Retrospective Cataloguing

The Library has intended, for many years, to initiate the cataloguing of the collection on an online database.  There have been a few non-starters and there has certainly been a great deal of work by a number of people to finally get to this point now, where we have catalogued 3,700 of our approximately 25,000 volumes. We are working clockwise around the Library and have completed Voyages and Travels, Fine Arts, and Local History and have begun work on the Poetry and Drama.

The Library currently works off of a card catalogue, which, though effective, harbours some inaccuracies. Using Heritage Library Management System to create an online catalogue has allowed us to realize where books have gone missing, discover volumes that we did not know we had, and better appreciate the breadth and variety of the collection.  You may have noticed a number of empty shelves on recent visits to the library; an added bonus of the catalogue project is that we have been able to re-shelve the collection more efficiently, creating extra space and allowing for maintenance and repair of the shelves kindly carried out by our Chairman, Edward Thorp. 

Our cataloguer is able to catalogue approximately 30 volumes a day – people have asked why it takes so long!  The catalogue record for each volume contains basic bibliographic information such as author, title, and publication data, but we are going further than this to include information that will be useful both to the library and its members, and to researchers and general users.  Additional information that we note includes condition and binding of the volumes for future conservation projects and Adopt-A-Book activities; instances of marginalia (readers’ handwritten notes and comments); any unique details about the specific volume; details on maps, illustrations, frontispieces, plates and photographs and those responsible for them; dates of admittance to the Library; donations; sponsorship for conservation; general layout and description of the book; classification details; series titles and editors and related works.

Once the catalogue is online users will have the option of browsing by subject area or searching by keyword, author, title, etc.  As such, it is also an important aspect of the catalogue that we assign appropriate keywords and subjects to each volume to ensure that anyone searching the catalogue on a particular topic will be presented with all relevant book results.  We are also customising the keywords so that users are provided with alternate synonyms by which to search, for example: when a search for ‘student’ turns up the system will recommend the user to also search for ‘pupil’.  The catalogue should be available for online search within the next 4 months and will look like this:

Keep an eye on the website as we will be including and updating a ‘Catalogue’ page where you can find more immediate information on our progress and, once we go live, a direct link to the catalogue itself! If you would like more information on the Catalogue please contact Taylor Bishop at the catalogue desk, by phone (0161-236 6785) or email at catalogue@theportico.org.uk