As promised, here are responses that I received. Thank you, all, for your imput!
Donna
>Before my district had alliance plus I used to look to see if the book
>was
>in Library of Congress or in our local state database, JerseyCat. I was
>lucky enough to get an older discarded edition of LC Subject headings a
>long
>time ago so I also use that. Sometimes, you can see what your local
>public
>library even with the book and make your own judgment. The problem is
>when
>the book falls in one of thos questionable areas such as when it could go
>in
>the 300s or 600s depending upon the emphasis. I was fortunate enough to
>begin my career as a cataloger so I am a little bit more familiar with
>Dewey and LC subject headings. However, when in doubt, the cataloging
>police are not going to come after you. You just need to do what is best
>for your users. There is a Canadian site too, Amicus which is good for AV
>cataloging. I have also used some of the big book catalogs that are
>online
>such as Titlewave from Follett and Bound to Stay Bounds product. The
>description entries on both of those products have a suggested DDC number
>as
>well as suggested subject headings. They are really just Alliance plus
>(for
>Titlewave) and good cataloging source in BTSB for free.
>
>===========================
I download MARC records from the Library of Congress for free.
If you need instructions, I will try to dig them up for you.
_________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Passages Academy Library
941 Rev. James A. Polite Avenue
Bronx, New York 10459
tel: (718) 861-2003
psarles@schools.nyc.gov
===========================
Library Thing is really a place where people put there personal library catalogs
and tag them with meta tags - as far as I know, there isn't really a MARC format to
them (I haven't looked at my account lately). Some smaller libraries have used
Library Thing as a "circ" system but it really isn't designed for that.
As far as getting records, Mandarin has a relationship with a company called
Bookwhere, owned by Web Clarity. We pay under $200 a year for their service.
Maybe you can see if you can subscribe to it independently?
Otherwise, I usually go to World Cat and print out the MARC version of what I need
- sometimes Library of Congress.
========================
LOVE IT, LOVE IT! I've cataloged my home library on this site,
sometimes there isn't a call number available but that really isn't an
issue, I check what the number is for the same book at our library.
But I digress, LibraryThing.com is great, it can tell you if you have
more than one copy, and all kinds of cool features. Plus it is only
$25 for life membership.
=======================
I love Library Thing but I would never use it for cataloging purposes. All
it does is pull information from Amazon or the Library of Congress. You can
see how I use it with my school here:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/mryoung
======================
I’m not sure if your school qualifies as a non-profit, but here is some information
just in case. I worked with this Microsoft programmer to provide a Library of
Congress import of MARC record information directly into his library software for
churches and nonprofits. It saved our church librarians a lot of time. Now I’m
working with another “Microsoftie” who adapted Doug’s idea and makes it work for me
for online cataloging for QuizList Interactive. Take a look at his website. I’ve
only communicated with him via email as he is reportedly hard to understand,
verbally.
http://nposoft.com/
I’m sure you know that you can download MARC record information yourself from LOC.
I used both Follett’s Alliance and LOC while setting up libraries.
=====================
I use Library Thing to keep up with the YA books that I read during the school
year. It is also a great site to use to if you have a library at home--to keep up
with those titles. It is more of a "personal Library site.
=====================
Try Marcive, Inc. in TX. (Good, online, $1.00 or so per record.)
http://www.marcive.com/HOMEPAGE/WEB1.HTM
I used them several years ago. Great. The price has gone up.
Good luck.
=====================
I use library Thing for my own book collection. I don't think it is
going t give you all the detailed cataloging unformation you want for a
library. Also it won't give you Dewer numbers.
====================
LibraryThing is more for self use...like your home library collection. It doesn't
really provide cataloging records you could use. It's kind of like social
networking for books.
====================
I use EZcat by booksys.com which pulls records from Z39.50 library catalogs. It
is free to use after purchase of the initial program.
===================
I am still a library student, and I don't have a lot of experience using
"real" cataloging systems. I have used Athena to do a little cataloging at
the school where I volunteer. I have also used Library Thing to catalog my
personal collection. LT does not do a lot of what I would think you might
want for a school cataloging system. And from what I can tell, you can not
set users with fewer authorities than an administrator, so any student could
possibly change your cataloging, perhaps even without meaning to or
realizing it. It is free for the first 200 books, so you can give a try
without any investment (other than time, of course!)
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