Saturday, September 23, 2017

‘Location’ enhances ability to track library resources

Lap-top computer, with single copy of a book next to it, 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. The screen displays a headline identifying the operation, 'Specify information to change and scan barcode.' Below it is an input field with a string of numbers in it, and, beneath that, a drop-down menu set to 'Home Location' with a second drop-down menu next to it specifying, 'LIBRARY (IMT 102).' The cursor arrow is poised over a button marked 'Update.' Additional copies of the book are stacked behind and to the right of the laptop computer.

Cataloging is essential to tracking a library’s resources — in this case, inventory of educational items among Santa Rosa City Schools. Bringing a librarian-mindset to my job as Instructional Materials Technician, I’m creating records for resources in-use at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts.

I’ve mentioned that as part of adding new arrivals to the catalog, I use a “Home Location” field to specify where on campus each item resides. But in addition to cataloging resources in classrooms, I’ve also been creating records for items that are stored here in “Textbook HQ.”

With more titles and copies added near-daily, it became increasingly important to specify storage-location.

So for each cabinet where I am storing books, I devised alphanumeric labeling. Next, I updated the affected items’ records to specify that physical location. The photo above depicts an action to indicate that books are in “IMT-102.” The photo below offers a view of books on the shelf inside the labeled cabinet.

Several copies of 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, shelved with their spines facing outward on a shelf in a cabinet. A closed cabinet door in the right of the frame has a label attached to it, reading 'IMT-102.'

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