-Most of the library was donated en masse by Joan Nicklin, a Chicago-area
anthropologist who studied the developing world, primarily the African diaspora. It was
dedicated in 1979 and has been moved since then to its current space. The Andrés
Figueroa Cordero Library is envisioned as a space in which individuals will have the
resources to engage each other in self-conducted education. Fundamental goals of this
education process are the ability to practice responsible freedom, to grow in personal
consciousness and praxis, and contribute to the development of society. This library is a
place where people can learn about and share with others the depth of Puerto Rican and
Latino/Latina history, experiences, and struggles. It is a catalyst, a point of initiation that
will contribute to and support an informed practice of community activism.
In practical terms, we envision that young people and learners of all ages will claim the
library as their place to study, to learn about the world, and to begin to imagine their
active place within that world. We expect to develop within our community of learners a
sense of self-worth and the ability to learn. We will address the growing gap in
information technology access and use, and we will teach ourselves how to be part of a
community going global around collections and information processes.
We want the library to provide to the community at large access to information,
technology services, historical collections, and educational and cultural programs. We
anticipate that this access will act to broaden peoples’ definition and perception of what it
means to be Puerto Rican.
-goals both philosophically grand and socially practicable.
Collection used to be far larger and wider-focused specifically with the developing world,
Puerto Rico, and activism. I think that was 93. One of Ann’s classes developed the call
number system and numbered the books, but that was all that they had time for before the
collection had to be moved to its current location. Some books remain in boxes. Those in
shelves are not necessarily in order – you can see how boxes had call number runs that
would be put up in chunks of order – a shelf will have a call number range that works, but
those surrounding it are entirely different.
Original catalogers looked at several different types of tools that could help do the work
more quickly. They decided against using a traditional library software program because
it would cost too much, be too hard to train people to use, and would not be available
online.
Instead they decided to use LibraryThing because it is:
Easy to add books:
Easy to connect:
Easy to use:
Also, if we ever decide to use a different website or search tool, LibraryThing makes it
easy to “export” the data that we add, so we can keep all our work even if we don’t use
this tool forever.
talk about challenges inherent to episodic cataloging in which the entire cast changes
every episode
network issues here at prcc – made it initially hard to catalog, but easy to solve. Found
that most problems were very surmountable with a bit of brainstorming and conversation.
Social cataloging! Show flash-mob group page.
-our collection is larger than the other two cataloged by flash-mob, turnout was lower,
books were older and harder to catalog, and even those with importable records had to be
edited for call number and tags. Much slower!
flashmobbers suggested new library catalogs to add for book searching and brought their
own expertise to the project, both as professional catalogers and as avid LT users.
-could be that while LT sparked the idea for the flash-mobs, we would have better results
advertising more directly to public and academic libraries without LT as an intermediary,
since only the most hardcore uses check it with much regularity, and even then may not
be looking at the local events pages.
read through the subject headings – what do you notice
look at the tag cloud for PRCC – what do you notice? as compared to the larger LT tag
cloud?
turn it into a brainstorming session? What do you do with nine boxes of books that need
to go onto full shelves? Based on what you’ve learned of Paseo Boricua thus far, do you
think it would be important or useful to have some mechanism for circulation in place?
What’s best for the collection? The community?
Do you have any ideas for addressing the preservation needs for the collection?
What the collection needs:
-finished cataloging
-shelf space
-usability – analysis and execution
-preservation
-circulation?
-community building – how do we make sure that the collection is serving the community
and that the community is using the collection?