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Department overview                                                                            Top of page  

The Department is divided into two Sections:  Cataloging Support Section (CatSS) and Original Cataloging Section (OCS).   CatSS is chiefly responsible for copy and preliminary cataloging and database maintenance work; OCS is responsible for original and complex adaptive cataloging, authority work, and contribution of new name authority records to the national database through participation in the NACO program.

The staff of the Cataloging Dept. creates the Library’s public access catalog through provision and maintenance of catalog records and related holdings records for materials in all formats and languages held in Hamilton and Sinclair Libraries.   In addition we provide records and links to remote electronic resources.   The work of cataloging involves three main elements:  

  1. Descriptive cataloging: bibliographic description of the title cataloged, including selection and formulattion of access points (such as authors, titles, series, etc.)
  2. Subject cataloging: determination of subject content, selection of appropriate subject headings from a standardized thesaurus, and assignment of a call number
  3. Authority control: decisions on the form of catalog headings for names, uniform titles or subjects, creation of cross reference structures to support catalog users in finding access points and to point them to related names, subjects or other access points, and catalog maintenance work to ensure consistency and reliability in catalog search results.





  Mission statement                                                                                              Top of page

The Cataloging Department’s mission is to build and maintain a comprehensive online catalog to serve as primary access to the Library’s collections and as the gateway to remote information resources. The Department’s staff creates and provides timely and accurate bibliographic records of library resources in all formats, languages and subjects. The Department’s responsibility extends also to ongoing maintenance and quality control, and to the retrospective conversion of manual cataloging records into machine-readable records. Through monitoring and upgrading catalog records, Cataloging staff strive to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the database and increase its research value. Cataloging staff strive to meet and anticipate library users’ needs to find and identify library resources, and to be responsive to user requests and queries. The Department also contributes to bibliographic control in the larger academic community and to collection resource-sharing through the uploading of our catalog records and/or holdings into international shared databases.  Catalogers also create and contribute authority records to the shared national database which serves as the major cataloging resource for authorized, standardized library name headings and cross-reference structures.                                                        

Comments to the Pagemaster, CatSS, University of Hawai`i at Manoa Library. Last updated on 01/16/07