2019 ARLIS/NA Cataloging Section Meeting Recap

The Cataloging Section met for its annual meeting March 28, 2019, led by Emily Walz in the Envoy Room of the Grand America Hotel, Salt Lake City. At least 28 members attended.

 

The meeting began with the introduction of Emily Walz, Librarian in the Art & Architecture Collection at the New York Public Library, and Adam Robinson, Cataloging and Metadata Services Librarian at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Vice-Moderator/Moderator Elect).

 

Announcements highlighted cataloging-centric offerings at this year’s conference, including three workshops: (The Art of OpenRefine: Data Manipulation, Reconciliation & Grel; Leveraging MarcEdit to Bring (Better) Data to Light; and Clarifying the Quagmire of Cataloging Book Arts and Artists’ Publications), two sessions: (Catalogers’ Judgements: Ethical Cataloging and Artists from Underrepresented Groups; and Getting Started with Collections as Data), and several meetings: (Artists’ Books RDA Manual Project, Cataloging Advisory Committee, Cataloging Problems Discussion Group).

 

Emily presented a summary of Catablog stats (8 posts, 1718 views, and 991 visitors from 13 countries; featured as a resource for a Metadata Course) and emphasized the recent launch of the Cataloging Section Slack Workspace as a tool for increasing engagement.

 

Karen Stafford gave a report on the ALA Committee on Cataloging, John Maier reported on the Marc Advisory Committee, Sherman Clarke gave an update on the Subject Analysis Committee and Art Genre/Form Project, Bronwen Bitetti reported on the Cataloging Advisory Committee and on behalf of Marie-Chantal L’Ecuyer-Coelho regarding the Art and Rare Materials BIBFRAME Ontology Extension Task Force.

 

Open Discussion topics included formation of a Linked Data SIG (to begin informally as a Slack channel and/or discussion group), interest in the future of the Artists’ Book Thesaurus, filling out more Slack channels (ILS, etc.), and the potential for Section webinars/GoToMeetings throughout the year.

 

Suggestions for next year’s conference included offering a workshop or meeting on dealing with RDA 2.0, repeating a Catalogers’ Judgement panel, and offering workshops similar to the MarcEdit and OpenRefine workshops this year, perhaps split into beginner and intermediate/advanced sessions.

 

Zimra Panitz, Head of Technical Services at the School of Visual Arts, was elected as the next Vice-Moderator.

 

For more a more in-depth meeting summary, see 2019 Section Meeting notes (courtesy of William Blueher)

 

To share thoughts or ideas on the Section or Conference, join us on Slack or use the “Contact” link to send us a message.

 

Thanks to all who attended!

 

Summer Throwback: ARLIS 2018 Cat Section Meeting Handouts

Amid the stuffy, oppressive, stinky heat of New York City in late August, is it even possible to remember the cooler, albeit grayer, days of late February?

To aid in the quest for refreshing thoughts (or at least a happy distraction), linked here are the handouts from Kelly Swickard’s fantastic mini-presentations at the Cataloging Section’s Annual Meeting at this year’s conference:

Adding Binding Information to Artists’ Book Records, on using the 563 field to add binding characteristics

Cataloging Art Publications, which may be of particular interest; the handout was originally written as a manual for paraprofessional staff, and covers a lot of the particulars of art book cataloging in one brief yet information-packed document. It is RDA-compliant as of late February of this year.

Many thanks again to Kelly for sharing these, and my abundant apologies to everyone for taking so long to get these posted.

Stay cool!

 

(Image: Photographer unknown. Three women keep cool during a heat wave by moving a park bench into the water in Central Park, New York. September 1961.)

2018 ARLIS/NA Cataloging Section Meeting Recap

On Monday, February 26 at 11:15 AM, the Cataloging Section met for its annual meeting in the Madison room at the Midtown Hilton. Attendance was high, with at least 40 members in the room.

The meeting had a full agenda, beginning with the introduction of Emily Walz, Librarian in the Art & Architecture Collection at the New York Public Library, as the section’s new moderator. Adam Robinson, Cataloging and Metadata Services Librarian at the Phildelphia Museum of Art, was introduced as the new Vice Moderator/Moderator Elect.

Andrea Puccio from the Clark Art Library announced an opening for a paid 1-2 year fellowship position in her library. Maria Oldal from the Morgan Library made an announcement about a session taking place later in the conference about ARTFRAME.

Numerous section members gave reports and updates from various committees: Karen Stafford briefed the group on the ALA Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access, John Maier reported on the MARC Advisory Committee, Sherman Clarke gave an update on the activities of the ALA Subject Analysis Committee and the LCGFT (Library of Congress Genre Form Terms) Art Project, Bronwen Bitetti had  report from ARLIS/NA’s own Cataloging Advisory Committee, and Marie-Chantal L’Ecuyer-Coelho presented on ARTFRAME.

After updates, Kelly Swikard, Resource Description Librarian at the Decker Library at the Maryland Institute College of Art, gave two mini-presentations: The Ties that Bind Books: Adding Creator Characteristics and Binding Fields to Artist Book Records and Cataloging in RDA for Art Exhibition Publications: A Practical Handout. The handouts will be posted on Catablog soon.

Discussion was then opened up to the group. Moderator Emily Walz gave an update about the Section’s blog, Catablog (catablogweb.wordpress.com). The blog was launched in late 2017, thanks to the efforts of outgoing moderator Chantal Sulkow. There was discussion about what the group would like to get out of the blog, and how to unify content the Section might find interesting or useful from multiple sources. The group was responsive to the idea of collaborating with other cataloging and metadata groups both within and outside of ARLIS/NA for generating content for the blog and developing future conference sessions. The group generated many ideas for future conference sessions they would like to see.

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Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s meeting! It was a great group!

Thoughts or ideas about future conference sessions you’d like to see? What would you like to see discussed on Catablog? Tell us in the comments, or use the “Contact” link to send us a message!