DAY 5: Serials Seriousness

I woke up today with the feeling of achievement. Finally, after a few days of working at the cataloging section, we would be finishing up our 30 hours of work at the cataloging section. After lunch time today, I have finally surpassed the section I was fearing the most, Cataloging. Even though I was very excited, I knew I should not get pumped up to finish. There are still three hours left, lots of things can happen with that span of time. I entered the cataloging section early and ready for the remaining hours.

JUNE  21, 2017 - WEDNESDAY

Once we settled in, we resumed with what we were doing the previous day. I recorded my last few bundles of cards from the different colleges using the same method we did before. After we both finished with our respective bundles, we arranged all of the cards alphabetically with the unit college they would be going to. It is insane to think that what we're doing right now would be sent to the different colleges. 

After we finished, I almost forgot that we were supposed to catalog a few of the thesis today. I thought we would be able to surpass cataloging without actual cataloging but I guess you can't escape it. Edward and I were on the computers and had windows for the ILib website and the ClassificationWeb site. We were given piles upon piles of theses as we stretched our arms to get ready for work. We checked whether the thesis already has a record for the archives, if yes, we would simply write ASL (Add to Shelf List) and if it doesn't have a record for the archives, we would edit the MARC record and write a B on it. Our mentors told us that cataloging from scratch is rare in these cases. 

Fruits of Our Hard Work

Most of the time, we were only dealing with "ASL" and "B" theses. We were glad that we wouldn't be cataloging from scratch. But just our luck, the last thesis we had to process had no records elsewhere which only means one thing, we have to recall all of our learnings from LIS61 and 62. The good thing about this is that we were a team while doing this task, we were able to work quickly and also notice the mistakes of the other. I would say that our very first original cataloging is a success. 

Even if we only had two hours of shift left, we didn't want to leave early so we stayed for another hour and help the staff with whatever they need. At exactly 11AM, we asked for them to sign our cards one final time and bid farewell. 

Happiness After Cataloging

Because we were able to leave early, we decided to eat lunch somewhere else. After having our lunch at Area 2, we decided to head back to the library and familiarize ourselves with the Serials sections. 

Coming in to this section, I didn't expect it to be gloomy. It even felt gloomier than the Cataloging section. Everyone had a serious look on their faces even when we were asking to be oriented, they still replied with a blank expression. 

We were toured around the Serials section then given our very first task. At the left of the room were actual bookshelves and we were supposed to ensure that it has been arranged alphabetically and by year. Ma'am Judith called it "shelfreading." After doing this, we were given cards representing the serials on the collection and we were supposed to do inventory and record if there would be any missing issue. I took my time doing this because I thought that I might as well enjoy browsing through the materials and see if any of them would pique my interest. 

This turned out to be a bad idea because at the end of the day, Edward was a quarter of the way done with his shelves while I was seemingly half of the progress he has done. However, I still enjoyed what I was doing and was thinking of doing this method again. Also, tomorrow, Tricia would be back from KOHACON and she would be able to resume working with us! I just hope she can catch up with the amount of hours she missed on the cataloging section. 

I can now finally sleep tight, knowing that I was over with cataloging. Sweet dreams!

- Sam, That New Librarian