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Wednesday, 14th July 2010

50 Years of Cataloguing and Change: A Profile of Helen Lucas

An Wired Campus article by Jennifer Howard profiles Helen Lucas, a cataloger, who retired this summer after 50 years on the job at Fairfield U.

The profile begins with Ms. Lucus, a recent high school graduate in 1960, using an IBM Executive typewriter.

"It had proportionate spacing on it. Every letter took up a certain amount of space, and they were all different."

Here are some other examples of how things are SO different today.

+ She said he biggest "professional shift" took place in 1973 when Fairfeld University joined OCLC. They had one direct link to OCLC HQ in Ohio. They were given manuals on how to use the system but no formal training.

+ "It [OCLC} transformed all our work flows because we also had to learn computer language, we had to become familiar with the MARC format, we had to know the tagging."

+ Circulation: From "blue and white cards" to bar codes. It took eight months to convert.

+"Automation has just revolutionized the whole profession," Ms. Lucas says. "Technology has changed everything for the better."

+ On the Future: "I don't think there's ever going to come a day when there's no more books in the library. I think there's just going to be a lot more of the other stuff."

You can read the entire article and learn what Ms. Lucas has planned for her retirement here.

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (Wired Campus)

Views: 921




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