Cataloging

Notes from Cataloging session at ZL(u)C 2016, Boston

Topics:

Using RDA to describe authors; ways to identity POC authors; cataloging standardization

MARC 386 field (creator/contribute characteristics)

  • approved for use but no best practices yet;
  • Use local fields to adapt descriptive practices to needs of local communities

Simmons uses MARC 690 field (local field) to identify author characteristics

  • good idea so that when best practices are in place for 386, info can be moved appropriately
  • description is vague; but you can basically do whatever you want

Cataloging in OCLC

  • advantage: easy to identify holding libraries for zines and get more info if needed
  • reasons not to put in OCLC
    • privacy concerns: google books harvests records from OCLC (if you change a record it takes 6 months for google to update)
    • author supplied descriptions does not mean okay to use (changes over time)
  • distinctions between older zines (pre-internet) vs more recent zines (selling on etsy, etc)
  • right to remain anonymous; judgement call on how to describe (cataloging standards vs what is actually best to include in bib record)

How are folks managing consent for zine creators? Is info stored?

  • can put it in back-end of catalog entry but not displayed
  • donor dossiers (archival practices); examples of copyright holder tracking (Harry Ransom Center WATCH File)
  • zinesters don’t necessarily think about self-identification the way catalogers do when describing materials
    • trans* authors and use/connections with dead names (respecting how creators want to be identified)
  • contextual clues for catalogers
    • also meeting user and subject access needs
  • catalogers have potential to truly honor wishes of zinesters and how they identify
    • discussed in code of ethics also
  • Using Cutter to group by author

How are folks organizing their zines? Author’s name?

  • Simmons: Using Anchor Archive categories; organize as monographs, Cutter by title. No authority work, no research on authors.
    • Anchor Archive Zine Subjects
    • Rare Books and Manuscripts Controlled Vocab
  • Organizing by decades
  • Open/closed stacks impact organizing systems
  • NOT shelving by subject
    • so many subjects in a zine; reducing zine contents
  • who are users/readers? different user groups/collections require different searching/descriptive tactics
  • using genre terms to collocate with non-zine materials
  • distinguishing between content genre and form genre

There is info here on what other zine collections are using.