Interview with Leo Kriz, Head of Technical Services, West Des Moines Public Library

Proficiency Project #3 Option #1

Megan Farnsworth ID # 991636494 5 October 2012 CIMT 522 Davis Indiana State University

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 CIMT 522 Proficiency # 3: Understand the role of cataloguing rules in assuring consistency and bibliographic integrity in libraries. Option #1: Interview either a college/university librarian or public librarian about this proficiency. Your interviewee should be someone knowledgeable about the cataloging operation of their library. When you make your appointment be sure to share the proficiency with them so they may think about the interview prior to your arrival. When conducting the interview be sure to take basic notes while remaining engaged in the interview. If your interviewee is amendable, tape record the interview, but be sure to have the interviewee sign an Informed Consent Form.

During the interview be sure to ask your subjects about cataloging process in their libraryassuming they have an online catalog, how are new items added to the database? How frequently are updates made? Who does their cataloging? How much of their cataloging is outsourced? Finally, what is their understanding of the term bibliographic integrity? After the interview, be sure to thank the interviewee for his/her time. A hand-written follow-up Thank You note is a nice professional touch as well.

Write up your interview findings by describing the type of library where the subject works, the town/city in which it is located, and their professional credentials, i.e. professional training, how long in their current (past) position(s). The meat of your interview should be written in a conversational narrative tone. Your concluding section should summarize your findings with particular attention given to any surprises that you discovered for yourselfthat is, things that you would not have thought of without benefit of a practicing librarians experience.

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The West Des Moines Public Library is located in West Des Moines, Iowa. The library serves the community of West Des Moines as well as residents in Polk, Dallas, Warren, and Madison counties. The 55,000 square-foot facility was opened in 1996. According to the United States Census Bureau (2012), West Des Moines has a population of 56,609 people. Population statistics show that 7.1% of residents are under 5 years old, 24.1% of residents are under 18 years old, and 10.6% of residents are 65 years old and over. Females make up 51.7% of residents. The city is predominantly white (88.4%) followed by Hispanic/Latino (5.2%), Asian (4.8%), Black, (3.3%), Multi-racial (1.9%), and American Indian and Alaska Native (0.2%). High school graduates represent 95.2% of the population with 49.5% of the residents having post-secondary degrees. The median household income in West Des Moines from 2006-2010 was $63,978. I interviewed Leo Kriz, Head of Technical Services for the West Des Moines Public Library. Leo has been employed in this position for the past 17 years. He received an Associate of Arts degree from Kirkwood Community College in 1978. While attending Kirkwood, he worked in the Learning Resource Center. He spent the next eight years attending the University of Iowa and working in the Law Library while earning his Bachelors degree. Leo then earned a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee while working at the Milwaukee Public Library. Leo has also worked at the Cedar Rapids Library, the curriculum lab/childrens library at the University of Iowa Library, the Quincy Public Library (Illinois), and the Sioux City Public Library prior to his employment with the West Des Moines Public

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 Library. Leo was actively involved in the transition when the library moved into its new facility in 1996 as well as rearranging during two remodeling projects. The West Des Moines Public Library uses the Sirsi Dynix Horizon cataloging system; however, they will be changing to the Innovative Sierra cataloging system in January 2013. This new system will host all of the cataloging in an off-site server. In addition, the Innovative Sierra system has an effective Do you mean? feature to help patrons locate information despite common misspellings. The change to the new system has stimulated the deselection process at the library. Leo informed the staff that all areas need to be reviewed and appropriate materials deselected by December. This will allow the cataloging staff adequate time to discard materials, purge outdated subject headings, and update records before the shift to the new system. It is important

that collection is thoroughly reviewed before switching to the new system to avoid wasting time transferring records for materials that are outdated or in poor condition. New items are added to the catalog and existing records are updated on a daily basis. Most of the materials are purchased from Baker and Taylor. This is librarys primary vendor due to the proximity of the warehouse, which enables the library to have access to popular, current titles as they become available. Other library vendors include Brodart, Emery Pratt, Amazon, DVNA, and Midwest Tape. Less than one-third of the cataloging is outsourced through Brodart. These materials arrive shelf-ready with only minor modifications needed to adhere to specific local standards and subject headings. The library is switching from

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 Baker and Taylor AV to Midwest Tape because the audio-visual materials come in new cases and are shelf-ready. The West Des Moines Public Library is also beginning to use Brodart to provide OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) records. Brodart serves as a WorldCat Cataloging partner with the West Des Moines Public Library. The West Des Moines Public Library has 1 full-time employee (Leo) and

two part-time employees in the technical services department. The two part-time employees spend approximately 40 hours cataloging and 40 hours in the circulation department each week. One of the part-time employees is responsible for cataloging periodicals, young adult fiction, and adult fiction. The other part-time employee is responsible for cataloging juvenile fiction and withdrawals. All technical services staff is responsible for authority control, shelfshifting, and inventory procedures. Library materials arrive at the West Des Moines Public Library with jacket covers. The staff is responsible for affixing bar code stickers, spine labels, new book stickers and RFID (Radio Frequency ID) tags. They evaluate imported records from vendors and compare them to MARC records for cataloging purposes. In addition, the staff ensures that any locally created subject headings are added to cataloging records. Leo indicated that the library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification and Library of Congress Subject Headings with some exceptions. When asked about the exceptions, biographies and autobiographies topped the list. Leo stated that these books are always difficult to catalog effectively. The materials need to be

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 cataloged and shelved in a logical location where patrons can easily access them. Leo first examines the photographs included in biographies and autobiographies. If the pictures show the persons childhood and family in addition to his/her chosen vocation, then he might decide to catalog the material as a biography rather than with the subject matter. If the photographs mainly show the subject matter, then the material remains classified using the DDC call number for that particular subject. Leo follows this general rule of thumb:

materials that are at least 60% related to the subject matter remain classified with the subject. In addition, some minor modifications must be made to call numbers to accommodate local subject headings and cataloging procedures. Leo indicated some skepticism regarding the upcoming adoption of RDA (Resource Description and Access) in March 2013. One of his concerns was regarding the general materials designator (GMD). RDA is removing the GMD from bibliographic records. Leo is concerned with this because the GMD allows distinctions to be made for the various formats of a title, including books, ebooks, audio recordings, and DVDs. RDA has also modified the 300 fields to eliminate abbreviations and force records to contain the entire word, for example using illustrations instead of ill. Leo is unsure about the usefulness of some of the changes and has decided that he will not be an early adapter to the RDA system. We discussed the concept of bibliographic integrity at length. Leo stated that bibliographic integrity allows for precision in the recall of information. Bibliographic integrity is a key element in providing relevance and order to the

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 search results. This is important as many libraries are going to one keyword index. This type of system will need to be updated to ensure that all keywords are linked in logical ways. Authority control allows links to be made regarding subject headings, series, parallel titles, and uniform titles. These linkages are important to help patrons locate materials. Leo emphasized that consistency is essential in maintaining bibliographic integrity. For example, Leo began omitting information regarding hearing-impaired subtitles on many of the audio-visual records. Then he heard from a patron who was having difficultly locating current materials that had closed captioning. He realized that this was an important feature of audio-visual materials that should be included in all records. The staff then had to review all audio-visual records to include information about closed captioning. Updating the records helped ensure bibliographic integrity in the

library catalog. Leos advice is that new subject headings need to be maintained once they have been created. Subject headings that are used only sporadically or used and then dropped take away from the bibliographic integrity of the cataloging system. If a subject heading is no longer relevant, then the heading should be deleted from all past records. Finally, Leo feels that bibliographic integrity helps provide as many avenues for access to materials as possible. This includes retrofitting older records with new bibliographic information. Leo provided helpful insight to the concept of bibliographic integrity. I had been having difficulty trying to define the term. His examples and suggestions about consistency with links, subject headings, and other bibliographic information really helped me understand the problems that can arise when

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 bibliographic records are not consistent. I have already dealt with this problem during my brief career as a librarian. I have added local subject headings that identify Iowa authors, award-winning books, and reviewed books, yet I occasionally forget to include those extra headings when I am cataloging new materials. When I finally remember to include those headings, I also have to go back and correct the other bibliographic records. Leo was also able to answer some of my specific cataloging questions. I had trouble cataloging books in the 39 Clues series. I cataloged the books according to author without realizing that the series used multiple authors. Once I realized my error, I pulled the books off the shelf to correct call numbers and update bibliographic records. It made me feel better when Leo shared a similar story about the very same series. Leo provided information about the various genres of fiction books in the West Des Moines library. Western, mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy,

and large-print books all have separate sections within the library collection. Leo said that they classify space travel and futuristic books as science fiction while fantasy books contain mythical creatures, knights, and heroes. This distinction will help me create specific science fiction and fantasy sections as both genres are currently shelved together at my library. Leo provided a suggestion for discarding materials that have been deselected. An organization called Better World will purchase some deselected library materials. The library scans the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) to see if the title is on the list of desired materials. Better World sends

Farnsworth, CIMT 522 Proficiency #3 boxes for shipping the materials to their organization. A percentage of the proceeds go to the library and another portion is donated to a literacy charity. I am definitely going to contact this organization to see if it would take any

materials that have been purged from my school library or our local public library. I would much rather send the books to a group that might use them rather than just throwing them away. This interview definitely opened my eyes to the complexities of cataloging library materials. Overall, I learned that the main goal of cataloging is to help patrons locate the relevant materials quickly and efficiently.

Contact Information Leo Kriz, Head of Technical Services West Des Moines Public Library 4000 Mills Civic Parkway West Des Moines, IA 50265-2049 (515) 222-3410 leo.kriz@wdm.iowa.gov

References United States Census Bureau. (2012). West Des Moines (city) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov

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