Flash-Mob Cataloging Party
We're having a "flash-mob" cataloging party November 15th, Saturday, in Beverly, MA (just north of Boston). We'll descend on St. John's Episcopal Church, catalog their 1,200-odd books, eat some pizza, talk some talk and leave them with a gleaming new LibraryThing catalog. Books, bibliophiles, conversation, barcode scanners, pizza! (Not to mention Mike, Sonya, Tim, maybe Abby, with a slight chance of Liam.)
Why: Quite a few small libraries use LibraryThing as their catalog—schools, churches, synagogues, Masonic temples, companies, museums, and even a couple of embassies! They find LibraryThing much cheaper and easier to use than most "library automation" software. (More about organizations using LibraryThing here.)
But it's not always easy for a single overworked volunteer to catalog a big collection. So we thought we'd try a "flash-mob" cataloging party and see how fast we can enter an entire library into LibraryThing. A bunch of us will be there with laptops and barcode scanners in hand—and we're inviting anyone in the area to join us.
Details: Join us..
Come on: Pizza. Laptops. CueCats. Take pictures. Leave after a day's work with a LibraryThing catalog in place. Do good. Have fun.
Just email Abby for details/to RSVP.
Why: Quite a few small libraries use LibraryThing as their catalog—schools, churches, synagogues, Masonic temples, companies, museums, and even a couple of embassies! They find LibraryThing much cheaper and easier to use than most "library automation" software. (More about organizations using LibraryThing here.)
But it's not always easy for a single overworked volunteer to catalog a big collection. So we thought we'd try a "flash-mob" cataloging party and see how fast we can enter an entire library into LibraryThing. A bunch of us will be there with laptops and barcode scanners in hand—and we're inviting anyone in the area to join us.
Details: Join us..
- The day: Saturday, November 15th.
- The time: TBD, probably starting at 10:00 or 11:00, but come whenever.
- The place: St. John's Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms, MA (Google map)
Come on: Pizza. Laptops. CueCats. Take pictures. Leave after a day's work with a LibraryThing catalog in place. Do good. Have fun.
Just email Abby for details/to RSVP.
Labels: cataloging, flash mob
posted by Abby at 1:13 PM
24 Comments:
What a good idea! And I'm sure you'll all have fun cataloging together. Too bad I'm a few thousand miles away . . .
I look forward to reading how this went. I have a cataloging effort soon for a semi-private library and this idea might be the best way to have enough barcode readers to get the job done.
This sounds very cool. Look forward to how it goes and what you learn. Will a general guide on how to do this be posted somewhere on LibraryThing?
Man, this is awesome. I'd love to be part of something similar in NYC.
This is such a good idea - cataloging for a cause!
If this works out well maybe you should arrange similar things for other places.
Don't forget you will need internet access.
This is an awesome idea! I wish I could go, but I'm in Wisconsin. If you ever try to plan one in Wisconsin or the Milwaukee area I'd love to help.
I had one of those for our church library. It was fun — but a scanner would have been a wise investment! Hope you guys have a good time.
This is quite brilliant. Take lots of pictures!
Someone should tell Simmons College about it. They've got a library school in Boston, after all. I bet there'd be oodles of happy catalogers willing to help
That sounds like loads of fun. Please report a followup in the blog letting us know how it went.
What a fantastic idea! If I were in the area, I'd join you. Hope you had a good time and accomplished lots.
I'm confused, it says "this Saturday" but then lists the date as November 15, which is 2 Saturdays from now (and 3 from when this was posted)? So did this already happen?
Your intelligent benevolent task reminds of the ancient missionary's spreading literacy into distant lands. Some work cannot be done through the Internet alone. Good luck and have fun.
Many hands make light work -- I know I'm good for a hundred entries at least. I'll do my best to be there!
That sounds fun! Too bad I am on the West coast.
Good luck!
The 15th is also NEA, an archivists' conference, in Boston. Maybe they'd like to get in on the action too.
This is such a fantatic idea! I'd really like to help with such service work in my home state of Ohio, in partuclar the Cleveland area. I'm sure you and your gruop has inspired many of us.
I'd be interested in how you group organizes this and the your guidelines.
Best wishes
What a great idea!
Very disappointed I'm in Australia! I'd love to attend your flash party, its my type of thing...I once catalogued all night...we had a scout jamboree thing so I stayed in the building with another workmate, and I catalogued our backlog. In the end, it became a mission!!
I hope you all give plenty of tags to these books.
FYI - part of a Simmons GSLIS cataloging class may show up for the event! For those travelling from Boston, you can take the train from Boston's North Station to the Beverly Farms station and walk about 1/8th of a mile through Bev. Farms. It look as if there is a 10:15 am arriving just before 11 am (check out: http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/rail/lines/?route=NBRYROCK&direction=O&timing=S&RedisplayTime=Redisplay+Time).
Such a good idea. I hope it spreads. It's shame I'm thousands of miles away.
We're going to try this (on a smaller scale) in Buffalo MN on March 7.
We are new to Library Thing and besides the two of us who have tried it out and decided it is the right solution for our church library, none of the volunteers have seen LibraryThing before.
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