The Online Cataloging Tutorial

With assistance from a Technology Planning Grant offered by the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, IMAP conducted a planning and feasibility study for an online tutorial using the template described above. The online tutorial is designed to assist groups and artists to do preliminary cataloging based on a standardized template and to become part of the larger network of archives. The tutorial will use a downloadable template, and will include FAQ's and other teaching aids. The tutorial lays foundation for a more long-term goal, the establishment of a web-based searchable database

While IMAP recognizes that an online tutorial cannot take the place of professional cataloging, most groups will devise a cataloging system of their own because they need to generate lists of titles in their collections. These systems often rely on a variety of word processing and database programs with no relationship to standard cataloging processes and procedures. They are frequently incompatible with other database systems. Often if a professional cataloger is brought in, the system is scrapped and the cataloging work begins again with a new template. The IMAP template provides a standard set of fields, and a standard way of entering data into the fields.

Cataloging is usually done in stages. The stages range from an inventory level record which includes the title, name of maker and other information easily obtained from labels on the work and its container, to a full MARC record which requires viewing of the tape and completing Name and Subject Authority work. The cataloger also has the choice of a collection level record which describes a related group of works in a single record, or an item level record which describes each work in its own record. Through the tutorial, IMAP encourages the use of item level cataloging because it is more useful for research and preservation decision-making. The template is distributed with a set of instructions that explain each field and provides illustrative examples.

The research and planning for the tutorial have addressed many important questions. Two reports were written, one by Jim Hubbard and one by C.B. Cooke of Glyph Media. Contact IMAP for copies of the reports. Planning for the implementation of the cataloging tutorial is on-going.