Co-Chairs
of
the Southern Kentucky Book Fest Committee
by
Jayne Pelaski
The
2004 Southern Kentucky Book Fest was enormously successful!
Hundreds of authors and thousands of readers descended upon
the Sloan Convention Center on Saturday, April 17, to celebrate
reading and their love of books.
 |
| Elaine Walker (center) with Book Fest
authors at a reception |
We
are indebted to the Book Fest co-chairs who devote their time
and energy to the this and other partner events. The Book
Fest partners rely on our co-chairs for guidance and support.
The co-chairs for the 2004 Book Fest were Elaine Walker, John
Grider and Jerald Manning.
Elaine
Walker is the Chair of the Board for the Bowling Green Public
Library. This was her first year as Book Fest co-chair. Since
her arrival in Bowling Green in 1994, she has been a significant
asset to the community.
Elaine’s
love of books and historic preservation drives her to devote
much of her time to various organizations that support these
causes; among the groups she participates in are Downtown
Redevelopment Authority (Chair and Member), Hobson House Commission
(Commissioner), Friends of Riverview (Board Member), Library
Board of Trustees, Landmark Association (Board Member), and
College Hill Historic District (Board Member). Her company,
Peridot Pictures, also provides support to a number of not-for-profit
groups by contributing all or part of their production services
for public service announcements and motivational videos.
Elaine
is a candidate for Mayor of Bowling Green.
John
Grider has served as Book Fest co-chair since 2002. John has
been on the University Libraries' Kentucky Museum Advisory
Council since 1994. His devotion to Western Kentucky University
and the Bowling Green community is well-known.
 |
| John
Grider (right) and Jerald Manning |
John
has served on various boards, including Bowling Green Girls
Club, Warren County Arts Commission, Salvation Army Advisory
Board, and Girls, Inc., where he is listed as a Lifetime Honorary
Board Member. John has received many honors for his dedication.
He was awarded the Western Kentucky University Distinguished
Service Award for 2001, and the 2001 Volunteer of the Year
Award for the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council. He is the
Vice President of Kentucky Trust Bank. John’s accomplishments
are a testament to his hard work and belief in improving the
quality of life in Bowling Green.
Jerald
Manning has also served as Book Fest co-chair since 2002.
Jerald’s tireless efforts on behalf of the Book Fest
are recognized and commended by his colleagues. Each year,
he sponsors and organizes the Famous-Barr Used Book Sale,
which yields thousands of dollars for the Book Fest. This
year, over $15,000 was raised in three days.
Jerald
is deeply committed to our community. Currently, he is Chair
of the Capitol Arts Alliance; Chair of the Western Kentucky
University Library Advisory Council; and President of the
Bowling Green Noon Rotary Club. He also serves in the Bowling
Green Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, and the Bowling
Green-Warren County Community Foundation. In addition, Jerald
serves on the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority
of Bowling Green and is a member of Bowling Green Library
Advisory Council. Previously, Jerald’s community service
includes: Board Member for the Bowling Green Area Chamber
of Commerce, Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau,
and Hilltopper Athletic Foundation. Jerald is the General
Manager of Famous-Barr Department Store.
Elaine,
John and Jerald not only perform Book Fest duties, but they
also participate in our various literary events throughout
the year. Don’t be surprised if you see them collecting
books at "Books and Baskets," sorting books for
the "Famous-Barr Used Book Sale," or assisting an
author at the Book Fest. We are fortunate to have such fine
community leaders at the helm of the Book Fest.
NOTE:
Jerald will be rotating off as Chairman of the Libraries Advisory
Council. Christine Sowders is the new chair of the council
and the new co-chair for the Southern Kentucky Book Fest.
Bibliographic
Access & Authority Control: What Are We Doing?
by
Katy Roe
Tucked
away on one side of the Department of Library Technical Services
on the third floor of Cravens, you will find the Bibliographic
Access Unit, aka “Catalogers and Cataloging Assistants.”
That’s right, we are the ones responsible for assigning
all the books, videos, DVD's, CD's, etc., those little numbers
we call "call numbers." We are also responsible
for making sure that the records associated with each item
are properly entered into our online catalog system called
the TOPCAT so that our faculty, students, and staff can search
and find the material they are looking for.
 |
| From
left to right: Doris Hardcastle, Katy Roe, Linda Davis,
Shiu Yue Mak, Nancy Steen, Jeannie Butler, Ann Brown,
and Rose Davis. Absent from the photo is Deana Groves. |
The
Bibliographic Access Unit is doing more than just cataloging
books and videos. Oh yes, much more. In addition to our regular
cataloging duties, we are all working on a Series Authority
Control Project. Sounds thrilling, doesn't it? Authority control
can be described as a way to maintain consistency of headings
in a bibliographic record, and to show the relationships among
names, works and subjects; in other words, the proper way,
or the “authorized” way a heading should read
in the TOPCAT system.
With
the help of our fearless leaders Rose Davis and Shiu Yue Mak,
we have all attended at least two workshops to learn about
authority control and how we are going to "clean up"
our own authority files already in the TOPCAT system. Rose
and Mak thought it would be easier for us to start with series
authority control. So, after our workshop training in February
2004, the Bibliographic Access Unit started the project of
series authority control.
In
our Unit, you will find our series authority shelf list. Thirty
drawers of series are listed (one series per card), so there
are literally thousands of series that need to be checked.
Each one of us will pull a drawer, take it to our desk, pull
a card, search OCLC—short for Online Computer Library
Center, a national shared cataloging data service—for
that series authority record, import it back to TOPCAT, and
add that record to our database. We may also have to work
with bibliographic record(s) attached with the series to correct
them according to the authority record.
 |
| The
cataloging team at work on the third floor of Cravens |
It
is a very slow and tedious process, and there are problems
that we encounter along the way, but we work through them
as we go. We estimate that we have already done over 5,000
records.
In
order to search a series in TOPCAT, use the “Series/Uniform
title” search. If you get a listing that says “series”
or “non-series” title, be sure you click on the
“series” title. This tells you that this is the
authorized form of that particular series, and all reference
information will be listed as well. Here are some
links that may be of interest to those wanting or needing
further information about authority control and searching:
www.wku.edu/Library/dlats/dlats_onlineres.htm,
and www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/jf03/jf03_locatorplus.html.
This
is a project that will continue for some time. Once completed,
you will be able to access series titles from different points,
including names as well as any references and cross-references.
Even though there are still thousands more series cards to
check from our shelf list, we have gotten off to a great start
with the 5,000 or so series titles that have already been
entered. We still have a long way to go, but our series authority
control project is well on its way. |
