Cataloging: Inventory Project
I. INITIAL SEARCH OF SHELVES:
- Preparation for a work session
- Get clipboard, pencil and next section of printout to be worked on. Go to appropriate section of stacks.
- Each item on printout:
- Check call number, volume number, copy number (if any). (Note : if there is some question about whether you have an exact match, compare the bar code numbers; usually this will not be necessary). If the matching book is on the shelf, put a checkmark in the left column next to the line number. If the matching book is not there, put a circle around the line number.
- Books on the shelves but not on the list.
- Not every book on the shelves will be on the list. This is OK, and expected, and nothing has to be done about such books.
- Books that are out of order on the shelves.
- This is not a shelf-reading project, but if you do happen to notice books that are not in proper call number order on the shelves, please place them on the book trucks at the ends of the ranges. Circulation staff will take care of reshelving them in the proper place.
- At the end of a work session:
- If you stop part way through a section, draw a line all the way across the page under the last item that was searched in this session. Above the line put your name and today’s date.
- When a section is completed, go through and write on the top page of the section line numbers that have been circled, the date the section was completed, and your initials. (This will make it easier for people doing second and subsequent searches to find immediately the ones that need to be searched).
- Return the clipboard, list and pencil
II. URSUS CHECK:
- Look up in URSUS those items whose line numbers are circled.
- If they now have a status other than available (‘-‘) erase the circle and put a check mark.
- If they have been checked in within the past month erase the circle and put a check mark.
- All others: change status (field 19) to ‘j’. [This will make it possible to generate a complete list of all items discovered missing through this 1997 inventory project.
III. SECOND SEARCH: – To be performed by Circulation staff.
IV. NOTES, EXCEPTIONAL CONDITIONS, ETC.:
- Stray call numbers, completely out of the sequence (for example a Dewey number or an E in the middle of the H list). Just cross these out – do not look for them.
- Some sets with volume numbers may not be in the same order on the list as they are on the shelves, e.g. v. 39 may come before v. 4 on the list. This is due to lack of sophistication in the list sorting algorithms. Just find each call number on the list and check it off; do not worry about the discrepancy in order.
- In a very few cases, there may be multiple entries on the list for a single volume. This happens when one volume has 2 or more distinct works in it, and each of them is cataloged separately.
- Call numbers beginning with “Folio” are shelved at the end of the corresponding section on oversize shelves.
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