Page 239 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Library Administration and Management

Notes Catalogue: The Catalogue is a search and discovery tool that provides results from the library’s
online and print collections in a single search. It includes titles of printed books, journals,
manuscripts, letters, and other material available at the libraries as well as links to the full-text
of millions of, mainly, English journal articles and digital images of prints and manuscripts. The
most important record of the department is the Catalogue itself. But this is kept in the library for
public use. The catalogue will have to be frequently referred to by the staff in the Technical
Department. Hence, some libraries prefer to maintain a copy of the public catalogue in the
Technical Department for its own use. But this involves more work, expenditure and space.
Shelf-list: It is a list of the books in a library in the order of their location: distinct from the
accessions list and the author and subject catalogues. Shelf-list is a file of bibliographic records
arranged by call number, i.e. entries are arranged in the same order as materials on the shelves.
The Shelf-list is maintained by the Technical Department under safe custody. The Shelf-list is in
card form and the cabinets containing the Shelf-list occupy substantial space in the Technical
Department.
To shelf-list an item in an online environment is to ensure that the call number assigned to a
particular manifestation of a work (i.e., an “edition”) is (a) unique and (b) maintains the integrity
of the file, i.e. the file arrangement follows a predictable order.
One particularly important aspect of file integrity involves collocation (bringing together related
items). Collocation is a fundamental principle of bibliographic control, the underlying rationale
behind authority work, classification, subject assignments, choice of entry, and so on. In shelf-
listing, the principle is most evident in the practice of keeping editions and translations together
on the shelf, but is not restricted to these.

Authority File: The Authority File is another card file to be maintained in the Technical
Department. It is a file, either on cards or in machine-readable format, in which decisions
involving bibliographic records, particularly for form of entry, are recorded to establish a
precedent or rule for subsequent decisions and to provide for consistency of entries.
Work Diary: There is need for maintaining proper work diaries in the Technical Department.
Work diaries can be maintained at two levels, for an individual staff member, and for the
department as a whole. The work diary for the department can be written on a daily or weekly
basis and consolidated later on a monthly or annual basis for statistical reporting as well as for
work evaluation purposes. The following can be accounted for through the work diary of the
Technical Department.

Task Within a group discuss on the topic “The use of Shelf List in 21 century”.
st
Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. The ……………….. will have to be frequently referred to by the staff in the Technical
Department.
2. …………….. is a file of bibliographic records arranged by call number, i.e. entries are
arranged in the same order as materials on the shelves.

3. The ………………… is another card file to be maintained in the Technical Department.
4. …………….. can be maintained at two levels, for an individual staff member, and for the
department as a whole.

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