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Chapin
Library Cataloging Initiative
History of Chapin Library Cataloging The earliest catalog of the Chapin Library's rare book holdings was prepared by its first Custodian (head librarian), Lucy Eugenia Osborne. Typed individually on 5 x 8 inch cards, the first records are in a short-title style, with no statements of pagination or illustration, no subject headings, and minimal added entries for illustrators, translators, etc. This catalog was maintained until 1977. A shelflist and special 3 x 5 inch card files to record printers, binders, former owners, the year and place of publication, and other special features of the Chapin Library's books were also begun by Miss Osborne. She was responsible as well for A Short-Title List of the Books in the Chapin Library, Williams College, a handsome volume published in 1939, which documents in brief the Library's holdings to that date; this is available for consultation in the Reference section of Sawyer Library as well as in the Chapin Library. Under the direction of its second Custodian, Mary L. Hurt Richmond, the Chapin Library's reference books were cataloged using pre-printed 3 x 5 inch cards issued by the Library of Congress. Added and subject entries were typed in the top margin of the cards as needed, and the call number in the upper left hand corner. In later years reference books continued to be cataloged on 3 x 5 inch cards, reproduced by photocopying a unit card (master record), to which headings were similarly typed, card by card. Shelflist cards for rare books, and cards for Chapin Library books interfiled in the College Library card catalog, were produced in the same way. In 1977 the 5 x 8 inch catalog was "frozen", and original cataloging for both rare and reference books accomplished on 3 x 5 inch cards. For several years unit cards were typed in the Chapin Library and forwarded to the College Library for copying. This process ceased when the College Library purchased a mini-computer for card production, and given the press of cataloging the general collection could not accommodate Chapin Library cataloging as well. Chapin Library cataloging thus was halted until the introduction of OCLC to Williams College in 1983. OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center) is a database of millions of catalog records submitted by the Library of Congress, the British Library, and other member libraries. Its purpose is to share the labor of cataloging: one library creates a master record, which other libraries may accept or edit for their own purposes. The OCLC database also serves as a major reference tool for the cataloger in shaping name and subject headings. The first installation of OCLC at Williams tied a limited number of dedicated computer terminals to a special modem. Chapin Library use of a terminal was long restricted to a brief time once per week, and since all terminals were located in Sawyer Library, remote from the Chapin Library's rooms in Stetson Hall, it was difficult or impossible to catalog with book in hand: rather, all cataloging records had to be worked out on paper in advance, and terminal sessions at Sawyer used almost solely for data entry. Later OCLC technology allowed a data cable to be extended from the Sawyer modem through the Stetson-Sawyer tunnel and into the Chapin Library in nearby Stetson Hall; and eventually OCLC revised its system so that its communications are now tied to the Internet rather than to dedicated lines. Now that any PC can become an OCLC terminal, the Chapin Library has been able to expand its cataloging facilities and move ahead with greater speed, limited primarily by the small size of its staff and the pressure of use of the Library by individuals and class groups. With the aid of funds provided by the President of Williams College, the Chapin Library contracted with OCLC to convert the shelflist cards of most of its reference books into machine-readable form. Several thousand Chapin records were added to FRANCIS by this means. Such "retrospective conversion" by OCLC unfortunately was not possible for the Library's serials holdings (journals and magazines) or for its rare books, because many of the existing catalog cards do not provide enough data for the vendor to make informed decisions about OCLC "matches"; and many of the "retrocon" records produced by OCLC have needed emendation to reflect local purposes and storage locations. In the 1990s, with the introduction and improvement of an online public access catalog at Williams, the Chapin Library reduced its production of catalog cards so that it received, for each work, cards only for its shelflist, chronological (year of publication), and imprint (place of publication) files. Information about provenance, printers, binders, etc. was now incorporated in the online record. In 2004 the Library devised a formula for including chronological and imprint information in online records, so that at present, it adds cards only to its shelflist, which is still found to be useful in hard-copy form. In the course of time, and with student assistance, cataloging information presently recorded only on paper in the Chapin Library will be added to online records in FRANCIS.
New library construction and the renovation of Stetson Hall are tentatively due to begin in Summer 2008. At that time, for their safety during building work, the Chapin Library's collections will be moved to temporary quarters or put into offsite storage. This impending move makes it imperative that all of the Library's holdings be documented, for the sake of security and to better maintain order during the move and when reshelving. To accomplish this, the College approved the hiring of three term employees to create basic-level catalog records in FRANCIS for all of the Chapin Library's rare books not already recorded in the online catalog. The members of this team are listed below. They work under the supervision of the Assistant Chapin Librarian, with the guidance of the Custodian of the Chapin Library. The Assistant Chapin Librarian and the Custodian are themselves continuing
to create catalog records, with the assistance of student employees, for
the Library's rare books as well as for reference books and
serials holdings. Some discrete collections of books, and the Library's
manuscript holdings, are being described, at least as an interim measure,
as finding aids which will be posted to the Chapin Library website as
they are ready; in this we have had the assistance of Williams undergraduates,
of Naomi Pasachoff, Research Associate at Williams, and of Elaine Yanow,
the Library's Administrative Assistant. Finally, an illustrated web catalog
of the Library's miscellaneous separate prints, drawings, paintings, medallions,
and other art objects and artifacts is being prepared by Erin Corrales-Diaz
of the Williams College-Clark Art Institute Graduate Program in Art History,
building upon earlier work by Graduate Art History students Yoko Hara
and Amy Torbert. Nancy P. Birkrem,
Head Project Cataloger Ted Gilley, Assistant
Project Cataloger Heather N. Harrington,
Assistant Project Cataloger Sarah Faye Cohen, Assistant Project Cataloger, June-October
2004
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© 2004-2007 by the President and Trustees of Williams College |