[Genealib] Rearranging collection: LH topics

[Douthwaite, Lesley - HPL]

At Clayton Library multi-county books are shelved with the general state
books. We know that this means that some of our patrons, who just browse the
shelves and don't bother with the catalog, are going to miss a few items
which may be helpful to them. But whenever library users come to our staff
for assistance, we always make a point of suggesting that they start by
doing a keyword search in the catalog to pick up items that may, for
whatever reason, be shelved elsewhere. And at the very least (because we
know that, whatever we say, many of them won't go near the catalog!) we tell
them that they should always check the state section as well as the
individual county sections, because they may find information on the county
there.

Lesley Douthwaite
Assistant Manager
Clayton Library, Center for Genealogical Research
5300 Caroline Street
Houston, TX 77004
832-393-2600 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mara Munroe [mailto:Munroe at oshkoshpubliclibrary.org]
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 10:18 AM
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists
Subject: RE: [Genealib] Rearranging collection: LH topics


At the Oshkosh (WI) Public Library, local history items are cataloged
with 977.565, then a line or slash, as the spine permits, then the
subject number.  Circulating copies of the same book simply skip the
initial Dewey location code.  

A major problem with the alpha-by-county business is multi-county books.
Do you put book blocks in with "See XXX county" for every title?  The
History of Northern Wisconsin covers 42 counties, so I'd put it under
statewide, but the two and three county items (and not consistently the
same groupings) are a problem.  

Mara B. Munroe


-----Original Message-----
From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Anne Gometz
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 7:43 PM
To: genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
Subject: [Genealib] Rearranging collection

We are constantly asked to rearrange our collection (like Rowan 
County's!), but I've always wondered how you integrate this with the 
rest of the collection in the library/libraries?  If we get 2 or 4 
copies of a book on some local history topic e.g. true crime, labor 
strike, geology, etc. and 15 copies for the circulating collection, does

the cataloger have to put them in one number for the genealogy and local

history collection and in another for the main collection?  We do 
heavily emphasize the local history aspect of our small collection and 
we do get many questions that are more historical than strictly 
genealogical.  If you have a multi-county system with a local history 
room in each county, what do you do?

I will say that I recently had to try and find a book where the person 
in charge of the local history room had reorganized it to be more 
convenient.  However, all the books had not been recataloged.  They'd 
just been moved and the catalog gave the Dewey number.  After half an 
hour, the hapless clerk who happened to be at the desk when I came in 
had to say that the only one who could find the book for me would be the

local history person when he was there. So reorganizing may mean a lot 
of work for your cataloging staff.

          Anne Gometz
          Gastonia, NC
"Mine and mine alone."

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