Shab, sheet music collection project, 12/19/2014

Today I managed to finish drawer 5 and start drawer 6 of the sheet music collection project.  Jeanette, there are some fields highlighted in red in the drawer 5 spreadsheet and also some note fields highlighted in red in the drawer 6 spreadsheet.  Could you please review those to see if they are correct once you have time.  Thanks!  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 12/12/2014

Today I cataloged 68 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  Most of the questions I have I've asked before (caption title, etc.)  I'm now starting to see cards, usually the foreign language ones, where there's what looks like another title(??) in brackets above the regular title in its field; Jeanette, if you need to, please remind me to show you a sample card next week.  I'm not sure what to do about this because it's confusing to have both the title and this information printed in that way on the same card.  (The card for row 1150 is like that, I believe, and that entire card is full of confusing bits of information, so I've highlighted it in red).  I'm also wondering if an arranger is mentioned such as "arranged by so and so" (row 1159 for example) or if the word "arranger" is mentioned next to the name on the card, should that name be in the arranger's column/field on the spreadsheet instead of the composer's field or the 246/"words by..." field?  Jeanette, please let me know your thoughts on this.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, 11/21/2014

Today I cataloged 90 cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  I have had another couple of cards which say something like "from the J. C. Penney bicentennial celebration, check card such and such."  I remember cataloging the card that it's cross referencing to so all I'm doing is inputting whatever information is on these complementary cards; I hope that's correct (they're highlighted in red, rows 1031 and 1034).  I may also have to add a 547(?) language column next time as I am seeing more and more of the foreign language cards now have notes about the languages the music is in (for now they're in the note field; I'll make another column for them).  Otherwise, there weren't any concerns except I am wondering if descriptions of titles (like row 1086) where it describes what that music is, like "an original theme...", etc. should be in another field?  Maybe the note field?  Jeanette, please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 11/14/2014

Today I cataloged 80 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  Nothing particularly new came up except for an odd thing on the cards in rows 924-925 - it just says "composers'" before the publication date (highlighted in red).  Another issue is if a card mentions what languages the music is in (row 990) and I'm not sure where that information goes (for now I have put it in the note field, Jeanette, please let me know what you think about this).  Also, it is okay to include multiple notes in the note field?  The card for row 929 included two notes in it.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 11/7/2014

Today I cataloged 60 more cards of drawer 5's sheet music collection project.  No particularly major problems, though I am wondering more and more about some of the titles in the more complex foreign language and multiple song pieces of music - Jeanette, please let me know what you think because I do find occasional strange things in the title fields of some cards.  I'm wondering if "op. __ and no. __" still go in the title field or not, for example.  I've highlighted row 905 in red to be reviewed.  The other thing I wondered is if the "date illegible [18--]" would be included in the date field on the spreadsheet or should be in a note field (I mean just the "date illegible" part; I assume the [18--] would still go in the date field).  Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this as well.  Thanks!  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 10/31/2014

Today I cataloged 50 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No real questions or concerns to report.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 10/24/2014

Today I cataloged 50 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No particular issues except one piece of music does need to be checked against the hard copy upstairs because I'm pretty certain the publisher's name has a typo on the card.  The other issue I had which is relatively minor is I'm not sure about some of the titles on the music composed by Percy Aldridge Grainger.  They're all pieces of movements so there seemed to be info in the title fields which I'm not entirely sure I've cataloged correctly; Jeanette, please let me know your feedback on these whenever you have a chance.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, 10/17/2014

Today I cataloged 64 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  There were a batch of foreign language compound music piece cards that proved to be more challenging than usual with new information I'm not sure belongs on the spreadsheet or if so, where.  Jeanette, like we discussed, I've highlighted anything I'm not certain about in red on the spreadsheet for you to see so it should be several assorted fields and rows after row 705.  Thanks for your feedback today.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 10/10/2014

Today I cataloged 70 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No real issues to report except an odd note on one of the cards (this row is highlighted in red on the spreadsheet, row 667).  The card said "(for full information see author card)".  I think this is some kind of cross reference card but I'm not sure what (if anything) I'm supposed to do with it regarding the spreadsheet.  Jeanette, please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, 9/26/2014

Today I cataloged 50 cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  The only question I have in particular is about whether some of the description in the title field (like a title is the theme of something, etc.) should be in the title or note field.  For now I'm leaving it in the title field merely because a lot of music from television and movies doesn't have specific titles but is merely known as the "love theme" or theme of tv show/movie x.  Please let me know if there's any feedback for this.  Thanks!  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 9/19/2014

Today I cataloged 54 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection.  Jeanette, there were a couple of cards which had odd words all over them (I've highlighted them in yellow) if you'd like to check them over - rows 530 (foreign language card which I'm uncertain about) and 546 which had a peculiar note written on the card I had no idea what to make of.  Otherwise everything was routine.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 09/05/2014

Today I managed to catalog 48 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  Other than some questionable foreign language cards, I don't think I had any particular new issues.  I am still wondering if notes like "all rights reserved to ___ and ___" should be in the publisher field (where I've been putting it) or the note field.  However, so far I have not received any feedback about it so I'm assuming I'm doing it correctly.  Otherwise, most everything was routine.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 8/29/2014

Today I cataloged 55 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  There were a couple of foreign language cards (rows 471-472) that were confusing to figure out if you want to review them and make sure everything is correct (I highlighted the particular fields I'm uncertain about).  I also have questions about rows 459 (field I'm not sure about highlighted in red) and 466 (highlighted in red - whether information about who did the original and revised versions of the music should go in the "words and music by" field or the note field).  Otherwise, most everything was routine.  

today I have cataloged Files MS 150 and MS 151 (Juv. Non-Fiction files. Total titles cataloged = 49 titles.

Rani Ghosh 8/25/2014

Today I cataloged two Juvenile Non-Fiction files File  No. MS 152 and MS 146.

Total titles cataloged = 24 + 24 = 48 titles.

Devnagri Script Catalog Project

week of 8/1/2014 (1 hour)
HPCL volunteer sign-in and training with Jeanette

week of 8/8/2014 (5 hour)
Investigated OCLC and HPCL scripts and options to convert them to Devnagri script

week of 8/15/2014 (2 hour)
Updated sample records in the excel sheet with devnagri script and send the records for testing to Jeanett.

worked between 9/1/2014 and 2/28/2015 but have entered time in the time sheet. 200 records have been converted.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 8/22/2014

Today I managed to catalog 56 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  I have no particular major issues to ask about this week though I am now starting to wonder if it's okay to put multiple notes in the note field (a "recorded by" and a note about soundtrack, like row 354, cell Q).  I'm assuming this is the correct way to do it unless I'm told otherwise so please let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Rani Ghosh 08/18/2014

Today I cataloged Files SB 146 and SB 147 (YA) - 32 titles.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 8/15/2014

Today I managed to catalog 40 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No major problems, except for having to move something from the publisher field to the place field since I didn't realize till today that it's the name of a township in Pennsylvania.  I've corrected all instances of it here (Bryn Mawr, PA is the name) but my previous spreadsheets for drawers 3 and 4 might have the same mistake on them.  Otherwise, nothing particularly new.  I vaguely recall asking this before but I'm wondering if a printing agreement (for example row 358, highlighted in yellow) still belongs in the publisher field or a note field?  To me it reads more like a note than something that would go in the publisher field but that's just me.  Jeanette, please feel free to let me know your thoughts on this and thanks for your help!  

Rani Ghosh 8/13/14

Today I have cataloged Files MS 147 and MS 149 (Juvenile) . Total titles cataloged = 44.

Rani Ghosh 8/11/2014

Today I completed Files MS 113, MS111 and MS 110. I cataloged 43 titles.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 8/8/2014

Today I cataloged 55 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No particular new issues arose, although I'm still not sure where information [in the publisher field] about rights reserved and rights controlled and the distributor still belong in the publisher field or elsewhere.  The other minor issue I was wondering about is if there's a title broken up by punctuation (example: Hush! Little mother), would the word after the punctuation mark be capitalized or not?  Please let me know if you have any thoughts.  Thanks.

Rani Ghosh 8/6/2014

Today I cataloged File # SK 315 - 24 titles (Adult Non-Fiction) and File # MS 113 - 25 titles (Juvenile Non-Fiction)  Total 49 titles.

Rani Ghosh 8/4/2014

Today I have cataloged Files SK 288, SK 291 and SK 314. Toal cataloged = 57 titles. 

Shab, sheet music collection project, 8/01/2014

Today I cataloged 75 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  Most everything was routine; however, one thing has occurred to me: sometimes the title field has a note in it, something like "from such and such play".  I've been putting the note in the note field and trying to remember if I ever put it in the title field before these types of notes were so commonplace (because I didn't realize they wouldn't be in the title field when I first started cataloging the cards).  I'll go back and check this spreadsheet and my previous ones and see if I did that so I can correct them by moving them to the note field [if I wrongly put them in the title field].  Otherwise, there's nothing new to report.

Rani Ghosh Precats 7/28/2014

Today I have completed cataloging 40 titles from Files:

SK 289  - 15 titles
SK 316   - 20 titles
SK 316   -    5 titles.
TOTAL     40 titles

Shab, sheet music collection project, 7/25/2014

Today I managed to catalog 62 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No particularly new issues, though I did wonder if the name of a band (as opposed to the name of a person in the responsibility field) should be in the name field but for now, that's where I've put it (please let me know if this is wrong).  The foreign language cards also continue to be challenging in terms of the ones from the Houston Saengerbund Collection - it is difficult to tell if any of the words in the titles should be capitalized or not (some of them often look like names, but this is not something I can run through Google translate).  For now I am treating the titles as I treat the other titles on the cards.  I did find one more name discrepancy that will need to be checked against the hard copy sheet music upstairs, but otherwise, everything else was mostly routine.

Rani Ghosh, Cataloging 7/25/2014

I have cataloged 30 titles of Adult non-fiction.(Sirsi) a1728845

Rani Ghosh, Cataloging, 7/23/2014

Today I cataloged 17  non-fiction titles of File CH 185. I had a question about the call number of "Mad as hell" by David Itzkoff.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 7/18/2014

Today I managed to input the data from 50 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  I did notice two strange new problems: 1. One of the cards had an entry in the publisher field that was clearly not a publisher (according to my online research of that piece of music); I put it in the publisher field anyway and have highlighted it in yellow (the song is Hike with Ike by Helen Gay).  I'm not sure what else would be in the field though that precedes right before the publication date.  2.  I'm still struggling with the titles as well, the ones that appear to have possibly alternate or some type of series title, such as the cards which are for the religious or processional music or the foreign language cards which are usually part of a series of compositions.  Jeanette, I've also highlighted a couple of these cards' titles in yellow because I used the "other title" fields for them.  If this is incorrect, please let me know and thanks.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 7/11/2014

Today I cataloged 66 more cards of drawer 5 of the sheet music collection project.  No real issues or anything new.  I did have some more titles separated by slashes and a couple with other titles in parenthesis and when I deemed appropriate, I used the other title field (one was a foreign and English title); Jeanette, please let me know if there are any problems with these fields (or any others) once you have time to review the spreadsheet.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, drawers 4 and 5

Today I managed to finish cataloging the remainder of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project and also began drawer 5 of the same project.  Just some notes I want to mention; I reviewed the spreadsheet after I finished drawer 4 and Jeanette, there are several instances where (per our discussion), the content notes contain information I normally put in the instrumentation field (the fields at the beginning of the spreadsheet).  This must have been how the previous cataloger was doing it (highlighted in yellow).  I moved some of the information to the instrumentation field but it will take a long time to go through the entire spreadsheet to do it all as well as look at the cards involved so I didn't bother to go back and change every instance of it (only the ones where it only required cutting and pasting from the contents notes field to the instrumentation field).

The other thing I want to mention is the subject headings.  In the subject headings prior to my working on drawer 4, there are fields which just have, for instance, a "t" in them (because some of the cards will say something like "I. t" in the lower bottom where the subject headings are usually listed).  When Cecilia trained me to do the subject headings, she told me to ignore anything that was preceded with Roman numerals (I., II., etc.) and only catalog those headings with the regular, Arabic numbers (1., 2., etc.)  So unless there's a heading fitting those rules, I don't put it on the spreadsheet (unlike the person before me who cataloged the ones with a Roman numeral in front, and so put the "t" in the subject headings on the sheet).  I'm going to assume this is the correct way to do it?  So please let me know if it's not because this is how I've been doing it all along and the way Cecilia agreed it should be done.  Thanks for all your help and feedback today!  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 6/13/2014

Today I managed to catalog 91 more cards of the sheet music collection project's drawer 4.  Progress was quicker due to fewer issues, though there were some such as information I've never seen before on the cards about the type of edition it is.  One card had some information on it about the music being copyright in a particular place; I didn't know if this is something that ought to be mentioned on the card somewhere so I've made a note about it in the "your notes, comments" field of entry on the spreadsheet.  There were some other minor issues, more titles being separated by forward slashes and more foreign language card ambiguity, but otherwise everything was mostly routine.  I should have this drawer finished next week (about 20 cards are remaining?) and move on to the next drawer by then.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 6/6/2014

Today I managed to input the data from 64 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project and am nearing the end of this drawer (I anticipate finishing it in another 2 weeks).  Nothing particularly new that I have not mentioned before came up, although the foreign language cards do tend to have more and more random information all over them.  I'm not sure where, if anywhere, to catalog the information about how many scores there are and other such random information (I've highlighted the relevant cards in red to be reviewed).  There's another card I marked with a yellow post-it note because it seems to have more than one title on it?  I'm not sure.  This one may need to be looked at upstairs because the way the information is written on the cards sometimes is very unclear.  (Jeanette, it's the card with the post-it note taped over the top side if you want to look at it).  Otherwise, most everything was routine.  I've found that OpenLibrary's website is a huge help when trying to figure out if a particular name is a composer, publisher, someone else because they have a search function for publishers, including those for foreign titles (Googling often leads to nowhere because the names of foreign publishers are often too common to track down with Google).  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 5/30/2014

Today I managed to input the data from 57 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project.  Most everything was routine, though there are still occasional instances of cards where there's odd information in odd places.  The foreign language cards continue to be a challenge and one of them had so much random information on it everywhere, I've highlighted those fields in red to be looked at if necessary.  Jeanette, please let me know if there are any problems on mistakes on the latest cards next week.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, 5/23/2014

Today I managed to input data from 64 more cards of drawer 4 for the sheet music collection project.  Most everything was routine.  I have noticed another couple of name-spelling discrepancies (highlighted in red and yellow) which will need to be checked against the hard copy sheet music upstairs.  The only other major problem was a card which had information, much of it in brackets, all over the place.  Most of it was easy to catalog; however, there was one unusual new problem.  This card had the words "caption title" on it.  Never having come across that phrase before, I looked it up.  The Oxford Reference Dictionary online defines it as "Title above a chapter, section, article, or the title beginning a work without a title-page; also used for a description beneath an illustration." http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810104542337)  Being that this card has the title in regular format and also in brackets, my assumption is the title itself is a caption title, that is, a title that is the specific title for that section of the sheet music?  Looking up "caption title" in the OCLC website (

http://oclc.org/bibformats/en/2xx/246.html) shows that caption titles are a type of variant title.  Therefore, I wonder if the title of this piece of music should actually be in the "other title" field on the spreadsheet as well (the regular formatted title in the title field, and the bracketed title in the "other title" field?)  For now, I've highlighted the questionable fields in red for that card.  Jeanette, please let me know if you have any thoughts on this and/or you'd like me to make any changes on the spreadsheet.  Thanks!

Shab, sheet music collection project, 5/16/2014

Today I managed to input information from 58 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project.  No particularly new problems except the foreign language cards continue to be a challenge since Google Translate often doesn't understand what the text on the cards is.  I have to use some logic and guesswork to input the information on one of the German or French language cards which Google did not help translating as much as I would've liked.  The other strange issues continue to be related to multiple titles separated by slashes and other odd entries in unusual fields on the cards, such as a card that said "[after]", followed by the composer's last name.  Neither Jeanette nor I knew what to make of it.  Another card had two different numbers in the pages field, one of them in brackets (Jeanette thought maybe the sheet music had an extra page that wasn't designated by a page number?)  The problem fields have been highlighted in red.  Otherwise, everything was routine.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 5/9/2014

Today I managed to catalog 80 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project - progress was much faster today because most of the cards were routine, except for a foreign language card which required a little research.  I only have two particular issues today, 1) did we ever figure out what "n.p." on the cards means?  Jeanette, I think you said it means unpaged?  If so, does it need to be input anywhere on the spreadsheet because I saw it on a card again today, and 2) there will be a great deal of highlighting and some names highlighted in red because there are so many spelling discrepancies for those names (including someone correcting some, but not all the spellings in handwriting).  I think it's best to avoid Googling and guessing and just check the sheet music upstairs to see how the names are spelled.  Therefore, I've highlighted and marked red all the appearances of those particular names on the spreadsheet.  Otherwise, I can't think of anything else that needs any attention this week.  I also needed to put in an alternate title that was not mentioned on a particular card but I already checked with Jeanette and she's fine with this.  However, the issue of multiple titles on cards is becoming more prevalent.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 5/2/2014

Today I managed to catalog 73 more cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project.  Given Jeanette and my discussion today, the only odd thing I found was a couple or so cards which had multiple titles (and multiple authors/composers) on one card, making me think there are some pieces of music which are collections of more than one song/piece of music.  I wasn't sure what to do about this; for now, I've typed it all into the title field, but I imagine that's not correct.  I've highlighted the fields in red and yellow in case the sheet music upstairs also needs to be checked, so please let me know what you think.  Otherwise, most everything was routine.  I did have another entry where it says "Series" and then the title (I think I've mentioned this in a blog entry before?)  I put it into the series field but like before, I'm not sure if it goes there or should be in the uniform title field, since technically, a series title is a uniform title of everything in that series, isn't it?  I'm not sure.  Please let me know your thoughts on this as well, if you have any.  

Shab, sheet music collection project 4/17/2014

Today I managed to input the data from 68 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project.  Challenges this week included more peculiarities with the titles.  I think I have the other title problem figured out; however, what is peculiar is that a couple of cards seemed to have what could be more than one title [of a song] in the same field.  The reason I'm guessing this is because when I checked the lyrics online for the songs with the questionable titles, there were no lyrics including the words of what appears to be the other title in the song, that is, usually the alternate title is a refrain or a part of the song, which wasn't the case.  I have a feeling some of the sheet music may have multiple titles or songs on it so I highlighted it in red and yellow to check with the hard copy music upstairs.  Another thing I want to mention: the person who worked on this drawer before me is doing some of the cataloging differently from what I am where it concerns the note and instrumentation fields, that is, some of the content note fields have information that I put in either the general note field or the instrumentation field, etc.  I am continuing to do it the way Cecilia has shown me for now; Jeanette, if there are any problems with this, please let me know so I can make any necessary changes.  The last very odd thing I noticed is a question mark in the middle of the date on one of the cards.  At first I thought it might be a typo, but it appeared twice and the ? key is nowhere near the 9 key, so I think it was on purpose.  I don't remember what this means, if anything, according to cataloging standards, so please let me know if something needs to be done about it (for now I typed it in exactly the way it was on the card and highlighted in red).  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 4/10/2014

Today I managed to catalog 50 more cards of the sheet music collection project.  There were no particular problems or strange occurrences except for an odd entry in the publisher field (highlighted in red on the spreadsheet for review).  Jeanette, I also finished inputting the date fields because they some were missing since I didn't use the regular spreadsheet last week, so that's taken care of.  Otherwise, I have nothing particular to report.  

Shab, sheet music collection project, 4/03/14

Today I input 54 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project (just a reminder to Jeanette to copy the spreadsheet - saved as "Shab0403" - into the regular spreadsheet since Amber and I couldn't find it on the computer).  In terms of the cataloging, most everything was routine.  I wasn't sure where to put info like "piano solo by ____" so I put it in the note field for now, though I'm not sure if it belongs in the "words and music by" field (but I've been putting info about specific performances in the note field).  Another thing I'm not entirely sure about is titles that are separated by forward slashes (/).  I'm keeping all of it in the main title field for now, but sometimes it's hard to tell if it's some type of alternate title and should therefore be in the other title field or not.  Jeanette, please let me know if you have any thoughts on this. 

Shab, sheet music collection project, 3/27/2014

Today I cataloged 42 more cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project.  Unusual problems this week included not being sure where to put a title with the word "SERIES" in front of it.  Originally, I thought (like the other volunteer who has worked on this drawer) that it belongs in the other title field.  However, I did notice the spreadsheet has a field just for series, so now I'm not sure.  For now I put them under series and highlighted them in red (if incorrect, please let me know).  The German foreign language cards are also proving challenging because I'm not sure which words to capitalize since Google Translate cannot help with that much being that they're not uniquely used words.  I'm also unsure if another title that says something like "military march" is really an other title or should be in one of the note fields.  I had another card say (vocal edition) and this I'm also unsure where to put (highlighted in red for review).  Same for "galop de concert."  For now I put them in the note fields but please let me know if they should be moved. 

Shab, sheet music collection project, 2/20/2014

Today I managed to input 53 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project.  Progress was considerably slower this week due to several challenges: more foreign language music that required some Googling to make certain I wasn't putting any information in the wrong fields, as well as some new problems.  One card had no date or anything in the date field so I wasn't sure if I should leave it blank or put "n.d." (which is what I ended up doing).  Another card had the title "Sir" in the name field (like Sir Edmund Hillary).  I remember from library school that titles and designations like Mister, Junior, Senior, etc. are not supposed to be cataloged but I wasn't sure if this qualified or not (Jeanette, if you want to check, I highlighted this word in red for you on the spreadsheet).  Some of the publisher fields have some descriptive information in the field ("exclusive agent for", etc.) and I'm not entirely sure where, if anywhere, it belongs on the spreadsheet.  For now I'm cataloging all that information exactly as I see it on the card.  And I had one instance this week of an English and a foreign language title so wasn't sure if the foreign language title qualifies as an alternate title to be put in the other title field, but that's what I have done for now.  Jeanette, please let me know if this is correct. 

Herrera Metadata Project - Michelle Godfrey, March 19, 2014

Today I worked on MSS160-b4-f01 and was finally able to complete the remaining items in this jumbo folder. I also got to review previously completed items and go back to correct a few of my typos. Fortunately, there were no problems wrapping up of this project.

All good things come to an end and I have had a wonderful time volunteering here. I learned so much and will truly miss having this experience. It makes me happy and thankful to have been a small part in such a great place.

Best regards,
Michelle

Shab, sheet music collection project, 3/13/2014

Today I managed to input the data from 55 more cards of drawer 4 of the sheet music collection project.  I have no particularly difficult problems; however, I do want to mention that since the volunteer trained by Jeanette started this drawer, there may be some discrepancies by what information I put in what field (concerning the note and instrumentation fields) as opposed to the volunteer who worked on this spreadsheet before me because Cecilia is the one who got me started on this project.  Jeanette, if you have any questions about this, feel free to ask since it's a little complicated to explain it in a blog post.  Otherwise, mostly it was as routine as usual.  I did have one peculiar instance where there were two names separated by a forward slash (/) in the name field.  I tried to research this to see why it was like this but since it was a more obscure song, I couldn't figure it out - as such, I just put the names in exactly the way they were listed on the card in the name field.  Please let me know if there's a problem with this. 

Shab, sheet music collection project, 3/6/2014

Today I managed to finish cataloging the remaining cards in drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project and have now moved on to the next drawer.  Most of the information is routine, though I did have to deal with many more spelling discrepancies in drawer 3 - mostly, I just google the names to get the correct spellings and use those to save anyone the trouble of having the keep checking the hard copy sheet music upstairs.  Otherwise, I didn't notice any particularly unusual problems.  I did have one strange card where there was just a name in the area where the publication information is usually listed (not a person who self-published, but just a name typed next to the publishing company).  I tried to research and figure out who this person might be so as to add the information to the correct field but I couldn't find anything because this is a fairly obscure song.  As such, I decided to just leave that information out of the spreadsheet.  Otherwise, everything else seemed fairly routine as always, no foreign language cards to deal with today. 

Herrera Metadata, Michelle Godfrey - Feb. 18, 2014

Today, I was able to work more on MSS160-b4-f01.  As I get closer to the end of the folder, I noticed that some of the titles of the items could be revised for the sake of consistency. I also noticed that I need to revise some of the authors of the documents. Those should be relatively quick and easy updates and after the last few new items are done, the whole folder will be completed...finally.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 2/13/2014

Today I managed to input 76 more cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project, thanks mostly to the ease of the cards in this set (no foreign language cards or particularly unusual problems).  There were very few anomalies I can recall - one was some research involved into finding "Reader's Digest" in the publication field on one of the cards.  It took me some digging to realize that this wasn't just the name of the popular magazine, but that Reader's Digest also had a music publication division at some point (and still does?)  I am also once again finding some cards with information on both sides of the card, but since most of this info doesn't go along alphabetically in drawer 3's music spreadsheet, I've been told to ignore it.  Otherwise, it seemed like mostly everything was routine.  I am also at this point close to finishing inputting the cards from drawer 3 so if the cards are as routine as they were this week, next week (or the week after at the latest), I should be finished inputting all the cards from drawer 3 of this project. 

Herrera metadata project - Elaine Patton, 02/06/2014

Today I worked on MSS160-b3-f22 as my final project (!). It's been a great run! :)

I knew I'd seen HPLM_MSS160-b3-f22-16 (a program for an event "Honoring and Supporting" LBJ) before in another folder that I've done before, and hooray, I was able to easily locate the other version, HPLM_MSS160-b3-f13-02. The one from today is the better version, for what it's worth: the one from folder 13 has a blue tint. I've identified each as a Version Of the other in their records.

This folder actually contained several sets of "Version of" documents: same letter or note with different handwritten note added or addressed to different people, which made things very easy. There was a handful of Spanish-language documents, most of which could be described as "script for endorsement of Connally."

I noticed, as I was reviewing the records list, a few of the items had little padlock icons next to them that I haven't seen before... however, going back into the record and re-publishing got rid of them. Doesn't seem to matter, but just wanted to mention that.
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Nothing says "victory party!" (in the old-fashioned way...?) like a invitation written like an office memo.

Shab, sheet music collection project - 2/6/2014

Today I managed to catalog 54 more cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project and am now past the final tab in the drawer (Denver, John).  Progress was significantly slowed by a large number of complex foreign language cards that required some usage of Google Translate and some general online research to make sure I was putting the information in the right fields (since I had to translate some words first or check to see if a word was a title, publisher, something else, needing capitalization or not, and other concerns of the like).  For the most part I am confident of the work I've done.  I do get occasionally confused still about random information showing up and where it belongs - one such card was referring to another card, for instance - but most of it is straightforward.  The other thing I've noticed is, especially with the foreign language music cards, there tend to be a large amount of spelling errors and discrepancies between cards with regard to the composers' names.  This has required a lot of research today.  Some simple Google searches usually clears up the problem but sometimes I wonder if the people who typed the cards looked at the names on the music at all because they're spelled very oddly on several different cards and the same mistakes are made over and over.  Otherwise, the only specific problem was the word "reduced" used in some of the music descriptions, which we're assuming is another way to say abridged? 

Herrera Metadata, Michelle Godfrey - Jan 31, 2014

Still working through the MSS160-b4-f01. The only questionable item I encountered was a handwritten document with no date. I was not sure what title to give it and basically just did the transcription in the description field. All else went well and the end of this huge folder really is in sight.

Shab, sheet music collection project, 1/30/2014

Today I managed to input data from 65 more cards into the sheet music collection project spreadsheet.  My progress this week was slowed by several unusual problems I haven't encountered much before: the mysterious abbreviated "n.p." (which could mean unpaged?), more spelling and typo problems which may require checking the hard copy music upstairs, foreign language cards problems, the bizarre new phenomenon of finding multiple titles on a single card (which don't appear to be a series, but rather just different song titles on the same card), finding information in areas different from where they would normally be on the card (for instance, one had "Church" written on a card for a sacred processional song next to the supposed title of the song - where normally the publisher's name is written; another example had Berlin - presumably the place of publication? - written next to the date without anything else written next to it).  The problem I'm most unsure about today could be the card that had a full table of contents of the music in it.  I vaguely remember having another card before with the table of contents listing on it and if I remember correctly, I was advised not to include it in the spreadsheet; however, for this card, since the contents numbered 1-3, I did put it into the contents note field.  Now that I think about it, however, I do get a strong feeling it doesn't belong there so I may go and delete it. 

Herrera Metadata, Michelle Godfrey - Jan. 23, 2013

Today I was able to resume work for MSS160-b4-f01. There were no problems with any of the items I was able to complete. This large folder still has several more documents to process, but the end is in sight.

Photos & Herrera metadata

Scanned a few extra photos, then worked on a few more Herrera folders: MSS160-b3-f23, -f25, -f26, and -f27.

HPLM_MSS160-b3-f27-01 is in Spanish; seems to be the same sort of layout as the text for a radio broadcast speech from an earlier folder, though. Ditto for -02, -03 (which may be a rough draft version of 01), and -04. The other two items were English, though, and I was able to complete the records for them.

Sheet Music Cataloging Project- Emily Perkins 1/16/14

Today I inputted data from 73 cards. The issues I encountered today were spelling inconsistencies and the one to many relationship between artists and publishers. Of the twenty cards cataloging the sheet music of Antonin Dvorak, his name was spelled "Dvořák" once, "Dvǒrák" once, "Anton" twice, and "Dvorak, Antonin" the rest of the time. It seems that the catalogers had no idea how to spell his name and didn't bother to at least make it uniform. If I'm going to spell someone's name wrong, I'll at least do it wrong every time, not just throw in some possibly correct entries hoping one of them is right. I'm not sure how this will affect searching, but it can't be good. Also, I noticed that most artists use several publishers, and often for the same song. But those publishers are usually never spelled the same way twice. I did all of the Bob Dylan cards today (yay!) and I noticed that he only used about six different publishers for the 38 songs in our catalog, but they are spelled several different ways making it look like almost fifteen different publishers. I would like to use authority files to fix this, but I will bring this up after I finish drawer 4, which I am about 1/3 of the way through. I now know how to use the concatenate and find and replace functions in excel, and I think this might make editing and fixing easier at the end!

Department photos & Herrera metadata

Finished up scanning the department photos with no problems.

Finished up MSS160-b3-f13, which I'd started...about a month ago! A couple of the items were only partial letters: the first page of one, the second page of another. I also completed MSS160-b3-f21 with no complications.

Shab, sheet music collection project

Today I managed to input 76 more cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project.  Aside from the routine cards, oddities included finding what seemed to be a card listing more than one piece of music on it (two different titles and composers), a possible spelling error ("wondring"?), and uncertainties about titles because of two different titles separated by forward slashes (/).  I tried Googling some of these titles to see if they could be uniform or alternate or subtitles but most of these songs are so little-known, I couldn't turn up anything whereas normally I usually get some page hits on lyrics sites for the more famous songs to be able to discern possible alternate title designations.  Aside from this, two general questions came up:  1) what to do (if anything) about cards which have notations of them such as "pre-1900".  The dates are already noted on the spreadsheet so for now I'm not including these notations anywhere.  I'm not certain they need to be included in the spreadsheet because they don't seem to fit under any of the current fields and 2) a concern another person working on this project brought up, which is if "popular song sheet" really belongs in the instrumentation field.  It never occurred to me before, but it makes sense.  Please see my comment to Emily Perkins's last post dated January 2 to see my thoughts on this.  Thanks! 

Deptartment Photographs - Elaine Patton, 1/9/2014

Today I worked on scanning photos out of the department albums. Have about a third-ish of the older album to complete.

Straightforward but for the apparently missing photo here and there:

• catdept-015 is on the bottom half of a page titled Surprise Party for Rosa Lin and next to a caption listing 10 names, but only 3 people are visible in that photo.
• catdept-016 is on the top half of a page for Monica Simon's leaving the catalog department; a caption of names is on the bottom half, but there's no photo to accompany it.
• catdept-018's album page has a caption listing names with no matching photo
• catdept-162's page was missing a photo.
• catdept-277's album page was missing a group picture.

Other:

• catdept-027 & -028 have both 2006 and 2007 written on the back; the latter has "January ? 2007", so I assume 2007 is just when they were added, maybe?
• 094-120 were in an envelope in the back of the newer album.

Shab, sheet music collection project

Today I managed the input the data from 52 cards of drawer 3 of the sheet music collection project.  As always, most of the cards were straightforward.  I only came up with two unusual issues that I have highlighted for further follow-up.  One of the cards had a designation I didn't recognize: it said n.p.  (on the card with the title Flee as a bird by Mary S.B. Dana).  I asked Jeanette and she seemed to think it could mentioned unpaged?  I didn't put it into the spreadsheet (Cecilia, please let me know if this is wrong so I can correct it next week).  The other issue was another strange thing I've never seen before: where the publisher's name normally appears, it said "Henry G. Thayer Orchestra Library" (Cecilia, I've highlighted this in blue and marked the text red for you to check the card because for now, I put it in the publisher field though it most likely doesn't belong on the spreadsheet?)  I tried to google it to see if there really is such a library somewhere to shed some light on why it was on the card but came up with no results.  Otherwise, everything was mostly routine. 

Sheet Music Cataloging Project- Emily Perkins, 1/2/14

Today I inputted data from 86 cards. I came across something new today when I saw a Collection referenced where the Publisher is usually indicated. If no publisher is listed, can a collection go in the publisher field? This specific collection was the "Houston Saengerbund Collection." As I worked today I had more thoughts about the publisher field. Are there authorities for record companies (perhaps LOC) so as to provide some uniformity and improved searchibility? Every other time a company is listed it's shortened, or abbreviated, or lengthened. How important is uniformity in this case? I feel like if there's any area where uniformity is important, it's cataloging. Also, many times a single card will list multiple Publishers, sometimes appearing after a backslash, a comma, or within parentheses after the first publisher is listed. While this relation is unclear to me, I think that is less important than finding a single way to separate these elements so that a person who knows one of the two or three publishers associated with that piece of music can find the MARC record easily. Perhaps a semicolon with a space on either side? I guess it depends with how the spreadsheet gets uploaded. I am also starting to notice a correlation between the "Instrumentation" field and "Subject 1 (600, 650, 700)," when that subject is not a person. And I am beginning to believe that "Popular song sheet" should not be listed in the instrumentation field. But I am not sure where else I would like to see it.