When faced with a massive re-cataloging project to convert our album collection records to RDA, we had to recruit as much help as we could find. Under the direction of our Metadata and Electronic Resources Management Librarian, we formed a cataloging team composed of a part-time paraprofessional, a full-time paraprofessional, and a non-technical services librarian. Cataloging experience among our four positions varied widely, so the challenge of communal training loomed large, especially when the Metadata and Electronic Resources Management Librarian was learning music cataloging right along with us. This presentation discusses how we were recruited and trained and how we are still being coached to produce incredibly high quality records using complex copy cataloging processes. We will also discuss the value of participating in and leveraging the use of diverse learning communities in future cataloging projects.
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- Dejah Rubel, Metadata and Electronic Resources Management Librarian, Ferris State University
Dejah Rubel is the Metadata and Electronic Resource Management Librarian at Ferris State University. Formally trained as an archivist and preservation professional, her road to metadata mavenhood has been a circuitous one through a wide variety of libraries and collections including the Janice B. Longone Culinary Archive, ITT Technical Institute, Eastern Michigan University Archive (Gordy-Motown Collection), University of Michigan College of Engineering Women In Science and Engineering (Women’s History In Michigan Science and Engineering Project) and most recently Owens State Community College of Perrysburg, Ohio. She has trained a variety of catalogers in both library and archival standards including volunteers, undergraduate and graduate students, paraprofessionals, and other librarians.
- Stacy Anderson, Assessment Librarian, Ferris State University
Stacy Anderson, Assessment Librarian, has been at FLITE for 8 years providing reference and instruction and serving as the liaison to Criminal Justice, Social Work, and the Office of Extended and International Operations. She has worked at Catawba College Library in Salisbury, North Carolina and the University of North Texas in Denton. Additionally, she has worked as an adjunct professor teaching online graduate courses at Texas Women’s University’s School of Library and Information Studies.
- Carrie Buss, Library Assistant, Acquisitions, Ferris State University
Carrie Buss works behind the scenes at Ferris State University Library for Information, Technology and Education (FLITE) in Collections and Access Services as a Library Assistant III. Her responsibilities include acquisitions, copy cataloging, data maintenance, and serials. Carrie started working at the Ferris State University Library in January 1992.
- Chelsea Mitchell, Collections and Access Services, Ferris State University
Chelsea Mitchell graduated from Ferris State University in 2009 with a BIS focusing on anthropology and literature. She has also completed some coursework for the MLIS through Wayne State University. Chelsea has worked part-time in technical services at FLITE since 2008 compiling statistics, copy cataloging, and processing serials. She has also worked part-time as a Library Assistant at the Big Rapids Community Library since 2010 collecting statistics, cataloging materials, developing makerspace and summer reading programs, and staffing the circulation desk. Through this job she has earned her Level 3 Limited Professional Certificate from the Library of Michigan. While not at the library, Chelsea enjoys playing tabletop games, reading, and rock hounding.
