DAY 2: A Cataloger's Everyday

I was definitely still not used to getting up early. After a few weeks of school break and not waking up early, I struggled getting up on my feet for the very first day, it's a good thing that I managed to power through it and prepared myself for the day. 

June 16, 2017 - FRIDAY

Regardless of my fear of cataloging, I was still pumped up for the day. I headed to the Main Library and saw my classmates sitting on the staircase of the entrance. We chatted up for a bit while waiting for our shifts. 

Excited New Librarians?

Before the strike of 8AM, we were already at the cataloging section. Ma'am Annelyn oriented us to what we should do for the day. She returned with a box full of card catalogs and told us that we would be adding cards to the shelflist. But before we do that, we must count first how many titles and cards there are per bundle. This is to record how much progress we have done everyday. After we settled in, we picked our bundles and started our work. 

What I can say though is that it was very nice of them to allow us to work together on the same desk because that way we would be able to have small talk with each other. Ma'am Annie always tells stories of how dull it can be in the cataloging section but with this arrangement, we can entertain ourselves while doing work. We counted the number of titles and cards, wrote it on a piece of paper and headed to the shelves to place them in accordance to their LCC call number. 

The shelves are intimidating, that much I can say about them. After having one look, I soon felt overwhelmed by the volume of work we have to do but still, I persevered to continue. Soon enough, lunch break came, We decided to have lunch at the stalls on the side of the library. It was the most convenient for us. All of us managed to come together to eat and talk for the hour and then resumed our work.

A Cataloger's Blood and Tears

For our afternoon shift, we continued what we were doing in the morning. Looking back at it, I never noticed how much work we have done because we were having fun while going through the shelves. At the end of the day, we weren't able to finish the entire box of card catalogs, as I expected, but we promised to finish it the following week. I was excited to head home because the next day would be the start of a weekend, I can finally lie down and sleep for a bit longer. 

Here's to having a good eight-hour sleep!

- Sam, That New Librarian