Category Archives: Operations

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A Day in the Life: Ellen Maxwell

My job title is Resource Description Specialist in the Resource Description Department of Collection Services; that’s a fancy way of saying I’m an original cataloger for monographic resources.  Although I catalog print materials and participate as part of a small subteam that provides records for the Library of Congress electronic Cataloging-in-Publication Program (eCIPs), my main focus is creating bibliographic records that describe A-V resources (concentrating on visual), for physical (DVDs, Blu-ray discs, videocassettes, film reels, etc.), as well as digital (streaming) formats.

I catalog a wide variety of works in many different formats and languages, so every day brings something new and interesting.  Because my job is specialized by format rather than language, I often have to rely on the language expertise of my library colleagues to help me describe the works that come my way.  This is especially true when those works are in languages I can’t read, and I am so grateful for all of the help with Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean materials my colleagues so willingly provide.  When needed, they also help tweak the Library of Congress subject headings I’ve assigned, or suggest additional subject headings if I have missed important cultural cues or historical context.

Sometimes it’s necessary to go further afield for help in simply identifying the language(s) of a work.  In the case of a streaming video entitled “Bad Press” that has title screens in Chinuk Wawa, Navajo, Cherokee, Osage, and Mvskoko, my colleagues were able to recognize some, but not all of the languages, so I tracked down the film’s directors who were able to identify the remaining languages, and I also contacted the director of the Osage Nation Language Department who graciously provided a transliteration of the Osage title.  If you want to take a look, you can find the film on Warpwire (authenticate with your NetID and password to view the film). Here are those five title screens:

White text over a movie still, the title screen for "Bad Press" White text over a movie still, the title screen for "Bad Press" White text over a movie still, the title screen for "Bad Press" White text over a movie still, the title screen for "Bad Press" White text over a movie still, the title screen for "Bad Press"

Since accessibility is an overarching goal of cataloging, it’s incumbent upon me to accurately describe all accessibility features available in the materials I catalog, using principles of inclusive description.  I need to include the language(s) of the dialogue, language(s) of subtitles and/or captions or audio description, and whenever possible, include the title and names of cast and crew in the original language script.  I also utilize controlled (standardized) vocabularies for accessibility genre headings, currently “Video recordings for the hearing impaired” when subtitles or captions are present, or in less frequent cases where audio description is available, “Video recordings for people with visual disabilities”.  These vocabularies change over time to mitigate harm; there are discussions underway to change “Video recordings for the hearing impaired” to “Video recordings for the hard of hearing”, but these changes have to go through official channels, and take time.

Sometimes we receive titles that are unusable in their current physical form, such as videos that were sent by the vendor as files on a thumb drive.  Since we can’t circulate thumb drives, those files need to be converted so they can be streamed on Warpwire.  The good folks in the Duke Digital Repository accomplish tasks like this with amazing skill, speed, and good humor!

A DVD case with a DVD for Basic Instinct inside, packaged with a pen that looks like an ice pick.Some of the most fun and challenging materials I work with are the accompanying materials included with A-V box sets; the packaging can be spectacular, but publishers definitely do not have libraries in mind when they include that stuff!   The accompanying booklets are easy enough to deal with, but what do you do with the ice pick-shaped ball point pen that accompanied the collector’s edition of “Basic Instinct”

…or the wave drum included in the new Grateful Dead box set “Friends of the Devil: April 1978”?

The box set of Grateful Dead video materials, which includes an open book with text and photo, 19 discs, multiple colorful boxes and disc cases, and a wave drum decorated with Grateful Dead imagery.

For answers to those types of questions, I consult my colleagues at Lilly Library who have to figure out not only how (or even if) those materials will circulate, but how to house them.  This can have a direct bearing on how I describe those materials; sometimes it’s not so simple to determine what is the main item and what is the accompanying material?  Sometimes I have to ask, for example, is this a DVD plus book, or book with accompanying DVD?  What does the publisher consider to be the main item?  How will this material be used in the library?

Well, that’s about it.  As you can see, my job is never dull, and I get to describe and make accessible a wide variety of titles in many different formats and languages, and I have the opportunity to collaborate with a lot of wonderful colleagues all over the library.  I’ve worked in a number of different departments over my 35 years at the Duke University Libraries, but have found my library home in Resource Description.

A Day in the Life: Amanda Gordon-Serials Management Associate

Amanda Gordon
Amanda Gordon

Hello! My name is Amanda Gordon, and I am a Serials Management Associate in the Electronic Resources and Serials Acquisitions (ERSA) Department. While relatively new to Duke University Libraries – my first day was December 2nd, 2024 – I’d love to tell you a bit more about myself, how I got to Duke, and what my position entails…or at least what I know of it so far!

I was born and raised in central Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Art History, Classics, and Classical Humanities in 2015. It wasn’t long after that I met my husband, and we moved to Florida together where I got my first library job. I had always had a fondness for libraries, and it proved to be a good fit – whether it was in public services positions, as I started out in, or in a collections services position. Before I came to Duke, I had spent the last six years in downtown Raleigh working as the Library Technical Assistant I for Campbell University’s Law School Library. It was in this role that my eyes were opened to all the behind-the-scenes work and moving pieces that go into keeping a library running, and what it takes to keep it running well. I loved the task- and detail-oriented nature of it and knew then that collections work (particularly in higher education) was where I wanted to stay!

In my new position here at DUL, I put to work many of the same skills and knowledge I’ve spent the past ten years developing – organization, record keeping, and customer services – to facilitate the work of the Serials Management Team. My day largely centers around what comes through my e-mail and as the initial “filter” on the dul-serials inbox, I could be replying to vendor communications (such as renewals or pricing updates), reviewing title notifications (such as format changes or cessations), claiming missing materials, or collecting and saving invoices. I also help to process many of those invoices for payment, along with any credit memos or rate adjustments, and help to create or close orders as needed. Thankfully, I spent the last six years of my career working in Alma, easing my transition in accomplishing some of these tasks! Beyond that, I’m happily at the disposal of my team, helping with projects or record clean-up, and continue to take on responsibilities as I learn the ins and outs of the job.

Outside of work and in my spare time, I like to game (PC) and read (my husband works for Barnes & Noble – our apartment is near bursting with books!) and enjoy a good true crime show. I also love food – a typical evening is spent at least in part in the kitchen, cooking and chatting over a glass of wine. If I’m going out, go-to spots are often centered around tapas or sushi! My husband and I also make a point to travel at least twice a year, once to Wisconsin to visit family and the other to a new destination of our choosing. We went on a cruise to the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas for our honeymoon in 2023 and really enjoyed ourselves – so much so that we went on a second last year and have another planned for this fall!

As I continue to settle into this role, I hope you’ll stop by my cube sometime to chat – whether it’s about trips you’ve taken, restaurant recommendations, or what your own position entails! I’m excited to get to know everyone better and am so happy to be here and working amongst such a friendly, knowledgeable group of people. I look forward to what I hope will be a long and fruitful career within DUL’s Collections Services!

Collection Strategy & Development (CSD) announces new collection diversity analysis practicum

Headshot of Melina Flores, a woman wearing a dark blue sleeveless top, with long dark hair.

The Collection Strategy & Development (CSD) department of the Collection Services division is pleased to introduce a new collection diversity analysis practicum project and our first practicum student on this project.

Melina Flores joins us from UNC SILS where she is in her final year of the 4+1 Dual Degree program. Flores has earned a Bachelor of Science in Information Science and will graduate with a Master of Science in Information Science in the Data Science and Data Analytics Concentration in August. Flores has an impressive resume that showcases her database work at the UNC University Development Office, and policy, leadership, and outreach experience through fellowships with the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC, and the Líder Fellowship with Carolina Leadership Institute and appointments to the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG), and the UNC SILS chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

A generative AI picture with a circle of graph bars and other representations of data.
(Copilot, 2025)

The Collection Diversity Analysis Practicum Project is an exploration of the diversity of materials in the academic library collection through data analysis. Students working on the project will select a scoped subset of the collection to analyze in depth to see how our collection compares to the universe of available and relevant resources in that subject area.

One of our goals in CSD is to build a library collection of diverse resources that contains a multitude of perspectives. This is not a new concept in academic library collection development. Academic libraries in the United States began collecting comprehensively in the 1870’s when priorities in higher education shifted from delivery of a classical education to the production of research. Under the classical education model, students were expected to read only assigned texts, and libraries provided those texts. The change in the academic model required that students and faculty have access to a wide range of resources in order to engage in independent research and study. Libraries shifted to purposefully build comprehensive collections to satisfy these priorities. (Jones Jr., 1989; Weiner, 2005) Practices and perspectives about how to define this wide range of resources continue to evolve.

Shelves of orange-brown book spines with white library spine labels.Assessment of diversity in library collections has a history dating to around the mid 1990’s when diversity was thought of as multiculturalism and coalesced around race, ethnicity, and gender. Definitions of diversity in the library collection continued to expand to include other markers like sexuality, socioeconomic status, and ability status. (Ciszek & Young, 2010) Diversity in the library collection is a complicated moving target to quantify across the broad range of library types, subjects, and formats.

We aim for diversity in authorship, subject matter, perspective, source, and format. We consider all markers above and also the intersection of identities, perspectives, and formats (and keep our minds open to other markers we may discover as we work through the collection). Our working definition of diversity will change based on the scope, subject area, and institutional focus, including which markers to assess for, and how they are expressed in a work. Markers of diversity in a children’s picture book collection are different than those for an academic library mathematics collection.

Even across peer research libraries we can’t evaluate diversity on the same rubric because we all collect according to the research and teaching interests of our respective universities. We create a diverse network of collections by collecting deeply in our priority areas and then sharing those collections with other libraries through inter-library loan (ILL). In addition to these institutional foci, we each broadly collect works that tell many sides of the story, include many voices, and present many perspectives to students, faculty, and researchers.

A photo looking down the aisle between two long library shelves full of books. We want to measure what matters, and this project explores ways to measure diversity in the library catalog given the above limitations and other complications like time, budget, publishing context, and metadata. A large-scale diversity audit of the whole collection is challenging because each subject area will have different metrics, context, and metadata. This project seeks to conduct smaller, deeper audits of tightly scoped parts of the collection.

There are three components to the project:

  • Research: Extensive review of the literature and past work on library collection diversity in general and on diversity in the context of the scoped section, including how peer libraries collect and the publishing context.
  • Assessment: Conduct an in-depth assessment of that section and compare that to the research of what a diverse collection in that section could look like.
  • Recommendations: Make recommendations of what needs to be done to get there, and share the results of the project in some way – a report, presentation, poster, video, blog post, etc.

As with any data analysis project, actually analyzing data is only part of the work. Understanding the context and figuring out what questions to ask and how involves substantial background research and asking a lot of people a lot of questions. Flores will take a deep dive into current work in her chosen section, to include interviewing faculty and library staff, reviewing syllabi and publications, and researching collections of other libraries. Flores will also learn some basic project management skills, conduct data description and analysis, make actionable recommendations, and share the work with the library community. We hope that this project is the first of many.

Ciszek, M. P., & Young, C. L. (2010). Diversity collection assessment in large academic libraries. Collection Building, 29(4), 154-161. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/01604951011088899

Copilot. (2025). Data and academic libraries [Image]. Generated by Microsoft Copilot.

Jones Jr., P. A. (1989). The history and development of libraries in American higher education. 1989(7), 4. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.50.7.561

Weiner, S. G. (2005). The history of academic libraries in the United States: a review of the literature. Library Philosophy and Practice, 7(2), NA-NA.

 

Collections Services Staff Recognition Awards and Lunch

Last month, Collections Services celebrated our second ever mystery-themed Annual Staff Recognition Awards, complete with a taco bar and cupcakes. There were five categories of awards, highlighting everything from collaboration to coaching, and two winners in each category. Our winners took home literary mugs and gift cards.

Taco barSmallcakes cupcakes in box

The awards were as follows:

Nancy DrewNancy Drew Newcomers/New Skills Award

For the colleague who has demonstrated excellence and adaptivity this year in learning a NEW skillset (ahem, Alma)? Or for the NEW(ish)-to-DUL colleague who brings energy, curiosity, humility and a sense of adventure to their work. Who enhances the working lives of those around them through their fearless determination to learn the mysteries of Collections Services and get the job done no matter the stakes. Who perhaps is one of the few who can really pull off a neckerchief!

Nominees: Henry Hebert, Fouzia El Gargouri, Zhaneille Green, Zhuo Pan, Yaoli Shi, and Emily Sutton

Winners: Zhaneille Green and Yaoli Shi

 

Dr. WatsonDr. Watson Collaboration & Outreach Award

For the colleague whose advice is sought out before any major undertaking. Whose quiet confidence means they never seek the spotlight, but you know, deep down, they deserve top billing. They’re a success in their own right, but their presence on a team virtually guarantees a break in the case. But, please, no pipe smoking in the library!

Nominees: Nancy Bachelder, Sara Biondi, Jessica Janecki, Yan Song, and Emily Sutton

Winners: Emily Sutton and Jessica Janecki

 

Miss MarpleMiss Marple Creativity & Innovation Award

For the colleague who cannot let sleeping dogs lie. Who finds solutions before others even realize there are problems. They use their shrewd intelligence and capacious memory to divine out-of-the-box remedies for any genre of CS conundrum. The real culprits—likely the shadowy villains Mr. Inefficiency and Dr. Poor Communication—cannot rest with them on the case: no workflow is safe from their keen eye.

Nominees: Leeda Adkins, Dennis Christman, Alaina Deane, Fouzia El Gargouri, Jessica Janecki, Amelia Rodarte, and Yan Song

Winners: Alaina Deane and Dennis Christman

 

Benoit BlancBenoit Blanc Leadership & Coaching Award

For the colleague whose guidance gets you through every riddle and puzzle you face at DUL. Despite the challenges of wacky vendors suspects, they never fail to empower less seasoned sleuths along the way to ingenious conclusions. With the patience of a saint and charm of a southern gentleman, they inspire us through their mentorship to tackle even the most impossible cases.

Nominees: Bethany Blankemeyer, Bronwyn Cox, Rachel Penniman, and Abby Wickes

Winners: Rachel Penniman and Bronwyn Cox

 

Jessica FletcherJessica Fletcher Slow Librarianship Award

For the colleague who approaches every new task with the intellectual curiosity of a mystery writer. Through twists and turns, they barely break a sweat, as though they’re taking a relaxing bicycle ride along a picturesque coastline. It’s almost as though they’ve embraced the pace of a sleepy New England town, despite it looking like a literal crime scene around them. #cottagecore aesthetic encouraged but not required.

Nominees: Leeda Adkins, Bethany Blankemeyer, Jessica Janecki, and Jianying Shou

Winners: Leeda Adkins and Bethany Blankemeyer

 

Blue gift bags with prizes for winners

Winners

Congratulations to all of our nominees and winners!

Alma in Practice: Teams Leads of Collections Services

In the Collections Services division, there is a small, but mighty group of staff members who lead and encourage other staff, are an important part of planning and operationalizing workflows, and who do all this while also doing front-line work.  This group is composed of six team leads whose responsibilities span acquisition of print and online resources, managing discovery of and access to that large constellation of resources, and preparation of materials for library shelves.   What better way to end the three-part Alma series than by sharing team leads’ reflections on implementation and go-live.  Two common threads throughout the reflections team leads shared for this post were gratitude for the deepening of relationships within and across teams, as well as the importance of maintaining an iterative mindset as we all try out new workflows and functionality in Alma.

 

Challenges and opportunities are two sides of one coin.  Implementing a new system came with a lot of opportunities, but was not without challenges. Let’s focus on challenges first, and then we will talk about the opportunities that team leads leveraged before and after going live in Alma.  To facilitate going live, the previous system, Aleph, had to sunset on June 10 as described in a previous blog post.  Focusing on what could be done during the space between two systems was a significant pivot from the normal production-oriented approach to work, especially during the month of June when Collections Services is normally sprinting toward the end of Duke’s fiscal year.  Staff with acquisitions responsibilities had to end the financial year much earlier than usual in order to sunset Aleph.  Staff in other departments were also busy trying to wrap up data migration and cleanup projects before Aleph sunsetted.  Focusing on what staff could do, rather than what they could not do was a challenge facing team leads during this pivot point.  Other challenges were present, too, and required team leads to lead through uncertainty.  Notable among these was an  electronic resource migration issue caused by corrupted data.  At one point, it was not clear whether the issue could be addressed systematically (thankfully, it could be), or whether frontline staff were facing an extensive project post go-live.  Alma’s multiple functional options coupled with limits on what could be tested pre-go live also caused uncertainty.  Some decisions on workflows and practices were made immediately before going live in Alma and could really only be tested after the new system came up.  After go-live, it took time to develop clarity on the relationship between downstream and upstream work in the Collections Services lifecycle and to understand more fully how Alma handles certain data types like data about item records for physical resources.  Work, in general, took a little more time to do as team leads and a small group of Alma early users worked to get other staff, including student assistants, up to speed.

Now, on to the rewards side of the coin.  Team leads cited a variety of rewarding experiences pre- and post-go live, many of them closely tied to the challenges that were discussed above.  Staff working on describing resources that are new and unique or distinctive to Duke University Libraries collections were able to leverage the larger ecosystem in which they work.  Because a substantial portion of this work occurs in the OCLC WorldCat system, these staff members were able to continue creating catalog records during the period between Aleph and Alma. Though there were limitations on Alma testing and decision-making prior to going live, a certain amount of training and practice was still possible, and teams made headway on developing workflows, decisions, and documentation.   Team leads noted how nice it was to reap the benefits of training and practice once Alma went live and it was possible to perform daily tasks.  Team leads and other Alma early users were also ready onboard other staff.  It was evident from the ebb and flow of physical materials through Collection Services spaces that operations had successfully resumed– from receiving a recently-ordered resource into our workflows to describing it, to printing the all-important spine label that allows library users to find books on the library shelves.  Check out a recent video from Duke University Libraries that shows how the Littlest Blue Devil finds a book in the stacks.  Teams working with electronic resources were also able to resume daily tasks and work to provide the best user discovery experience for the Libraries’ millions of electronic resources while staff in other library units worked to sync the Books & Media Catalog with Alma.  The biggest reward during this period of planning for go-live, getting up to speed in Alma after going live, and resuming operations was the colleagues we work with every day.  Team leads cited gratitude for their teams, for the generosity of colleagues in answering questions, and for the opportunity to learn more about how different workflows in Collections Services overlap.

Against the backdrop of generally increasing proficiency in navigating Alma’s interface and options, team leads have many aspirations for the first six months in our new system.  A number of these cluster around best uses of Alma.  Team leads are eager to make the most effective use of  Alma functionality as possible.  They want to maintain an open mind about changing workflows and processes in a way that uses Alma’s built-in functionality to its best advantage.  One team lead described go-live workflows as “Plan A” workflows that will evolve as we use and familiarize ourselves with the system every day.  Alma presents new opportunities for tracking movement of physical items across library locations effectively, using batch processing to update call numbers, leaning further into functionality for reporting and updating sets of data.  It also presents a new opportunity for a truly integrated system that can manage both print and electronic resources. This integrated functionality and how best to leverage the new possibilities for electronic resources management is top of mind.

Threaded throughout all team leads’ challenges, rewarding experiences, and aspirations is the desire to continue building on the communication and teamwork that has marked Alma implementation in Collections Services.

Commercial Binding for Duke University Libraries

Stacks of commercially-bound books for the libraries with different cover colors.1.  How long has DUL been sending materials out to the Commercial Bindery (CB)?  Since everyone who knew the history of binding at Duke University Libraries (DUL) has retired, we had to do a little research to find this answer.  (Thanks to Rebecca Pattillo for finding this information in the University Archives files!)  According to the DUL Newsletter, v.5 no.2, published January 1958, DUL allotted a budget for binding as early as 1953.  The first mention of sending periodicals to the bindery was in 1957.  The Newsletter does not specify a binding company name but I have seen the stamp “Southern Bound” inside the back cover of books from the 1960s.  Evidently DUL sent some books to the Southern Library Bindery in Nashville, TN.  Some other materials were sent to Marking & Repair for in-house binding.  The Newsletter also cited sending monographs to the Joseph Ruzicka Bookbinding Company in 1985.  My former supervisor told me DUL sent books to Heckman in 1986 for a short period of time.  They returned to Ruzicka in 1987.  The company has changed names three times since then, with the current name being The HF Group.  We have trusted our books and other materials in their care since 1987.

2. Is the Bindery and Monograph Maintenance (BAMM) Section on a timeline for preparing materials for bindery?  The Commercial Binding Unit, now called Bindery & Monograph Maintenance (BAMM), is no stranger to meeting strict deadlines.  We used to send out materials every two weeks.  Since binding has decreased significantly in the last fifteen years, the CB set up a four-week turnaround time.  One student worker will be reviewing the returned shipment while the other two students are preparing materials for the next shipment.

3. How can you tell if a DUL resource needs to go to the bindery?  When covers are torn or pages are falling out, materials need to be commercially bound.  Occasionally materials are water damaged or new materials are accidentally sliced during the box opening process.  Sometimes accompanying materials such as posters or maps that are the same size or larger than the book, need a pocket.  These are all examples but not an exhaustive list of items that need to go to the CB.

4. What’s the size of an average bindery shipment, and what kinds of DUL materials are in each shipment? The size of a bindery shipment varies from 200 to 400 items. It depends on several factors: backlogs in Collections Services, special projects like renovations where materials are moving and being reviewed, how many physical books are being used by patrons and being returned, water damaged materials, and new materials that meet certain size criteria set up as guidelines within the Resource Description Department.

5. What happens to a book to get it ready for the bindery? What happens to that book at the bindery? Conservation Services staff pick up materials from Access & Delivery Services and refer them to BAMM at Smith Warehouse.  They get separated onto trucks according to types of material—paperbacks, hardbacks, sets, and serials, which are processed on different lots in ABLE.  Students or staff print new labels, assign new barcodes if needed, and add internal notes in Aleph, if needed. We also bind some new materials—monographs, periodicals, and music scores that are going to the stacks.

When our materials are received at the Commercial Bindery, they go to the check in department first where they create the shop work order according to our shipping record paper work.  They run duplicate code stickers which go on the binding tickets and in the back of the books to match the covers to the books.  They unpack and separate the books, periodicals, digicovers, music scores, etc.  They adhere the stickers and send the books down the assembly line.

A volume is being pressed.
The pressing process at the commercial bindery.

Then the collator checks for trim margins and decides if they should be adhesive bound or sewn. The books get measured and that information is sent to the lettering department.  They pull in our lots from ABLE, stamp the covers, and send them to page attachment.  After that the books are trimmed and the boards are cut.  The covers are matched with the books and they travel to the “casing in” department where the covers are glued to the boards.  The books are placed in the covers and sent to the press.  The final stop is inspection.  The shipping department counts the books and adds any extra charges as needed.  Then the books are boxed and returned to DUL.

6. How long does it take an item to go through the bindery process, from beginning to end? Depending on when we receive books and periodicals, some materials will be added to ABLE within one week, while others will be added up to 4 weeks ahead of time. Usually we unpack, review, and send the returned books out within a week

7. DUL materials come back from the bindery in different solid-colored covers. Is there a reason for each color? Do the cover colors ever change? Periodicals are assigned a cover color when they are set up in ABLE. Ideally that cover color will always be the same so they will match in the stacks.  Formerly we chose from a list of 24 colors.  Since library binding cover materials are in short supply, we now have 8 colors to choose from—black, brown, dark green, maroon, navy, red, royal blue, and tan.  Monograph cover colors are pulled randomly at the CB.  We only assign a cover color for sets—navy blue—so we don’t have to check the stacks for the previous color.  The Music Library also requested blue covers for the Miniature Scores collection and the pocketbooks which house scores and parts.

Cover image of a monograph sent through the bindery process
This monograph was sent through commercial bindery to protect the cover.

8. What’s the most interesting DUL resource that you’ve sent to the bindery? I have seen many interesting books come through for rebinding. Atlases amaze me just because of their size, and the world maps are very colorful and informative.  Some Government Documents are intriguing.  But the one book that stands out in my mind that came through recently for binding was “Afro-Atlantic Histories”.  I chose to send this book for a Digicover, where the original covers are digitized, mounted on boards, and bound with a clear cover.  You can see by the photo this book cover is stunning.  Also, the foredge was a rainbow of primary and secondary color plate sections surrounding the text and art work.  If you would like to see this book, it is displayed at Lilly’s Art Exhibition Catalog Collection.  You can also find more information on the National Gallery of Art webpage

9. Does Conservation play into the bindery workflow? If so, how? Most people don’t know that we also have a brittle books workflow. Conservation Services staff also refer books to BAMM for boxing.  These books are too brittle for rebinding.  We box them to extend their shelf life for patrons’ use for many more years.  We enter the title, author, call number, and measurements in Excel, and send the spread sheet to The HF Group Indiana office.  The books remain on the shelves at Smith.  It saves wear and tear on the books, and we don’t have to worry about them getting lost during shipping.    The HF Group staff member makes the KASEBoxes, acid free clam shell boxes (similar to pizza boxes) that protect materials, and ships them directly to Smith.  Student workers match up the books by the item number printed on the box with the corresponding book on the shelf.  They are double-checked by title and call number.  Then they glue a brittle book label inside each KASEBox to inform the patron how to handle the brittle materials.  The Item Process Status (IPS)  is changed if needed, and the boxes are sent out to the owning library or DUL’s offsite storage facility.

 

 

 

Zhuo Pan, Resident Librarian for Resource Description

Collections Services was pleased to welcome Zhuo Pan (潘倬, Pān Zhuō) on August 14, 2023 as Resident Librarian for Resource Description.  It has been a busy and engaging three months for Zhuo and the Resource Description Department and we are glad Zhuo was here to share them with us.  Zhuo received his Master of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington earlier this year, where he also served as a Library Data Specialist in the UW Libraries.  Zhuo received his Bachelor of Library Science from Wuhan University.  Though new to Duke in Durham, Zhuo is returning to the wider Duke University community.  He worked at Duke Kunshan University Library, both as an intern and as Library Assistant for Technical Services.   In his current position, Zhuo forms one-half of the inaugural cohort of DUL’s Residency Program, which seeks to enable recent graduates of an MLIS or related graduate program to gain experience in a highly specialized area of librarianship.

The cover of 法海寺壁画临本, with images of people in elaborate robes and a background of flowers.
Book cover showcasing figurative art with beautiful fabrics and flowers.

In his position as Resident Librarian, Zhuo describes materials to make discovery possible through the Duke University Libraries Catalog.  His work also contributes new and improved records to WorldCat, which is a catalog of library resources from all parts of the world.  Because catalogers must learn to use subject knowledge across a variety of disciplines and to apply complex international standards when creating catalog entries, gaining expertise is a long-term process and hinges on training and mentoring.  Zhuo brings to his current position experience both with hands-on cataloging at Duke Kunshan University Library, as well as experience with the international set of elements and guidelines for creating metadata for library resources from his position at UW libraries.  It has been gratifying to build on Zhuo’s knowledge and experience by working to describe books awaiting description.  During his first three months, Zhuo acquainted himself with internal workflows, policies, and the tools and documentation that support these.  He also spent significant time assessing and categorizing materials in the Chinese language cataloging queue.  This facilitated a training strategy focused on specific types of description, starting with literature, then transitioning to comics and graphic novels, and moving onto local history.  For a snapshot of Chinese language books cataloged in the last 3 months, check the catalog. Zhuo provided description for over half of new titles added during this period. The Monograph Acquisitions department, where books with records that are complete in WorldCat at the time of receipt are processed, provided description for the remaining  portion.

A black and yellow book cover with text in multiple languages.
This graphically eye-catching cover needs to be cut open (carefully!) in order for the book to be described.

Most recently, Zhuo has worked on books about art and photography.  This is an especially complicated area of description with many special requirements for noting creators and subjects associated with artistic works.  In addition, art and photography books often reflect their discipline, meaning they get artsy with how the physical book is presented.  This adds an extra layer of challenge to describing the physical resource.  Zhuo has come across books that are portfolios with loose plates of images, books with pages that fold out to create larger-format reproductions of photos, and even a book that is sealed in its entirety and needs to be carefully cut open before he can describe it.  Following are some photos of recent art books that Zhuo has encountered.  I particularly enjoyed working on the book that included parallel texts in Chinese and Russian languages with Zhuo since we each got to use our particular linguistic strengths to describe it.  This partnership is just one example of the myriad ways that original catalogers constantly work together to use combined expertise in resource description.  Here is looking forward to many years of working with Zhuo to provide timely and inclusive description of library collections.

A red book standing up on a desk, with the title 苏联人镜头中的新中国 = Новый Китай сквозь объектив Советского человека in black on the cover.
Parallel Chinese and Russian edition of the
photographic works of V.V. Mikosha.