Page 148 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

134 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
pulled from the da tabase and the classification num bers changed. The
spine la bels of the ma terials must be re written and the ma terials
reshelved. Be cause of the cost, many li braries have re classified only
the most commonly used ma terials and the new ac quisitions, re sult-
ing in li braries us ing both the Dewey and the Li brary of Con gress
Clas si fi ca tion sys tems.

RECATALOGING

Maintaining the cat alog is an on going, never-end ing task. As the cat a-
log ing rules con tin u ally change, li brary cat a logs, ei ther on line or card,
need to be changed. Also, clas sification num bers and sub ject headings
are up dated con stantly. Lost materials or any change of sta tus must be
reflected in the da tabase and any er rors discovered in the cat alog need to
be cor rected. Be sides the rou tine cataloging and pro cessing, there is al-
ways some pro ject to work on in the cat aloging de partment. Each li brary
has its own pol icy on how to deal with changes and new pro jects.

CLOSING THE CARD CATALOG

As au tomation be comes a com mon prac tice for many li braries, and
as pub lic ac cess ter minals are made avail able to the us ers, main taining
the card catalog be comes an in efficient use of both money and staff
time, and as a con sequence, the card cat alog is not kept up to date and
often is pro nounced closed or frozen. Af ter the to tal col lection is on -
line, many libraries dis card the card catalog or keep the old cat alog for
occasional ref erences. Closing the card cat alog saves valu able staff
time and money, elim inating fil ing and buy ing cards. Some libraries
may choose to keep a card shelflist file for staff use, but, gen erally, the
prac tice is dis con tin ued be cause shelflists can be con veniently printed
out for in ventory pur poses, etc.

RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION

When li brar ies are au to mated, the new ac qui si tions are cat a loged
instantly online. For a li brary to cir culate ma terials that were cat a-