The Union City Library’s card catalog only recently joined the computer revolution. On April 26, Library Director William Breedlove demonstrated the new electronic system and the improved services that it can provide.
Up until now, the standard paper-based card catalogues were used to locate books and materials.
“The manual method is very ineffective, time-consuming and hard to maintain,” said Breedlove, explaining that the library’s staff will save a lot of their time previously spent in cataloguing. “In turn, our staff can be out servicing the public, rather than sitting behind a desk,” he said.
The library will also be issuing new library cards, which will be used to borrow books and access the new card catalogue electronically. Once a patron comes into the library with the old card, that patron will automatically be issued a new card.
Union City residents will receive a three-year membership card. A person who works or owns property in Union City can get a one-year membership card, and those who do not live, work or own property in Union City can purchase a membership card for $15. Those who purchase their cards must renew them each year.
The software, purchased and installed by Follett Software Company and Book Supplier, and the conversion were paid for by the Union City Board of Education.
Coming together
Breedlove said when the manual system was used, it was not kept up to date.
“I would say that three quarters of what was in the card catalogue is no longer in our collection,” said William Breedlove, the director of the Union City Public Library. “And about 40 percent of the books in the computer system were not categorized in the manual system.”
However, the electronic card catalogue will be updated regularly by Follett staff. The system has also combined the collection at both library branches, the branch on 15th Street and 43rd Street.
“We had no way to know what we had in the 15th Street Library, nor did they know what books we had [on 43rd Street],” said Breedlove. “Let alone whether the book was [being borrowed] or not.”
More services
The new system will allow a library patron to search for a particular book by keyword, author, subject or title. However, a quicker search is not the only service that the new system provides.
The new system is also linked to 5,000 Internet sites that can be accessed automatically from the initial search. By the end of the summer, Breedlove said that 168,000 Internet sites would be available through the system, as well as 50 different databases.
The updated system has also upgraded the library’s classification system to the current Anglo American Rules for Descriptive Cataloguing.
According to Breedlove, the library was previously using the Library of Congress rules set in 1948.
“Now books are [alphabetized] by author,” said Breedlove, explaining that if the book does not have an author then it is classified by title. Previously, books were classified under illustrators, editors or publishers, which made it difficult to locate them.
The system also automatically prints out overdue book notices in both English and Spanish once a borrowed book has passed its return date.