Cataloguing Practice at the IOE Library

This post is about running a short course for colleagues on cataloguing.  I’ve written it to let people know what we offer, and to discuss too the benefits of sharing expertise for those giving as well as those receiving.

We started running introductory training courses on cataloguing in the IOE Library almost by accident.  Back in mid-2014 a member of staff working in Library Acquisitions in SSEES joined the ‘Peer Shadowing Scheme’, a brief joint IOE and UCL entity before the two institutions merged, and came to the acquisitions section of the IOE Library.  While with us, the shadower asked if he could see how we went about cataloguing too.  We showed him and gave him some to do.  The experience was very positive.  Our first student took to it so well he got a job as a cataloguer at LSE.

Since then a total of 21 library services colleagues have been through 28 courses.  Some have done both general and ebook cataloguing, some both those plus work on metadata for the IOE’s Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA).  Mostly this has been post-pandemic. In the chart below, LCCOS of course means ‘the rest of LCCOS not including the IOE’, just to be clear.  I make the distinction between IOE and rest of LCCOS simply to show how we’ve cast the net more widely over time. In addition to what’s on the chart, Tom Meehan (Head of Cataloguing and Metadata) has also been offering cataloguing practice courses and has seen 7 students (3 in 2022 and 4 in 2023). To find out what the boomerangs are doing on the chart by the way, you’ll have to read a bit further.

So what do we offer?  It’s not shadowing, it’s practice.  The student is given an introduction to the theory of cataloguing and its application here, shown an actual catalogue record or two, then given typically three items to take away and catalogue from scratch, plus a lot of links to documentation for reference.  A feedback session is scheduled on the practice records that result.  After another round or two of practice cataloguing and feedback, if the student wants to do more, we suggest they find items to practise on, then check the catalogue record to compare and if they have questions to ask us.

Those are the bare parameters but the course can be tailored according to what the student wants.  Some may simply want to know what cataloguing is and how it affects other areas of library work, others may have some items in their area of work which they want to be able to catalogue themselves with our guidance. Some may want to add knowledge and practice of cataloguing to their skill set for their own development (and their CV).  Some may even think they want to be a cataloguer, and others may just want an excuse to get away from their own desk for a while (it happens!).  All of the above is fine with us.

Three of the five of us in the IOE cataloguing team are directly involved in offering cataloguing practice.  Kristina Macdonald joined me doing this in April 2022.  She says she was motivated by wanting to gain confidence when explaining our work to colleagues, and a strong desire to demystify cataloguing which she feels is often a gatekept area of library work. And since last year Christina Egan has also been keen to offer an add-on course practising ebook cataloguing as well as our work managing the metadata for records on DERA. Christina cites her love of teaching as the main reason she wanted to join in – she says having that element to her role keeps her happy professionally. As her line manager, I’m happy about that! Plus there’s now Tom Meehan joining in too, and the three of us at the IOE and Tom all liaise on what we’re offering and how it works.

Five temporary staff have taken the course and three people (two of them temps) went on to take jobs either as cataloguers or involving a significant amount of cataloguing.  All three of those jobs were outside of UCL, but I can prove we’re not about providing an escape route: two who did the course and then went on to land a cataloguing job elsewhere, ended up a few years later getting cataloguing jobs back here at UCL. So that’s two boomerang students.  We don’t do the courses as a long-term staffing strategy of course, but well-trained new starters has turned out to be one of the benefits.

It’s also very good for us.  Having to explain what we do, how, and why, makes us think about our own practice, and all these new people coming in and asking questions gives us lots of fresh perspectives.  Those who’ve done the course and go back to their roles here in LCCOS will also have gained some understanding of our work and how it fits in or doesn’t with theirs, which can improve communication between different sections of the library.

A few years ago for a presentation I came over all Venn trying to illustrate how librarians feel about cataloguing knowledge (reproduced below).

How things might ideally be when library staff from other sections meet cataloguers.

 

How I fear they sometimes are.  (This will vary from individual to individual of course.)

I hope our Cataloguing Practice courses are helping bring those circles together.