadata & Cataloging or we were responsible for the general oversight, training, policy setting, and overall decision making to ensure the intellectual integrity of the Libraries' collections. Of special note from the overall statistics (see appendix):

• Metadata & Cataloging (as did Acquisitions) processed 3,659 titles in the rush categories (walk-thru items, rush items, holds, and notifies), responding rapidly to specific and immediate patron requests. This represents a 22% increase in rush materials over last year.
• We contributed to the Libraries' efforts to purchase textbooks for the reserve collection. In collaboration with Acquisitions, ADS, the Branches, IT, and Collection Management, we developed processes & workflow to rush order and process these materials for the beginning of the Spring 2009 semester. Technical Services pushed through 1,822 new textbook titles in just about two months; there are now a total of 2,207 textbooks available on reserve.
• 511 NASA VHS volumes were added to the collection programmatically, so as to avoid requiring catalogers to watch each of the VHS tapes individually. At an average of ½ hour to catalog a single VHS, the collection would have taken 255 hours of cataloger labor. With technical support now in the Metadata & Cataloging department, the project took about 10 hours of scripting time. These are original NASA videos of the space program and support PhD research in Aeronautical Engineering and History of Science courses.
• With a mix of student labor, technical scripting, and with catalogers finishing off only the parts requiring their particular expertise, cataloged 170 serial films in a manner which saved the Libraries approximately 30 hours of cataloger labor. Many/most of these titles are quite rare/out of print and fifty four were original cataloging records contributed by us to the international corpus. The collection is a well-built, intentional set of serials, documenting the life history of that cinematic form. Several film studies faculty will use these materials in class, particularly one who is currently planning an upcoming serials course.
• Cataloged 277 Sigma Xi titles. Sigma Xi (http://www.sigmaxi.org) is a research society in Research Triangle Park who publishes American Scientist, a popular science journal with an extensive book reviews section. They send each of the four TRLN institutions books they receive for review. The books donated are new scientific books that support research, instruction, and outreach efforts of our campus.
• Cataloged a gift of 1,099 volumes donated by Dr. Siegfried Mews. This was a generous gift of a collection of materials built over the course of his career, donated upon his retirement from UNC-CH. The gift is well-timed, as NCSU has just this semester begun a German Studies major, as well as added another tenure-track faculty member in German. Professor Mews' gift will provide core support to this emergent area of teaching and research at NCSU.
• Cataloged 1,234 volumes for the Animal Rights Network Collection. There is a final piece currently being assessed by Collection Management (mostly journals but still also some final monographs) that should be ready for cataloging shortly, to wrap up this project.

Non-MARC Metadata

In support of the Libraries' goals to increase both content and access to electronic resources beyond those integrated into the Libraries' traditional catalog, Metadata & Cataloging engaged in the following non-MARC metadata projects:

• Worked with the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) on the transformation of XML finding aid records to MARC, to overlay current low-access catalog records with fuller description and subject access for archival and manuscript materials.
• Managed cleanup of over 6,000 name, title and subject authority records for Archivists' Toolkit for SCRC. Besides reducing the number of duplicate headings under variant forms, this enabled the creation of cross-references for names for the first time and will make subject and name searches more precise for end users and staff alike.
• Concluded two projects to expose additional SCRC hidden collections for public discovery. Metadata was created for the Agromeck (student yearbook) and data cleanup in the EAD, subject, and description files was completed for the People Photographs Collection (UAPC).
• Quadrupled the Scholarly Publications Repository (SPR) intake over that of any previous year. Also tripled the ingest of full-text repository materials.
• In collaboration with Graduate Studies and the Digital Repository Management Committee (DRMC), loaded over 900 historic patents to the SPR, dating back to early 20th century.
• As a result of large scanning project initiated by DRMC to bring existing series up-to-date, loaded over 1500 new technical reports full-text into the Technical Reports series.
• Migration of the Design Images metadata to VCat was completed successfully and is now in full production. Worked with Design and IT to facilitate data migration, cleanup and thesaurus creation, enabling the integration of Design Images with Built Heritage, SCRC Digital Resources, and Insidewood within our Luna collections.
• Harvested and loaded almost 700 titles and 1,100 volumes for the Open Content Alliance.

Endeca & E-Matrix

In support of the Libraries' and TRLN-wide implementations of Endeca and the Libraries' development of E-Matrix, Metadata & Cataloging:

• Worked with IT to implement a methodology for display of over 50,000 Unicorn "child" records that were not displaying in Endeca as they did not have item records attached. These included the 277 titles on the Libraries' new Kindle e-book devices.
• Within the local Endeca Product team, rolled out the new full record display, addressed associated data display issues, and explored means for replacing the Web2 browse interface with Endeca call number browse and possibly heading browse.
• Within the E-Matrix Workflow subgroup, designed development goals for the Workflows release of E-matrix and identified needed tools and desired functionality for release.
• Within the E-Matrix Product Team, evaluated the Serials Solutions suite of electronic resource management tools, for the purpose of either enhancing or replacing E-matrix.

Service Improvements

• Collaborated with Acquisitions, Preservation, and Collection Management to re-envision the Rush processes. We consolidated categories of Rush materials to gain efficiencies across technical services and we polished our reporting efforts to ensure that rush materials requested by users move through expeditiously.
• Collaborated with Acquisitions, Preservation, and IT to institute a workflow for in-process materials. Previously, items would say "Available" in Endeca nearly at the point of receipt but while the physical items were still moving through the technical services flow. After instituting the new workflow, we have a technical services process that is still largely efficient but provides better user service.
• Collaborated with Acquisitions and IT to implement Remedy as a help tracking solution to replace emails previously sent to report catalog errors and electronic resource access problems. Now, staff reporting errors need not decide up front what kind of problem they have and whether the solution lies in the expertise of Acquisitions or Metadata & Cataloging. Technical Services has a triage process to assign problems, track them through the lifecycle, and ensure that there is timely resolution and a customer friendly response to the person initiating the request. In our first year of implementation, 977 tickets were submitted. We closed 61% of them in under 24 hours and 83% in under a week.
• Continued the process of documenting the serials lifecycle as it occurs in Metadata & Cataloging and throughout the NCSU Libraries to strengthen knowledge of serials and improve efficiencies in department workflows. Workflow improvements have been made as a result, including clarifications of processes for materials that are received with electronic components, cross training on e-book cataloging, clarification of SFX knowledgebase roles between Acquisitions and Metadata & Cataloging, training of staff to accomplish complex problem-solving in SFX, and clarification of responsibilities for the notification to Collection Management of new journal cataloging. Such improvements will be continual and ongoing.

Training & Professional Development

In developing our staff and ensuring that we are providing training, support, and building cataloging skills for the 21st century, our staff engaged in a number of professional development activities, including:

• Departmental retreat to discuss vision/notions around moving from item-by-item cataloging to scenarios where we handle more data in mass. Sessions included: in depth vision & outlook for the various categories of metadata creation and for Special Collections cataloging, a SWOT Analysis (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats), an analysis of progress towards our 2008-2009 departmental goals, as well as team building exercises.
• Invited visitors into the Metadata & Cataloging department from other areas of the Libraries to ensure that staff understand the issues, priorities, and vision of staff in other areas. Invited visitors included: Brian Dietz (Special Collections), Liz Burnette (Acquisitions), Barbara Brenny (Design), David Goldsmith (Administration), Mohan Ramaswamy (Organizational Planning), Annette Day & Sandy Littletree (Collection Management), and Patrick Deaton (Learning Spaces and Capital Management).
• Held a "flash mob" cataloging event at the Joel Lane Museum House in Raleigh (press release @ http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php?p=8104&more=1, LibraryThing blog @ http://www.librarything.com/blog/2009/03/flash-mob-cataloging-ncsu-took-on-joel.php & LibraryThing library @ http://www.librarything.com/profile/joellanehouse). The goals of the event were to introduce the Metadata & Cataloging staff to Web 2.0 technologies for cataloging and to the concepts/principles of user created metadata and of tagging (vs. Library of Congress Subject Headings), to make the Joel Lane collection accessible to historians and to members of the community, and to be able to lend our particular expertise to a community service project. The project was also picked up by the NCSU Bulletin (http://www.ncsu.edu/bulletin/archive/2009/04/04-09/notes.php)
• Local training for new staff and ongoing training for existing staff, including the continual reevaluation of our training programs:
• Basic Descriptive Cataloging
• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
• "Is it a Serial or Is it a Monograph?"
• E-book Cataloging
• Authority Control
• "Cool Tools" sessions for Metadata & Cataloging staff to provide training on tools that aid in cataloging efficiency and/or Web 2.0 technologies.
• MacroExpress
• OCLC Connexion Tips and Tricks
• MarcEdit
• Unicorn Reports
• Unicorn Searching
• LibraryThing
• SNAG IT
• Confluence
• Cataloger's Desktop
• NCSU Information Technology Division (ITD) technology classes
• SOLINET online training, TRLN workshops (see appendix on staff activities)
• Instituted Library School Lunch for the Metadata & Cataloging staff in library school (and a few other library school students in D.H. Hill) to provide a space and opportunity to discuss what they are learning, career development, the changing nature of academic libraries, etc.
• Began migration of cataloging documentation first to MediaWiki and then to Confluence in order to encourage communal responsibility for the cataloging documentation and bring it up to date. In reviewing Confluence global statistics in May 2009, Metadata & Cataloging is among the most active participants in creating/updating documentation & viewing pages.
• Week-long ARL course in Chapel Hill on Web Development with XML
• Metadata Standards & Applications, part of the Library of Congress/ALCTS program "Cataloging for the 21st Century"; seven staff were able to attend this 2-day intensive class.

Staffing

• Shirley Hamlett retired in March, 2009 after 25 years of service to NCSU Libraries.
• Due to the budget situation, the Libraries decided to reduce its investment in Government Documents. After many years of responsibility for the Government Documents workflow in Technical Services, Beverly King is now taking on new responsibilities. These include the main authority control responsibilities for the post-processing of our bibliographic data (passed from Shirley Hamlett), work on the Scholarly Publications Repository (SPR), and other non-MARC metadata projects such as metadata creation for the Agromeck Yearbook.
• We welcomed, oriented, and supported Wesley Woody, who moved to Metadata & Cataloging from the Digital Media Lab in March 2009 to be the new Technology Support Analyst for Technical Services. Wes is also working very closely with IT to achieve a collaborative relationship.
• Veronica Walker resigned in March 2009 to return to graduate school. With her leaving as Head of Copy Cataloging, we reassigned responsibilities. Patrice Daniels took on responsibility for day-to-day workflow management, liaison relationships with other departments, and direct supervision of four Monographs Section staff. Erin Stalberg took on direct supervision of three Monographs Section staff. Anne Navarro also accepted additional responsibilities in the area of project management in the monographs section.
• We re-envisioned Veronica's position, developed a vacancy announcement, and initiated the search for an Associate Head of Metadata & Cataloging.

Committee Work

Metadata & Cataloging staff participated in the following Library-wide committees:

• ARL Career Enhancement Program (CEP) Selection Team
• Collections and Technical Services Heads (CTSH)
• Digital Collections Technical Oversight Committee (DCTOC)
• 'Access' & 'Create' Subgroups
• Archivists' Toolkit Implementation Team
• Design Images VCat Implementation Team
• Discoverability on the Open Web Team
• Digital Repository Management Committee (DRMC)
• E-Matrix Product Team
• Collection Evaluation Subgroup
• Data Quality Subgroup
• Licensing Subgroup
• Workflow Queue Subgroup
• E-Matrix Steering Committee
• Endeca Product Team
• Government Documents Transition Team
• Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC)
• Reference Linking (SFX) Product Team
• Integrated Library System Management Committee (ILSMC)
• Technical Services Subcommittee
• Journal List
• Library Journal Paraprofessional of the Year Task Force (resulted in Tina Adams being honored with this award, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6639348.html)
• Management Council
• Materials Management Team
• Microforms & Media Center Transition Team
• Nomination Committee for Associate Head of Metadata & Cataloging
• Nomination Committee for Director of Staff & Workplace Development (position not filled)
• Open Content Alliance (OCA) Working Group

Looking Forward

Metadata & Cataloging looks forward to the following goals for 2009-2010:

1. Hire, orient, and provide support for the Associate Head of Metadata & Cataloging and welcome and orient our new Fellow. These positions are integral to achieving many of the strategic goals our department has laid out below.
2. Identify & implement efficiencies in Metadata & Cataloging departmental workflows and work throughout the Libraries to identify and implement efficiencies from acquisitions to access.
3. Continue collaborations and explore new workflows with the Special Collections Research Center to make more efficient the creation of non-MARC metadata and to provide access to new and unprocessed SCRC materials in an expedient manner.
4. Eliminate confusion in public displays by strategizing across the Libraries on the development and implementation of electronic resource management, workflow, and new discovery tools.
5. Collaborate with IT staff at NCSU and its TRLN partners to further develop catalog search functionality for both keyword and browse searching of the Libraries' holdings. Identify alternative ways of providing access to the electronic resources which are either licensed to some or all TRLN users or are freely available.
6. Promote and provide cataloging expertise to other departments, branches, or campus units needing metadata to expose their collections, as well as helping them to enable the use of metadata for collection analysis in new and creative ways.
7. Improve Remedy throughput to 75% of tickets closed in under 24 hours (from 61%).
8. Articulate the components of traditional cataloging knowledge that have continuing strategic benefit in a post-MARC world, e.g. data structure and data normalization. Similarly, enumerate the components of that post-MARC world that best amplify the traditional role, e.g. new standards and new technologies. Use this assessment to articulate a baseline of knowledge for all staff and to create an overall staff development plan. The outcome of this goal will be improvements in metadata quality, consistency, efficiency, and output, and will help staff transition into emerging roles.

Appendices: Statistics & Staffing

Personnel Changes

List of Cataloging Department employees as of 1 July 2009