So, I'm behind (mwahahahaha) and Title 1 is coming for a visit in a couple of weeks, and inventory in the classrooms starts when we get back from Spring Break. So this weekend, it's cataloging at the kitchen table time. Two hundred twenty Spanish books purchased with special funding. Little things most of them, but every one has to be cataloged, processed, checked out to a teacher. I'm down to about a dozen. Woo hoo!  

Many of my blogging friends have extensive libraries. Organizing them can be a nightmare. Mine is a mess since I've gone back to school. In this cataloging course, I had to look at Integrated Library Systems and found some that are open-source so they have potential for large personal libraries. The one I researched extensively, Evergreen , is for public libraries that are consortium members, so that is not really an option. However, the second one on my list, Koha , was developed for the smaller library in mind and I'm thinking I might give it a try at home. You can see what the interface looks like by choosing a library from their showcase . Delicious Library 2 . This is really interesting looking and has a lot of visual appeal, but it's apparently only for Macs. Try it for free. $40 if you like it. Media Man is a windows alternative. Also $40. Collectorz.com Book Collector . Looks very much like Delicious, but has a $30-50 price tag for the standard/pro versions. There...

When Integrated Library Systems (ILSs) originated, they were developed on site for individual libraries (Pace, 2004) that the ILS developed by Northwestern University (Weber, 2006). Soon, corporations saw that they could leverage the market and provide the systems that libraries needed taking on the burden of software development. Self-developed ILS technology was beyond the reach of many libraries, and commercial products gained a reputation for being easier (Weber). Today, there are many commercial ILSs from which to choose, but these systems do take some control out of librarians’ hands. In an effort to regain control over the software, open source ILSs have been developed (Casey & Savastinuk, 2008). Open source upgrades are available freely and not tied to annual fees and upgrade costs (Wrosch, 2007). These products are attractive (Weber, 2006) and frequently developed with a Web 2.0 interface making them easier to use on the front and back ends (Goodman, 2010). The web-based c...

OK, it's not really a mystery, but it's a complicated and then frustrating way to catalog. Part of the frustration stems from the fact that there is programing out there that allows you to put the pertinent pieces in appropriate fields to create an accurate record without coding them all yourself. Here is a Library of Congress site that explains it on mmmmm more linked pages than I've had the time to count.