Issue 135

Every school that has a library management system uses catalogue records. These records help school libraries with administrative tasks such as stock control (circulation and shelving). More importantly, catalogue records help end-users (students, teachers, library staff) locate resources specific to their needs.

School library users, both staff and students, are beneficiaries of a well-maintained catalogue, but very few understand the work, skills and knowledge that goes into cataloguing. It is a backroom task that does not receive much publicity or fanfare.

Undertaking (and understanding) cataloguing is sometimes seen as a ‘specialist’ skill. Even so, every library staff member interacts with the catalogue as soon as they touch the library management system. Also, in every library there is at least one person who has the responsibility for importing, adjusting, modifying and creating catalogue records in the system.

Catalogue records are created to specific standards to ensure that search results will be relevant and useful to end users. These standards are not static – they adapt to meet the changing needs of society and technology. Cataloguing in school libraries relies on these standards but may be adjusted to meet the needs of an individual school library community.

Staff maintaining a school library’s catalogue are often working on their own and have little opportunity to talk ‘cataloguing’ with others – enter the Schools Cataloguing Community of Practice (SCCoP).

The purpose of SCCoP is to provide a vendor-neutral forum in which to encourage discussion and share information on any aspects of bibliographic metadata and discoverability in school libraries. It is open to anyone with an interest in bibliographic metadata for school libraries in Australasia.

The objectives of the SCCoP will vary over time, but may include:

• to identify, gather and share effective bibliographic metadata practices in school libraries
• to provide a point of contact for Australasian school library staff to ask questions and discuss issues of relevance to bibliographic metadata
• to report on developments in international bibliographic metadata that could impact discoverability of resources in Australasian school libraries.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the ALIA Community of Resource Description (ACORD) invite you to join SCCoP to share your knowledge. Online meetings will be held at least 4 times a year, with a communal online space available for ongoing conversations and notifications.

The first meeting was held on 27 August. It started with a short presentation on the reparative cataloguing initiative undertaken by Abbotsleigh School Library. This was followed by animated discussion, including ideas and plans for future meetings.

To join SCCoP, send an email to [email protected], with ‘Schools Cataloguing CoP’ in the subject line. Please include in the body of the email your organisation and, if you like, a few words about why you’re interested in joining the group.

Once you have joined the group, you will be notified of the next meeting by email.