University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
PARK LIBRARY CATALOGING
(and other collection management tools) FAQs
[Note: to take a virtual tour of The Park Library as well
as
examine annual reports and budgets please click here.]
1. Does The Park Library have its own in-house cataloging operation?
Yes and no. Our Park Library purchases books, serials, videos, etc., but it adds these materials to the bibliographic records of our University library's online catalog. That is, we add our holdings (books and serials only) to these bib records only if there is an exact match. If there is no match, then we do not create a new bib record. We are not approved by the University Library to do original cataloging, but we do have permission to add as many of our Library's holdings as possible. The University Library accepts our Park Library's unique classification and call number system. This arrangement is part of a special "initiative" undertaken in 1999 between the University Library's collection development staff and our Park Library director.
The Park Library does our own "processing" of materials we acquire. That is we attach spine labels and and property stamps.
2. Who trains your cataloging staff?
The University Library cataloging department's head librarian trains one of our Park Library's part-time library staffers each year to link our holdings to the online catalog's bibliographic records. The training sessions take a couple of hours during which time the grad student is given an online catalog password and shown how to create a duplicate bib record.
3. Why did you create your own cataloging classification system for the Park Library rather than follow LC subject headings in cataloging your materials?
Because journalism and mass communication materials range over a very wide range of subjects, too wide to be useful for our small collection of 6,000 books and 235 serials. We believe that it is wiser for us to have like materials grouped together in a system where we can find materials without having to consult LC subject headings. You may examine our Park Library's classification system here. The University Library's online catalog displays our Park Library's records holdings along with its own.
4. Are the newspapers cataloged?
Ahhhh, that is a good question. The short answer is that our Park Library does not catalog its 80+ newspapers. For some reason, the University Library's online catalog doesn't include our Park Library's current newspaper subscription titles. Several librarians recognized that this was a problem not only for our Park Library but for other libraries on campus subscribing to a wide range of North Carolina, US, and international newspapers. However, with a recent year-long cooperative effort between four other libraries on the UNC-CH campus, we created a special currently subscribed to newspaper database which identified the library locations for all newspapers available on our campus. You may examine this newspaper database here. Note that one can simply select a particular library, in our case The Park Library, and note all the newspapers that are included in the collection. BTW, our Park Library doesn't keep back issues of newspapers nor does it have newspapers' microfilm. Two of the principal University libraries offer access to newspaper microfilm.
5. Are your A/V materials cataloged?
No, our growing collection of A/V materials (600+ titles) are not cataloged. [Note: our Park Library offers a partial listing of our AV collection at this web site.] For a couple of reasons. First, these videocassettes, CDs, DVDs, films, recordings are rarely duplicated in the University Library's online catalog so it would be fruitless for us to spend the time linking bib records for the few that are there. Second, these A/V materials do not circulate outside the Park Library. They are used only by the faculty for instruction in the classrooms. We have a multimedia room in our Park Library with a videocassette player and computers with DVD players for faculty and student use.
Our Park Library also offers a kiosk of several dozen of CBS journalist Charles Kuralt's television series "On the Road." These A/V tapes are stores on our School's server.
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6. Do you have a cataloging manual?
Yes. The Park Library Cataloging Instruction Manual dated August 2003, is available to our staff. Here is a link to our Cataloging Instruction Manual. [Note: the appendices for the Cataloging Entry Form, Preparing Spine Labels are not available on the web; the appendix for The Park Library's Classification System is linked in item #3 above.]
We also have instructions on how to update our A/V index and how to update the listings for our dissertations and theses. However, these listings are not yet available on our Library's web site. We are working on it.
7. Do you have other special collections that are cataloged or indexed?
Yes. We have a listing of all our students' dissertations, masters theses, and undergraduate honors' theses. With the exception of the undergrad honors' theses, these manuscripts are cataloged on the University Library's online catalog. However, the online catalog does not include one important element our JoMC faculty prizes in our Park Library listing. We include the dissertation/thesis advisor's name in our listing. That enables our faculty members to track which students they have guided. Very helpful when faculty need to update their academic vitas. You can view the listing at this web location.
8. Do you maintain a photo archive?
Not only does the Park Library not have a photo collection,. we haven't the staff, space, or software to undertake such a project. Some journalism and mass communication libraries do have such collections which support their college newspaper as well as their photojournalism/visual communication programs.
However, UNC-CH does maintain a photo archive of historic campus and North Carolina images. Here is a link to that collection in Wilson Library. http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/photos.html
The UNC electronic resources offers links to
9. Any other uncataloged collections?
Yes, several. Here is a list of current
management organization challenges.
GREY LITERATURE: This a collection of
several hundred conference reports, speeches, newsletters, journalism/mass comm
"briefings," media essays, research reports, polls, and the like
covering at least three decades. This material is unique to our Park
Library. It is not included in UNC-CH's online catalog. Currently the
material is arranged by sponsoring
organizations and contained in metal files on eight book shelves in the stacks.
At present, we have a simple and now out-of-date listing at this web site http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/reportlist.html.
A better, more accessible plan is not yet developed. [Note: for more
about "grey" literature in special libraries, please consult this
introduction: http://www.greynet.org/images/GL6,_Page_128.pdf
and http://www.greynet.org/pages/1/index.htm
]
BACKGROUND FILES: This is a collection of 8 (36" x 12") lateral files with background information on our current and past faculty members as well as a long list of topics collected over time from print and electronic resources related to current issues and trends in journalism and mass communication. Also included in this collection are School of Journalism and Mass Communication archived materials.
FACULTY BIOS, ARTICLES, BOOKS, and SYLLABI: Much, but not all of this information, is available on our School's web site http://www.jomc.unc.edu/directories/faculty/index.html
Our Park Library does keep course syllabi (going back 5 years) in print format stored in large 3-ring binders at our reference desk.
Faculty-authored books (as well as alumni-authored books) are displayed in large, illuminated glass exhibit cases in the hall just outside our Park Library. We have a not entirely up-to-date listing of these Spearman Collection books at this web site: http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/spearman.html
Faculty-authored publications (we have only a sampling) are collected in the Park Library's background files arranged by faculty members' names. Most of these articles can be found using online databases such as Communication and Mass Media Complete offered via UNC-CH's electronic resources.
Faculty-authored conference papers are accessible, for the most part, via AEJMC conference papers' collection. Please see AEJMC below.
VINTAGE NEWSPAPERS and MAGAZINES: This collection is housed in 15 large acid-free boxes in a separate storage room. Centennial editions of newspapers as well as special commemorative magazine editions. Included are examples of investigative newspaper reports, serial features, and some Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper articles.
NEWS DIVISION of the SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION ARCHIVES: This collection was passed on to our Park Library in 2001 from the previous News Division archivist. It contains committee reports, some conference proceedings, a few bio briefs on prominent News Division members, assorted notebooks, some print photos of members during various annual conferences in the past 25 years, plus special historical material from News Division founders. Noteworthy is a set of nearly 80 glass postitives of early twentieth century special libraries attributed to the collection of the News Division's founder, Joseph F. Kwapil. This collection is currently grouped in rough chronological order in seven lateral file drawers. It will quite some time before there is time to adequately organized this material so that News Division members all over the world will be able to access this archive from the web. Presently, a small amount of material is available at this web site http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/newslibraries.html
AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) CONFERENCE PAPERS: This is a collection of 3,000+ digitized conference papers currently housed at Michigan State University. This collection will be transferred to our campus server, Ibiblio, within the next few months. It is our plan to examine each of the conference papers, put them into a standard format, and add meta tags to enhance search/retrieval.
DONATED MATERIALS: On occasion, faculty members or alumni will offer materials to our Park Library. These materials are cataloged as other books, A/V, etc., are. With the exception of The Spearman Collection, these materials are not differentiated in our collection. For guidelines on making donations to our Park Library, please see this web page http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/donations.html
[Note: while I do considerable research in helping faculty members, grad students, undergrad honors students seek specialized information not typically available in online databases or in the special collections of libraries in North Carolina, I do act as an "information broker" and actively phone call, email, write librarians and archivists to arrange for access to these special collections. Sometimes photocopies, A/V tapes, or CDs of these materials will be faxed directly to me on behalf of the my clients. I give them to the clients; I do not store the materials in our Park Library. On other occasions, I will help our clients set up appointments to visit historical archives when they can research what they need. None of this material is donated to our Library. One service our Park Library cannot provide is interlibrary loan. This service is offered only through our main campus library. Other questions? Please contact Barbara Semonche, Park Library director.
Prepared March 28, 2005