The Unit also physically prepares newly acquired monographic materials for the shelves. This includes applying barcodes, stamping pages with one of the official library stamps, and affixing call number labels to the items.
In addition, the Unit provides advice, guidance and training for online record creation by library branch staff who wish to provide public access to titles on order, gift materials, titles on reserve for courses, and ephemeral or pamphlet materials.
UBC Cataloguing & Metadata is also in charge of assigning ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) for a number of University of British Columbia departments. To find out more or submit a request, please read and fill out this form.
For information on obtaining an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for periodicals and journals, please visit the ISSN Canada homepage.
Until 2003, UBC Library provided CIP (Cataloguing in Publication) data to publishers in Western and Northern Canada. Now CIP is provided by Library and Archives Canada.
For information about Legal Deposit at Library and Archives Canada, please visit the Legal Deposit homepage.
Basic Cataloguing Manuals
The UBC Library Cataloguing and Metadata Unit uses as its core manuals the following:
- For all materials
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- Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition, revised (print, transitioning during 2012 and 2013 to Resource Description and Access, an online tool)
- MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data and its complementary works for authority and holdings data
- MARC Code Lists especially those for languages, countries and geographic areas
- NISO Z39.71 Holdings Statements for Bibliographic Items
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- For serials specifically
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- CONSER Cataloging Manual (print)
- CONSER Editing Guide (print)
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Cataloguing Services
The department provides a number of library-wide services in the interests of providing and maintaining optimum access to our collections, in the most timely way possible. These services include the following:
- Cataloguing of current receipts
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- Approvals
- Firm Orders
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- Cataloguing of gifts and “take ins”
- Rush cataloguing (upon request of patrons and staff)
- Cataloguing pdfs and other printouts from the Web
- Cataloguing of ebooks: individual and sets
- Catalogue maintenance
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- Branch revision requests
- “Report a problem” follow-up from the OPAC
- URL additions to the catalogue for open access electronic surrogates
- Projects:
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- Inventory cleanup
- Retrospective conversion
- Broken link (url) resolution
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Metadata Services
The department provides a number of metadata services in support of the Library’s Digital Initiatives, and are willing to take on more projects as need arises.
Book Prep
The department also engages in a number of activities to support the identification, housing, circulation, preservation and security of our physical collections. These activities include the following:
- Receiving materials to be catalogued from Library branches
- Barcoding
- Tattletaping
- Top-stamping
- Spine labeling
- Shipping catalogued materials to Library branches
Gifts handling
The department assists selectors in the dispersal of gift materials, both to the cataloguing department for processing for UBC Library branches and to external organizations for distribution to other libraries.
Configuring Z39.50
Z39.50 Parameters for VOYAGER
See the Staff Website for meeting minutes and notes
People