Fun with SIRSI

Cataloging today...Finally got to look at some DLC (Library of Congress) copy and input something into our local system, specifically Alessandro Scarlatti's "Agar et Ismaele esiliati" or The Exile of Hagar and Ishmael, an oratorio by the Italian composer from 1683.



Interesting things about the way SIRSI (our local cataloging system) deals with certain MARC fields.

1) 028- Record label and label number. $a Label number $b Label name. Probably the most useful field for locating sound recordings. Most systems index this, some print it as a note, some give an added entry. It's supposed to depend on what you do with it locally. Well, SIRSI displays it as a note--great. But it doesn't reverse the order as it should to read (for example- Centaur: CRC 2664). Instead, it dumps it into the system as CRC 2664 Centaur. How easy it would be to have the systems people reverse subfields a and b, and add a colon. Doesn't take a Ph.D. in computer science, I wouldn't think.

2) 246- Added entry under title. Is this description? Added entry (i.e. access point)? Both, and neither. Why? You have to drop the initial articles that come before a title (stopwords like a, an, the)--so it's not pure description. And while it adds useful titles to your catalog (in my opinion), it doesn't give them as authorized. I guess that concept doesn't exist since it's a manifestation of the works in the item. So, uniform titles and name-title entries do this. The old way was to give other titles in the 500s. Which I've never liked. I like the 246. We used them a lot at the Archives of Traditional Music. But I can see catalogers' frustration with this field.

3) 007- Lots of great coding information. But for what? who? Who uses this information? What good is it for your users?

4) LC doesn't make 240s (uniform titles) if 245 $a is the same as what the uniform title would be. Makes sense doesn't it? Duplication? Not really. You need it, at least in SIRSI, to index the piece together with the composer. Think Britten, Benjamin--Peter Grimes.

That's all for that. Checking OCLC authority records against our local records right now. How can IU not have any Centaur Records recordings with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra? They're the hot recent thing on the Early Music scene.

Later this afternoon, I got to input a change to the Ingrid Matthews authority record. It only referred to her as a violinist. She is great--esp. her recording of the solo violin sonatas by Bach. But she also had founded and is the music director (i.e. conductor) of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. So we added a 670 to reflect her contribution as a conductor. Yay! All the authority work is done.

We added the local call number, based on a classification system developed by the former IU music librarian, Dominique-René de Lerma. Format-Composer Cutter Number-Form/Genre-Title (first letter)...etc.

On Wednesday, I work on doing some edits to the bibliographic record, and start to work on a Malipiero disc.