Original Cataloging at The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Over the Big Water: Escaping the Holocaust Twice

Today  is my regular day off at the National Transportation Library. In lieu of lying around in bed all day, like an under achieving archivist might do, I headed over to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to meet with the Senior Cataloger, Holly V.  

First Holly gave me a tutorial on how she transliterates titles from from Russian, or Hebrew, or any other non-Roman alphabet (see http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html) for cataloing in OCLC. We spent a good deal of time discussing how personal names, towns (corporate bodies) with names in multiple languages, and refugee camps are made into authorities. After assisting Holly with a Polish title that required research, translation, and cross reference in multiple European OPACS I was off to catalog a title on my own. We translated through (1) Google translate, and (2) the Google translation bar.

I did original cataloging for Over the Big Water: Escaping the Holocaust Twice by Wynne A. Shilling: with excerpts from the memoirs of Samuel and Manya Shilling. Original cataloging means I used the title and title verso page of this newly published book (2012) to do descriptive cataloging, subject cataloging and assign a Dewey number using a handy dandy Cutter table and then check OCLC to confirm it was an original number.

Look Who's Original Cataloging!

My final record included these final fields (with my own notes added for clarity):

040 LHM  $c LHM (The Holocaut Memorial Museum Library's OCLC Institution Symbol)
020 9781470062286
020 14770062283
090 DS135.C97 $b S55 2012
049 LHMA
100 1  Shilling, Wynne A.
245 1 0 Over the big water: $b escaping the Holocaust twice/ $c by Wynne A Shilling : with excerpts from the memoirs of Samuel and Manya Shilling.
260 Lexington, KY: $b Wynne A. Shilling. $c c2012.
300 ii, 87 p. : $b ill ; $c 23 cm.
504 Includes bibliographical references (p. 86).
600 1 0 Shilling, Samuel.
600 1 0 Shilling, Manya.
650    0 Jews $z Czech Republic $z Prague $v Biography.
610  2 0 St. Louis (Ship)
650     0  Jewish refugees $z Ecuador $v Biography.
700     1  Shilling, Samuel.
700     1  Shilling, Manya.

Ready to Confirm my Submission

Holly also walked me through the process of suggesting "Wedding Rings" as a subject heading for inclusion the infamous Library of Congress "Red Books". We did our homework first and checked "Rings" and "Wedding Customs" before finding that "Wedding Rings" is not a topical heading. After mapping out our work we sent our proposal to the Library of Congress via email. When you see "Wedding Rings" as a subject heading in about four months remember who gave you the scoop first!

I Got the Juice Now

This great tutorial all came out of my sending a follow-up email after our initial field trip to the museum. When professionals who are doing the work you are interested in give you their business card and invite you to keep in touch, keep in touch. An informational interview could lead to an opportunity to shadow them for a day, which could lead to an internship and ultimately a job. This is what networking is all about! A special thank you, Holly for her willingess to share her knowledge and show an eager young librarian the ropes!

I also met with Reference Librarian Vincent for a short informational meeting after working with Holly. Vincent is hilarious and gave me a great and daring strategy for securing my dream job. He said "Forget about filling out an application. Go to the director of the library's office dressed in your finest interview attire, hand them your resume and tell them they will not find anyone more qualified for the job." Vincent's modus operandi is that the interviewing process is not something any library really likes to do and as someone who has sat on plenty of interviewing committees at USHMML for staff and student interns he would love to see a candidate exhibit such confidence and would hire them on the spot. If Vincent's strategy doesn't work, I'm not opposed to recruiting my friends to try this: