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| cataloguing_notes [2013-06-25 08:05] – armormin | library:cataloguing_notes [2014-01-10 10:56] – alkan |
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| ==== Cataloguing Notes ==== | ==== Cataloguing Notes ==== |
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| (see also [[library notes]] for the [[foam library]] ) | <blockquote> |
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| * scan | A library -- including its physical and digital arrangement and cataloguing system -- should aspire to be simple, elegant, and beautiful. Visitors should be able both to browse and search in the greatest ease and comfort. A library thus becomes a pataphor for the art of living itself. I have striven to follow these principles in approaching the sometimes daunting task of coming to terms with, managing and (re)organising the FoAM archive. |
| * bibtex | |
| * ISBN -> BibTeX with Ottobib: http://www.ottobib.com/ and http://manas.tungare.name/software/isbn-to-bibtex/ | |
| * zotero | |
| * see also -> https://www.zotero.org/groups/foam_library/items | |
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| <blockquote>This particular collection, where each book can in principle lurk at the interstices of the connection of everything to everything else, demonstrates most acutely the issue with filing items according to a single -- or even predominant -- topic or subject area. At the same time, with items digitally catalogued and instantly searchable by any field (including tags), the physical arrangement becomes less critical for indicating an item's subject, class, or other characteristic. The library is also small and seems unlikely to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future. Therefore, after some (uneven and random) thought, and a close perusal of [[library notes|existing notes]] on this question, I decided to take the semi-organic organisational approach as indicated. | This particular collection, where each book can in principle lurk at the interstices of the connection of everything to everything else, demonstrates most acutely the issue with filing items according to a single -- or even predominant -- topic or subject area. At the same time, with items digitally catalogued and instantly searchable by any field (including tags), the physical arrangement becomes less critical for indicating an item's subject, class, or other characteristic. The library is also small and seems unlikely to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future. Therefore, after some (uneven and random) thought, and a close perusal of [[library_notes|existing notes]] on this question, I decided to take the semi-organic organisational approach as indicated below. |
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| A library -- including its physical and digital arrangement and cataloguing system -- should aspire to be simple, elegant, and beautiful. Visitors should be able both to browse and search in the greatest ease and comfort. A library thus becomes a pataphor for the art of living itself. I have striven to follow these principles in approaching the sometimes daunting task of coming to terms with, managing and (re)organising the FoAM archive. | --- //Armoracio "Bud" Minuez, Archivist// |
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| | </blockquote> |
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| | {{http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3736/11099862944_5bca2325a2_c.jpg}} |
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| | === To-dos from Friday, 10 January 2014 === |
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| | * preliminary pass on all remaining ephemera: extract books, magazines, journals and leave the remainder to the "assistants" |
| | * keywording + gardening |
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| | * sorting and making space for cards, games, and other weird items |
| | * propaganda sorting, organisation, making space |
| | * cd/dvd/floppydisk sorting, organisation, making space |
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| | * archival boxes as needed |
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| | * übercleanup |
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| | === Diary of an archivist === |
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| | == Digital cataloguing: first steps, April 2013 == |
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| | We agreed to use the [[http://www.zotero.org/|Zotero]] desktop and [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ale.scanner.zotero#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwib3JnLmFsZS5zY2FubmVyLnpvdGVybyJd|mobile]] apps to make a first pass of cataloguing FoAM's small but esoteric library. Aside from a few annoying glitches, we were able to go through the library quite rapidly, scanning the barcodes with the [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ale.scanner.zotero&hl=en|mobile app]] while setting aside those items that could not be scanned, or needed special attention (such as all the periodicals, magazines, etc.). A second pass involved manually looking up the ISBN numbers from within the [[http://www.zotero.org/download/|desktop application]], or searching online for the bibliographic data via [[http://www.worldcat.org/|WorldCat]] or similar and importing these citations into Zotero via the [[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zotero-connector/ekhagklcjbdpajgpjgmbionohlpdbjgc?hl=en-US|browser plugin]], for the items that had no barcodes or could not otherwise be scanned. |
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| | Zotero online group libraries would seem to offer a flexible option for the idea of extending our cataloguing initiative into a collective, inter-organisational library database for some fairly unusual and rare books. |
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| | == Sorting and consolidating: June 2013 == |
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| | After the heavy lifting of the initial pass, there remained what seemed to be an infinite regress of small items – journals, magazines, random that slipped through the dragnet, and a vast pile of grey literature. And it was all a mess. |
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| | I ripped everything off the shelves and dumped the lot on the floor. From there I attempted to reassemble the material into the most basic and easy-to-use categories that were workable. I don't think this has been quite successful, but it's better than before. |
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| | == Information plumbing: January 2014 == |
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| | In my absence over summer some amazing assistants tackled and substantially resolved the most serious nightmare of this library – the ephemera. Thanks to them, this mass of the greyest of grey literature has now been sorted. This will be an ongoing effort however, as the deluge of ephemera seems unstoppable and will require ever-renewed vigilance to ensure that the forces of greyness do not overwhelm us. |
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| | The next step is to attend to the information plumbing. |
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| | === Organisation: the sections === |
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| --- //Armoracio "Bud" Minuez//</blockquote> | - separate the more from the less "substantial" -- in practice, **books** constitute the major substantial category |
| | - **periodicals** cover any more-or-less substantial publication issued periodically; but I would avoid mixing these with the ephemera |
| | - a **conference proceedings** section that incorporates all types of items such as exhibition openings, reports, yearbooks, etc. that are semiperiodical: I'll probably catalogue these with the canned Zotero item type as "Conference proceedings" |
| | - an **audiovisual** section at some point |
| | - an A–Z **fiction** section (of mostly trade paperbacks, thanks to the N&M library bequest) |
| | - an **ephemera** section, due to the vast quantity of brochures, leaflets, postcards, flyers, etc. that has accumulated; these are more transient and ephemeral than any of the preceding, but may be of value to retain in many cases |
| | - at any time, the library can expand or contract with **temporary autonomous subsections** (such as Luea's specialised (and largely German-language) section of all manner of medical, medicinal and metaphysical books) |
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| === Digital cataloguing === | === Zotero catalogue notes === |
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| * We agreed to use the [[http://www.zotero.org/|Zotero]] desktop and [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ale.scanner.zotero#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwib3JnLmFsZS5zY2FubmVyLnpvdGVybyJd|mobile]] apps to make a first pass of cataloguing FoAM's small but esoteric library. Aside from a few annoying [[zotero bug reports|glitches]], we were able to go through the library quite rapidly, scanning the barcodes with the mobile app while setting aside those items that could not be scanned, or needed special attention (such as all the periodicals, magazines, etc.). | * need to decide on convention for the "Language" field.... |
| * A second pass involved manually looking up the ISBN numbers from within the desktop application, or searching online for the bibliographic data via [[http://www.worldcat.org/|WorldCat]] or similar and importing these citations into Zotero via the browser plugin, for the small number of items that had no barcodes or could not otherwise be scanned. | * either use ISO 639-3 three letter codes. multiple languages separated by commas (e.g ''nld,fra,eng'' > ISO 639-3 > http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp |
| * A more time-consuming ongoing task will involve checking, verification and correction of the database. | * or use the more expansive/descriptive (but not always consistent) english name for the language as supplied by Open Worldcat (e.g. "The book is primarily in English; prefaces in English, German, French.") |
| * Zotero online group libraries would seem to offer a flexible option for the idea of extending our cataloguing initiative into a collective, inter-organisational library database for some fairly unusual and rare books. For now, FoAM's library can now be found [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/foam_library/items|here]]. | * //(I've tended to favour the 3-letter codes.)// |
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| | === General notes and to-dos === |
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| === Organisation: some details === | * in the case of books, I have chosen to file them alphabetically by **name** of the first author/editor/etc., falling back on **title** in the absence of an explicit author |
| | * linking to/from the [[:reading_notes]] and [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/foam_library/items|catalogued items]] may prove interesting and useful, particularly as files can be attached to Zotero items |
| | * often it's unavoidable that you'll have to manually enter and amend data in Zotero where automation fails: this can be time-consuming |
| | * Zotero is more geared to cataloging individual references (e.g. articles in journals) rather than whole issues; one solution is to catalogue them as "books," with a note indicating what volume/issues are in the library; important individual articles within these periodicals could then be added as separate items |
| | * I'm using the following format to note the individual issues of periodicals: **''year [volume:issue] additional info''** (additional info can be season/month(s), thematic name of the issue, etc.); using the notes field like this is a bit kludgy, but at least in this format they will sort by date and issue |
| | * tags might be a good way to physically locate items on the shelf if there is a [[http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/|controlled vocabulary]] for this purpose, e.g.: |
| | * ''fl-books'' |
| | * ''fl-periodicals'' |
| | * ''fl-periodicals-singleissue'' |
| | * ''fl-unperiodicals'' |
| | * ''fl-fiction'' |
| | * ''fl-oversize'' |
| | * ''fl-ephemera'' |
| | * ''fl-ephemera-postcards'' |
| | * ''fl-ephemera-brochures'' |
| | * ''fl-ephemera-menus'' |
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| * separate the more from the less "substantial" -- in practice, __books__ constitute the major substantial category | what is the motivation for the ''fl-'' prefix? "**F**oAM **L**ibrary" -- a way to uniquely distinguish this set of keywords from any others. |
| * __periodicals__ cover any more-or-less substantial publication issued periodically; but I would avoid mixing these with the ephemera | |
| * a __conference papers__/__exhibition openings__/__reports__/etc. section of items that are semiperiodical: I'll probably catalogue these with the canned Zotero type as "Conference proceedings" | |
| * an __audiovisual__ section at some point | |
| * an A–Z fiction section (of mostly trade paperbacks, thanks to the N&M library bequest) | |
| * an __ephemera__ section, due to the vast quantity of brochures, leaflets, postcards, flyers, etc. that has accumulated; these are more transient and ephemeral than any of the preceding, but may be of value to retain in many cases | |
| * at any time, the library can expand or contract with __temporary autonomous subsections__; current examples of these are: | |
| * Luea's specialised (and largely German-language) section of all manner of medical, medicinal and metaphysical books, and | |
| * Nik and Maja's oscillatory home/FoAM section of mainly fictional items which, one day, they will need to decide whether to amalgamate into the FoAM library proper, or reattach and merge with their own quasi-independent, temporarily autonomous library (hitherto uncatalogued) | |
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| * in the case of books, I have chosen to file them alphabetically by name of the first author/editor/etc., failing that by title | === New books ==== |
| * sifting through the ephemera is going to be long and arduous | |
| * linking to/from the [[reading notes]] and [[https://www.zotero.org/groups/foam_library/items|catalogued items]] may prove interesting and useful, particularly as files can be attached to Zotero items: see [[anthropological_research_on_hazards_and_disasters|this example]] | |
| * manually entering and amending data in Zotero is necessary for a number of items and a good way to ensure accurate and useful information, but it is very time-consuming | |
| |
| | - find an interesting book |
| | - add to the 'book orders' group (see [[how to add stuff]]) |
| | - buy it |
| | - transfer to libray group once it arrives |
| | - read (or otherwise absorb) |
| |
| === Ongoing notes and to-dos === | ==== Further entangling ==== |
| |
| * there are so many yearbooks, publications accompanying exhibitions, conference papers, extended brochures, etc. etc. which are not quite periodicals and not quite books: I'm struggling to separate these from the deluge of ephemera and can only conclude that this part of the cycle could do with a //**__substantial <del>bonfire of the vanities</del> selective redistribution__**// | * distributed collections (c.f. connected libraries) |
| * sort and determine storage for ephemera | * ISBN -> BibTeX with Ottobib: http://www.ottobib.com/ and http://manas.tungare.name/software/isbn-to-bibtex/ |
| * catalogue and shelve readers/yearbooks/conference papers/etc. | * "The Little Library" project for CC digital collections |
| * go through remaining files and buckets, sorting into applicable areas | * https://github.com/rwadholm/The-Little-Library |
| * cleaning up and tagging of the digital catalogue | * http://www.thelittlelibrary.com/ |
| * adding pdfs to the digital catalogue (where available/permissible) | |
| * cataloguing the journals/magazines: Zotero is more geared to cataloging individual references (e.g. articles in journals) rather than whole issues; one solution is to catalogue them as "books," with a note indicating what volume/issues are in the library, then add important articles as separate items | |
| * significant pieces of ephemera, articles, etc. could be scanned and added as attachments to the Zotero references | |
nik