DAY 4: New Tasks Ahead

Shelflisting, as easy as it seems, can also be exhausting especially if you were doing it for the span of eight hours during how many days. I woke up that day with the feeling of excitement because finally, we would be finishing the second box given to us. I just wished that there wouldn't be a third box of card catalogs to deal with. I got up and prepared myself for the day. 

JUNE 20, 2017 - TUESDAY

As we head to the cataloging section, I remembered Ma'am Annie telling us before she left for KOHACON that at some point of our stay in the cataloging section, we would be given the time to catalog theses and dissertations. Since this is our last full day shift (I was pumped after remembering this fact), that should be today. I put aside all my other thoughts as we resumed the work we left yesterday. 

I wanted to finish our shelflisting so badly. It is because I wanted to experience another task catalogers do in the section because it seems like we have only been shelflisting for days now. Each card catalog placed on the shelf, the pile becomes significantly lesser. It was a feeling of fulfillment that I felt when we were able to finish the second box before lunch. At the end of the task, I believe I was able to record and shelflist at least 500 card catalogs. Even I couldn't believe myself when I found out how many I have done. Finally! I can say goodbye to card catalogs, at least for now. 

Arrividerci, Card Catalogs!

After our lunch which has become seemingly a tradition for all of us to eat at the same place and at the same time. We resumed our positions at the cataloging section. It was then that Miss Chiara approached us and gave us six boxes brimming with card catalogs. At first I thought we would be shelflisting these again but she told us that these would be given to the unit colleges and that we would only need to record the number of titles and cards per colleges. At least we wouldn't be heading to the shelves this time. She also reminded us that she would teach us how to catalog a thesis, as Ma'am Annie instructed her. 

Edward and I have concocted different methods of counting cards. We tried to do it individually, that felt wrong. We also attempted to work together by him, writing down the record and me counting the number of titles and card. This one felt mundane. We finally decided to separate titles into their number of cards, count them all together and simply multiply. This one is definitely the easiest. We divided our work through the colleges, he began with ASP and I started with CAL. Once we both got to ENGG, we worked together because this one has three boxes of cards. 

A Cataloger's Cry For Help

Sometime in the afternoon, Miss Chiara and Sir Anthony taught us how to catalog a thesis. It was then when I discovered that UP has its own scheme in cataloging its materials. They called it the UPIANA scheme. We were glad to discover that it only follows one LC classification that only differs when it is a Undergraduate, Graduate or Master's thesis. Sir Anthony went into detail of each of the tags, the identifiers and the subfields of MARC21 and how RDA is applied into it. He said that the most difficult part of the task is to look for its subject using the Library of Congress Subject Headings. The two of them were teaching us alternately as they also fulfilled their duties. At the end of the afternoon and also of the lecture, we were told that we would be cataloging theses the following day. About the card catalogs we were supposed to record, shockingly, we were able to record the entirety of it before the lecture began so we only have very few cards to record the next day. 

Let's just say that I am very excited to catalog a thesis tomorrow! I hope I don't mess anything up! LIS61 and 62 professor, I hope I won't let you down!

- Sam, That New Librarian.