I Am A Cataloger!!

Today, I became an official cataloger –évidemment, sans papiers– but I have 5 records in the OCLC (Description from the website: "Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 57,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials." http://www.oclc.org/about/default.htm) database! After being on the job for a week, I posted five records – one for every day of the previous week. That is especially good when you consider that for one whole day of last week, I was in the requisite orientation meetings. Then I lost another day to the internal orientation (which was very interesting and informative, actually) and the traditional computer difficulties, although those only amounted to about 3 hours, which is good when you think about it. All in all, it was a good first week – and the 2nd bids fair to be even better! Woohoo!

Now, since I spent 4 years as a part-time student worker in my department, I should have SOME familiarity with the system, how it works, and what cataloging entails. But I must extend my profound thanks to cataloger par excellence, Marti Brickner, for her unfailingly erudite tuition; Lisa Francis, Karen Siegler, and Karen Cowen for answering innumerable questions and displaying endless patience with me at my most scatterbrained; my fellow students, who are too numerous to mention but who are all remembered; and to Misty Hopper, for filling the office in the corner so well!