Cartoons?! Digitizing and Cataloging Challenges...

Nguyen, Jennifer

 

Citation:

Dyer, M. A. (2014). Full Speed Ahead: The Challenges of Cataloging a Historic Editorial Cartoon Collection. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 33(2) 279-294.

Summary/Notes:

This article is about the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries digitizing [the Charles Henry Sykes Cartoon Collection] of original editorial or political cartoons from the 1940s. Multiple library departments and staff involved in the project included the digital collections systems librarian, the digital specialist, the Digital Scanning Unit, and the metadata catalog librarian. There were cataloging issues due to missing or lack of information about cartoons donated. Image cataloging issues surrounding what the image is of versus what image is about. Scholars scrutinize the lack of cultural context provided with image digitized. And Dyer, wants us to note importance of text used in cartoon, as there aren’t many text used to begin with. Some solutions found were to obtain original newspaper and editorials the cartoons were printed in, document and note front pages of newspaper that contains cartoon to figure out the context of the cartoon. Only with context would we understand the humor of the cartoons drawn by Sykes’.

 

Reflection:

I was looking for ways and how librarians digitize images while researching for presentation 4. I tried to understand the process of digitization so that I can mention it in the digitization of a collection at the academic library I have been studying all semester. This article showed a whole other dimension of digitization that I hadn’t thought of before: cataloging and digitizing dated materials. It wasn’t as simple as I had thought of it. Apparently, it isn’t as easy as scanning and inputting the metadata information. Dyer does a great job explicating how cartoons work, the context and information to catalog, and additional research needed to fully catalog one cartoon image.

This makes me think about how Instagram functions. Images are often posted, but the source, creator, or information isn’t mentioned, just a partial caption underneath the image. Instagram will make it hard for information professionals to categorize or search for images there. But Instagram has hashtags. Some hashtags often used have nothing to do with the image, but more about what the person posting the image has done. Heck, even I have had trouble searching for a restaurant or place I randomly found an image of on Instagram. It takes me an extra 2 to 20 minutes following hashtags, tagged profiles, and locations to find an art exhibit.

            Overall, read this article if you’re thinking about cataloging, digitizing, and working with images during your librarianship. Dyer writes an easy and coherent article about VCU, Sykes, and the struggles of cataloging historical editorial cartoons.

"Tying collection development's loose ends with interlibrary loan"

Kolthoff, Katherine

Ruppel, M. (2006). Tying collection development's loose ends with interlibrary loan. Collection Building, 25(3), 72-77.

Summary: This research paper reports the process and findings of a study done by the author regarding Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Morris Library, exploring the viability of ILL as a means to expand collections. Morris Library is capable of borrowing from the I-Share catalog, the ILL request system for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). The author's study intended to identify the characteristics and overall quality of ILL-borrowed titles in the library, and answer whether ILL data is a viable tool in collection development. To do this, she collected and sorted the entries Morris Library borrowed from the I-Share catalog for the year of 2004, filtering for education and psychology titles, then sorted their reviews where they were available by "positive", "mixed", "negative", and "descriptive". 60% of the reviews collected were positive, 23% mixed, 10% "descriptive", and 7% negative overall. This pattern was mirrored when the author breaking down the titles by discipline. Regarding title characteristics, approximately two-thirds of the materials borrowed were published within five years of the study, and on average cost about fifty dollars. Additional findings suggest that that the ILL materials ordered were generally in good condition, and arrived in an acceptable span of time. The author, after some further analysis, concludes that ILL makes a cost-effective tool in both in serving patrons more effectively and in the consideration process for new additions to the collection; that said, she holds that ILL as an assessment tool really does need to be employed in conjunction with more traditional methods of construction.

Reflection: There are a number of interesting points and observations to take from this article. Firstly, this study had been done in 2004, yet since then Inter-Library Loans have become a staple of modern public and academic libraries, even as the increasingly mainstream access to electronic resources and e-books. (Clearly, despite competition, the utility of the ILL system has not waned.) Secondly, it is interesting that although 18,322 items were borrowed through I-Share, only 574 titles (3.13%) addressed the school's main academic disciplines. Although she suggests that the demand on those titles indicates that they need to add more of these genres to the collection, I wonder if she has grasped that the numbers mean that 96.97% of all ILL orders at the Morris Library have been for other subjects—that is to say, that they should be adding more titles in areas other than Education and Psychology. Yes, all the Education and Psychology titles may have been circulated through ILL at least one time, but considering the imbalance, it seems to suggest they need to reevaluate the quality of their own core collections.

Another point that bears reconsideration, especially now in the Amazon Age, is her assertion that "if a title can be purchased and received just as quickly (or quicker) as if it had been borrowed through ILL, and it fits the library's collection development policy, the library should purchase it." Let's face it, folks: with one-day shipping, purchasing will always win out in the speed factor. At this point, mere speed of purchase cannot be taken as an indicator that a library should purchase something rather than use ILL, or libraries following that philosophy would quickly run up their budget. Significant speed of purchase, or an extended waiting list for a title, should still factor in, but I feel she is incautious in suggesting a Buy-on-Demand program based on ILL requests.

However, she makes an intriguing observation in her argument for a BOD program that seems especially salient for the modern library: "Adding a title to the library collection benefits the library's community of users, not just one patron at a time, as in the case of interlibrary loan. Purchasing an item for a library provides an asset, or an investment, for the community to use in the future." (76) True, but perhaps she is not taking it to its full extent? As a lifelong resident of San Diego, I've been witness to the region's ILL, the Circuit, which enables print media to be borrowed between two UC system, one private, and one CalState university, and both the City and the County's public library systems. Of these, the university libraries all are involved in additional ILL programs through their own system connections. Thus, I feel it is worth considering whether purchases also need to be considered within the context of their ILL communities—since, through ILL, a library's community is not the only one that may benefit from the purchase. Such considerations already occur in UC system libraries—UCSD has a remarkable East Asian studies collection, but relatively little in the way of traditional subject matter: realizing that Berkley and UCLA had that segment covered, they focused their collection on contemporary history and issues. Such niche development may seem obvious, but when we are facing widespread budget cuts and competition to print media (although electronic resources may be a good means to bypass the wait that transporting physical items between libraries requires), every penny-saving measure counts. I know that this may sound hypocritical, given that just above I suggested updating their core collections, but again, that issue of disparity, but again, she is correct in the ability of a purchase to benefit the community as a whole—and thus, given their status as a sub-segment of a larger community, even that won't be a waste of resources.

Rules or reading?

Kolling, Kathleen

Citation

Ruefle, Anne E. (2011). Rules or Reading? LMC, 29(6), 34-35.

Summary

In the majority of libraries, librarians are strict about their lost book policy, not allowing students to check out a book until the old one is either found or replaced. This policy often makes some children hesitant to go to the library to check out books, for fear of the repercussions. We start to appear as the keepers of the books instead of as developers in literacy and information. In order for children to develop their reading, they must have access to rich literature. It is part of our jobs to oversee circulation, but it’s also an important part of our job to promote reading and literacy development. There will never be a shortage of books in our library, so why limit our students to just two books per checkout, or punish them for losing a book when there are so many others? If we increase our checkout limit, students will have more opportunities to get books even if they’re missing one or two. It also enables students to choose more books that look appealing. Most librarians find that there isn’t much of an increase in the number of lost books when they increase the number of books that students can check out. Rather, there is an increase in engagement as well as circulation. With practice, students will get into the habit of returning books on time. Communication with parents about book returns and responsibility is important.

Evaluation

I agree that a few missing books won’t damage the collection, however, the books that go missing are always the most popular. My students who have books missing are usually repeat offenders. I have an annual budget, but if the most popular books are always being lost, I will have to wait until the following year to replace them. The author suggests sending library books home as early as kindergarten, and using book bags to help as a visual reminder. This would take a complete shift in my staff’s thinking, as none of the teachers from kindergarten through second grade let their students take their books home. Those grade levels also insist on the one-book checkout policy. Most said they don’t want the students to lose the books and that it’s always been done that way. Another factor is 20% of my student population is either homeless or in transitional housing, so I don’t know if that would be too much of an added stressor on the families, having to keep track of one more belonging. This article has left me with a lot of questions. How much of an emphasis should be put on responsibility for one’s library books? How long do you wait before you consider that book a lost cause? Where do you start when more than half the staff won’t let students take books home? How do I forgive debt while also not spending a chunk of my budget replacing books?

Collaboration: Finding the teacher, finding the topic, finding the time.

Kolling, Kathleen

Citation

Gess, Angela. (2009). Collaboration: Finding the teacher, finding the topic, finding the time. LMC, 27(4), 24-25.

Summary

Many classroom teachers view the library as either a waste of time or chance for them to have planning time. Good collaboration between the classroom teacher and library media specialist can help increase language arts test scores, as shown in studies done in Colorado and Oregon, where they have strong collaborative library media teachers. The first step is to find the right teacher who values your work and is excited and willing to work together. The second step is to choose a topic that meets the AASL standards and utilizes technology, such as webquests . The third step is deciding if it should go as an introduction to a unit, in the middle, or as a conclusion/review. It’s always important to make it accessible to students with different learning and language needs. Always finish a unit by evaluating the success of it with the classroom teacher. Through successful collaboration, teachers will stop viewing library time as a break or waste.

Evaluation

At my library placement last year in a middle school, teachers hardly ever brought their classes to the library, so I found myself doing a lot of collection weeding and other tasks that didn’t involve working with students. I met with the Language Arts department every week and always offered to collaborate with whoever wanted to, but no one ever took me up on it. In my experience, most teachers don’t want to collaborate because they think that there may be extra planning and preparation. I’m at an elementary school this year, and most of the teachers drop their kids off at the library so they can do planning, which makes it difficult for collaboration. Recently, the administrators started requiring all the teachers meet in the library for grade level planning, so I’ve been able to join in the conversations they are already having about their current units of study. I work on tying that into my read-aloud with the younger grades, and with the older grades, I’ve been showing them primary sources that connect to their units. Ideally, teachers would stay during library time to support learning goals, but at my school, teachers are not required to stay, so I think my more successful units will happen with the teachers who do stay.

When Students "Discover" Databases

Poser-Brown, Lora

Ning Han. (2012). Managing a 21st-Century library collection. The Serials Librarian, 63(2), 158-169, DOI: 10.1080/0361526X.2012.700781.

Reflection: This article was fascinating to me! The authors surveyed college students about how they conduct research: “None of the college students surveyed (0%) start their information search from a library website, or from an ask-an-expert site. Rather, 83% of these surveyed college students begin their information search from a search engine and 7% of them start from Wikipedia.”  The authors then describe the “discovery process” for students to use library resources, especially databases, for their research.

Web 2.0 School Librarian

Poser-Brown, Lora

Hallstrom, J. (2013). Building it together: Life as a virtual school librarian. Library Media Connection, 31(5), 22-23.

Reflection: The “Life as a Virtual School Librarian” article was intriguing. The article was written by Janet Hallstrom, a teacher-librarian in her fifth decade of librarianship. She discusses the similarities and differences between traditional library work and virtual library tasks. The primary difference is the abundance of information available for online libraries. A great quote in the article is “Because of the wealth of information, the virtual librarian is assured that she has something helpful for everyone.” However, this plentiful bounty offers a huge challenge in cultivation and collection for the librarian because of resource quality. Hallstrom also mentions the great Web 2.0 tools she offers her online patrons and assists them with.

Friends for School Library Improvement

Poser-Brown, Lora

Kaun, T. (2014). Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries: Building bridges to the local community. CSLA Journal, 38(1), 20-23.

Reflection: Reading about the Oakland, CA, public schools and their diminishing library existence engaged my mind. The district has formed a strong partnership with vested community members, who in turn formed a new Friends of School Libraries group. The article details how the district and Friends have invested in community relationships and bettering their school libraries, some of which have now been completely overhauled. The article contains great step-by-step information on the process of reviving a dying sector of the district’s budget: the school libraries.