Cataloging: Day 13

Today's observations: I ended up with one more cart of books today because Gregg couldn't get to our long-distance cataloging experiment, but it didn't take too long. The cataloging is officially done!

Surrounded by Scooba books, with a whole bunch of discards on the counter

It feels a little anticlimactic, but it is really nice to be done. I had set aside around eight items that I couldn't find records for in my initial run through the collection. It turned out that only one of them needed original cataloging, and of course it was a DVD, not a book. I'm not sure how many people will be looking for music by Mary J. Blige on DVD, but they will now be able to find it at the library.
I'm finishing up my paper for Professor Yates (Hi Professor Yates!), which will be an odd amalgamation of rural library research and practical advice for future cataloging projects. Given how many books I was able to get through in such a short amount of time, I really think that this type of project could be replicated elsewhere with some success. You might be thinking that there can't be THAT many other libraries that are without an automated catalog, but according to one source there are almost as many as 600. My guess would be that most of them are in situations similar to Scooba, supporting a poor, rural area that has never been able to afford a professional librarian on even a part time basis. Perhaps it should be a goal for ALA and state library commissions to seek out these small libraries and help them. Something else to include in the paper.


Titles cataloged today: 54

Titles cataloged total: 822 (plus another 148 by my cataloging comrades, bringing the final total to 970!)

Audio entertainment during the drive: More talking with Meredith, though there was some Bowie, Beatles, and Led Zepplin in the background.

New Southern discovery: When I heard someone refer to a "combo meal", I thought they were talking about the kind of meal that you would get from McDonalds - burger/chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink. Turns out, this is a combo meal:

Meredith and I had lunch at S & A Fine Food Restaurant a couple of times, and the above meal cost $7.00. That's chicken, rice with gravy, fried green tomatoes, a roll, dessert, and a drink. For $7.00. I told them on the way out that I would miss their food, and although I would try to find fried green tomatoes in Los Angeles, there was no way that they would be as good or as cheap. They seemed to find that amusing.

Something I miss from California: I miss Filemaker Pro. Database management software isn't the most exciting stuff in the world, but those stupid spine labels are infuriating.