Cataloging: Day 6

Today's observations:
Recent fiction is every cataloger's friend. I started working on some of the books that Rita and I pulled from Scooba's fiction section on Friday, and I was able to get through 72 titles in the morning. About 90% of them are held by other KNRLS branches, so all that is needed is the addition of an item record. I think there may be a way for Gregg to do this from afar, which would be fantastic.
In the afternoon I was working on some older books, both fiction and nonfiction, which I can go through quickly, but not at anywhere near the speed of the newer stuff. The ones that I did this morning also already had acceptable spine labels, so literally all they needed were barcodes and item records. The ones I did this afternoon are going to need new spine labels as well (either the old ones are outdated or they lack a spine label completely), and something to protect the labels, which adds more steps to the cataloging process. It would seem that no ILS has figured out a simple way to print labels and flags, though Verso's is much easier than Innovative's Sierra or Millennium. Unfortunately we also ran out of barcodes at the end of last week, so we have to wait until Brenda's order for more comes in.
Speaking of Brenda, she is a champion weeder. Libraries need to regularly weed in order to make room for new books that come in, and it can be hard for some people to part with books that they think should stay. I admire Brenda's unsentimental approach, and honestly wish I could do that with my own collection of books at home.

Titles cataloged today: 106

Titles cataloged total: 369

Audio entertainment during the drive: Transatlantic Years - Billy Connelly; finished "The gingerbread woman" - Stephen King; Physical Graffiti - Led Zepplin 

New Southern discovery: Apparently I talk too quickly for some Southerners, which is strange because I don't normally think of myself as a fast talker, but I've had to repeat myself in gas stations or restaurants more than once. Perhaps my Illinois/California accent just makes me hard to follow?

Something I miss from California: Banks. This is honestly not something that I ever thought I would miss because there are so damn many of them in L.A. that it's annoying, but it's surprisingly hard to find an ATM. The only time I've actually used one was at a gas station (surprise) and it had a $2.99 fee. I'm so used to having a Chase bank every 100 feet that I almost feel bereft. We were in Atlanta this weekend and I saw one with a drive through ATM (which there are surprisingly few of in Los Angeles), and I was tempted to use it even though I didn't actually need any cash.