In the news…

October 29, 2008

In the news…

While we were in San Miguel de Allende the local newspaper did a story on our group.  They interviewed me personally.. but I guess I didn’t say anything especially enlightening because I didn’t make the final edit.  Oh well.  It’s still cool.  I can’t link directly to the page but here is the link to the local newspaper:

 

http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/index.php?enghome

 

And here is the story copied in full:  

Library students volunteer at Biblioteca 
By Krishna Villena

During the week of October 13, eight MSL (Master of Library Science) students visited the Biblioteca Pública to work as volunteers editing online catalog records.

“We were told that cataloging is the greatest need of both the Spanish and English collections, and that’s why these students are working on that,” said Dalene Hawthorne, the supervisor of the group and a professor who teaches classes for the MLS program at Emporia State University in Kansas.

Gwen Alexander, dean of the School of Library Information Management, said that Hawthorne “arranged these activities in coordination with Robin Velte, a retired MLS librarian who volunteers as the English book collection librarian here.” Alexander visited the Biblioteca last spring and met Velte, and the two discussed the possibility of an October week of volunteerism. Travel expenses for the Emporia State visitors have been covered by a generous endowment left by a former Emporia State student in the MLS program.

Velte said that she and the chief librarians, Juan Manuel Fajardo and Rosario Muñoz listed the main needs of the Biblioteca collections: upgrading the cataloging, adding the entire musical score collection to the catalog and editing the authority file of authors and subject headings. The software company Baratz, which provides service to the library, assigned temporary passwords and access to the system, making extra administrative computer use possible.

Kathleen Ellsworth, who volunteers as a cataloging technician for the English book collection, spent the entire week teaching and guiding the visitors in the use of the Absys7 system. The visiting librarian candidates gave all their attention to upgrading the catalog, checking for errors and completing descriptions of individual items. The volunteers electronically downloaded up-to-date records on top of old, incorrect ones. By adding specific information such as contents and summaries of books, the volunteers enhanced over 600 existing cataloging records. The end result of their labor will make it easier for library patrons to execute meaningful searches in the catalog.

The visiting librarians left behind not only marked improvements in the catalog, but also their tools: six laptops that they brought with them and used during their week of volunteering. The much-needed computers are now library property. The Biblioteca librarians learned a great deal about procedures that can be used in the future to train volunteers who will continue to enhance the catalog.

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