The duties of a section. Part 2
By Melanie Polutta
Hello again,
This week, I am continuing the tale of the Iberia/Rio Section that was
started in our last mailing. It takes quite a bit to get through a
complete description of all we do!
So, last time, I gave a basic summary of the members of our section and
we each one does. In the future, some of the posts here are will go into
considerably more detail about the jobs of each individual, introducing
you to even more of my colleagues in the process. But to return to just
my section...
Remembering that we have only nine total people to do all our work ...
Do we get it all done? Not quite! There are quite a few sharing
agreements between sections, as knowledge and responsibilities allow.
For us, that means that we have a few catalogers from other sections
that help out with some of our cataloging, especially in subject areas
where they have specialized knowledge (Art, Social Sciences, and
Literature), as well as three catalogers who help with training (the
same catalogers who help catalog also help train). In return, I, as one
of the catalogers, also help out two of the other sections with their
training. And finally we have volunteers who come and help because they
like to; right now, we only have one, our own Stuart Stone, who retired
last year from our section but still comes by a few days each week to
help out with his invaluable knowledge of how we work as well as his
general knowledge of Portuguese language and culture. (One of the
interesting challenges of volunteer help is having the specialized
knowledge needed to /really/ help us, which not many people possess. Our
retirees are invaluable.) And I should also mention that the Rio office
also has its own acquisitions specialists and catalogers, so they do a
good bit of the work themselves. They are separate from us, even if they
are within our area of responsibility, but it means that when a book
from Brazil comes into our section, usually it is at least halfway
through the cataloging process. And soon, a good many of them will be
totally shelf-ready, which will cut down on the amount of work we do
here in the Madison building.
One thing we don't do? We don't catalog the resources for music, law, or
specialized areas of cartography; there are entire sections just for
that work, because it is so very specialized. We do buy for them,
however, so there is still processing for those materials that takes
place in our section.
This is actually a very short summary of what a section includes,
although Iberia/Rio is fairly representative. All sections have a mix of
acquisitions and cataloging specialists, as well as acquisition and
cataloging technicians. All sections work with other sections, because
we don't all have the requisite knowledge to get the entire workflow
done. Some have volunteers, some not. The numbers fluctuate, based on
the size of the geographic region and the number of resources we obtain
from that area.
It's a big job, but somebody has to do it. (And we enjoy it.)
Melanie Polutta
Library of Congress
ALAWE:Iberia/Rio
Librarian cataloger
