School Library Cataloging

My practicum has been a great experience; because it has given me an opportunity o see the day-to-day workings of a high school library.  This week my volunteer hours were not spent in the library but at a district librarians meeting.  During the meeting a variety of topics were discussed – common core, 21st century learning skills, curriculum mapping, among other things.  It was excellent!

The afternoon was spent reviewing questions and concerns of the librarians.  One of the discussion topics was concerning the online catalog system.   The district is using Follett’s Destiny to circulate books.  The librarians are frustrated because Destiny is a union catalog, so all of the schools share title records.  This means if one school creates a title record, then it could possibly impact all of the rest of the schools. 

I have taken cataloging, so I understand that each version of a book – hardcover, paperback, special edition etc – will have a unique title record.  The school librarians claim that student do not care what version they receive from the library; they would just like the book.  It becomes difficult for the librarians to teach students especially the younger ones to use the catalog when there are multiple title records for one book. 

A great example of their complaint is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  When a student does a search they receive results that include ten different versions of the book.  It is difficult to discern from the catalog the difference between versions.  Students get frustrated because they want the book and many times want to place a hold on it.  The system is not smart enough to know all ten versions are the same book.  In order to place a hold, the student or librarian would have to mark all ten records to ensure a copy comes to the student as soon as one is available. 

The librarians have decided that they are going to merge all similar title records within the catalog. (When I heard this news, I imagined my cataloging professor freaking out over the situation.)  They are going to create their own cataloging handbook with rules that fit a school setting and try their best to stay consistent across all schools. 

I do not think it is possible to be more specific and strict then AACR2, so it is a near impossible task for this group to rewrite a manual that will be specific enough to avoid any future problems.  My guess is that this will be a continuous discussion.  It was fascinating to see a group make library decisions, so they can better serve their patrons.  I am wondering if 5 years from now, they will be glad that they did it.