Monday, 20 December 2010

CIG Conference 2010

A little while ago (well, 3 months ago, to be exact!) I attended the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group annual conference in Exeter.


I have to confess, the last one of these I went to was in 2000, when it was held in the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford - very handy as I was able to stay with relatives who lived very close by. That particular conference was quite interesting and discussed issues like tele-working and practical indexing. This latest conference, however, covered a very much wider range of topics, from standards (MARC21, RDA, LCSH etc.) through good practice (name headings and lean workflows), to old chestnuts (retrospective cataloguing), and newer ideas (OERs, digital preservation).


The range of speakers was super, each with their own specialities and delivery styles, so what with the broad range of subjects on offer, there really was something for everyone!



One of the most exciting parts for me was to be able to meet other cataloguers, people I had almost forgotten existed; how wonderful it was to hear others wax lyrical about things that were dear to my heart, where normally I would be regarded as being a bit odd by my colleagues!


It was recognised at the conference that the economic climate was not looking encouraging, hence the sessions on lean workflows and getting the most out of resources. The idea of sharing cataloguing record creation, using the best knowledge of all cataloguers to add LCSH and the idea of sharing the updating of name headings were all things that were welcomed by the group.


The presentations from the conference are available from the CIG conference registration site if you are interested enough to want to have a look.


Next conference will be at the CILIP Umbrella Conference in July 2011.

Monday, 13 December 2010

Where have I been all this time?

Hello!

I can't believe four months have passed since I last blogged - it seems like yesterday. Actually, to be truthful, I wasn't sure what I was sharing with you and why, so I let things slip for a while. But, in the process of seeing what else is going on in the world of cataloguing, I remembered I had a blog (!) and thought I might use it again, especially as I discovered that there were more detailed stats available than I had realised and I was astonished to see that the blog had been looked at 158 times in November! That's not to say that anyone found anything of either use or interest, but it's fascinating to realise that you're not writing in a vacuum!

So, over the last four months I've been to the Cataloguing and Indexing Group conference, I've been continually updating my cataloguers' wiki, I've been reading up about all sorts of cataloguing issues, and updating the56things wiki - to the67things wiki. However, I've not done anything towards revalidation. Oh, and I've been tweeting a bit more than usual (although, again, usually trite messages about things, nothing serious) and reluctantly joined facebook - for personal use rather than work though. All these things have eaten away at my time! On the personal front I've been doing a lot of family history research for various friends and family - not that you wanted to know that - but it is so exciting that the 1911 census is finally going to be available on ancestry (as I have a subscription) so I don't have to pay-per-view on findmypast!

Anyway, that's enough for one day. I shall return within the week to tell you of my experience at the CIG conference.

Bye for now!