It’s not magic!
How (and why) the library is organised as it is, and how we keep track of the thousands of items held there, is a mystery to many.
Books just magically appear and with a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious are neatly organised shelf by shelf and the wonderful wizards and beautiful fairy godmothers, aka librarians, all know exactly where each book lives. They lovingly tuck each book into bed, whisper sweet goodnights and retreat into a library cupboard each night returning refreshed, infinitely wise and beautiful each morning. This was my childhood perspective of the library. It was all innocent and wonderful until I grew up and went to library school. Then it got complicated.
I am now all too aware of how important that organised database of library material is. The catalogue is the key to a library.
Horowhenua Libraries strives to provide its community with access to a diverse, up to date and relevant collection. Organising material in a catalogue helps manage the extent and quality of the stock we have in our library. While we want to meet the reading needs of our customers we also need to make sure we can help them find a book quickly and easily. The book is the star and all the information about that book (what librarians call metadata) is how we promote that star!
It wasn’t long ago that most libraries were filled with card catalogues — drawers upon drawers of cards with information about books. Everything was tracked by hand! In fact, good handwriting used to be a key skill for librarians. In an 1898 card catalogue handbook, Melvil Dewey even gave instructions on what types of cursive should be used. “Legibility is the main consideration,” he wrote. “Skilful writers acquire reasonable speed without sacrificing legibility. The time of the writer is, however, of small importance
compared with that of the reader.”
The catalogue is now a computer database, but cataloguers still input the same kind of information about books that they used to, although they have a lot more space to be creative and descriptive.
Horowhenua Library’s new online public catalogue (OPAC) is like a new library door through which you can enter from anywhere and browse the collection, reserve books, make book buying suggestions, be recommended new titles and authors and so much more. Come along to the library and find out how to get the most out of the catalogue. It is a gateway to a magic collection where the book is still the star!
Oh and of course . . . librarians are still wonderful wizards and fairy godmothers.