Tote Bags

The back seat of my car is full of canvas tote bags. I use them whenever I go shopping to avoid getting plastic bags. Many stores will give me 5 or 10 cents off my purchase for each tote bag I use. The only downside is that I also don't get large paper bags which I need for recycling, so I'm always on the lookout for those.

In the last 2 days, I've had the opportunity to look at tote bags from an entirely different perspective. I volunteered to work at the Clark Art Institute library for a variety of reasons. One is that I like to go there to see the current exhibit and during the winter months there is no admission charge. Also, the Library was one of the test sites for RDA, the controversial new cataloging code that the Library of Congress is intending to adopt as of January 1, 2013.

I've been dreading the coming of RDA because I'm going to have to teach it in Information Organization (I've been talking about it in class, but have avoided getting into too much detail) and likely be using it if I continue working as a cataloger. Since I'm no longer affiliated with a library, I'm on my own for getting any sort of training.

A couple of weeks ago, I contacted one of the librarians I know at the Clark and asked if I could spend some time at their library. Librarians there were not only trained, but have decided to continue using RDA instead of the "old rules" even though it's not yet the official code.

Well my friend was soooo happy and said she could easily put me to work on materials they acquired from the most recent Venice Biennale, an international arts festival that's been held every 2 years since 1895. The materials wanted cataloged? Tote bags!

Each nation has its own pavilion and produces a plethora of materials including books, press kits and tote bags. Someone on the staff had already cataloged the press kits so I had some metadata with which to work. Otherwise, I used whatever was printed on the tote bags.

The new rules are not drastically different, at least for this sort of material. Once I had cataloged a couple of bags and had the structure I wanted, I used that information as sort of a template and made appropriate modifications for the other bags. I left all the records in a save file to be reviewed before they are uploaded to OCLC, the database on which most libraries depend for metadata. All of them have the genre subject heading "Tote bags" which I learned is an official term within the Art and Architecture Thesaurus. Now I have some new "war stories" to tell my students next semester.

I loved my 2 days at the Clark. It felt good to be working even if it wasn't for pay. The librarian there was great about telling me and showing me some of the specifics of RDA and things that she learned. And she was so happy to have the tote bags (or most of them, anyway) cataloged. It was a good situation for everyone.

I also learned it is a long and slow trip to the Clark from where I live. I don't travel it often and I don't usually have a deadline for getting there, so I was much more aware of the routes. In fact, I tried 3 different routes for the 2 round trips. None is easy; each is slow and winding in its own way. They are all very scenic, though, so on a nice sunny day the trip is a pleasure.