Contact: Laura Daniels

Unit: Cataloging & Metadata Services

Date last updated: 08/04/23

Date of next review: 08/30/24

Routine cataloging of physical materials is performed onsite. Exceptions for remote cataloging of physical materials, following the procedures below, may be temporarily allowed under extenuating circumstances and subject to supervisory approval. Exceptions for remote cataloging for longer than two days are subject to approval by both the supervisor and the director of CMS, to ensure equitable consideration of requests. Examples of situations that might warrant an exception include (but are not limited to) short-term health issues (including caring for family members) or severe weather that impacts transportation.

Below, find steps involved in taking unprocessed materials off-site for cataloging. Two rules to bear in mind:

  • Please, always use an abundance of caution. Supervisors will not specify an exact number of items to take home; instead, we request that each cataloger only takes home an amount they can safely carry.
  • You should only take an amount of materials home that you believe can be cataloged within the agreed upon remote duration. 

Steps involved: 

  1. Recording items to take home
    1. Material is received and input into FOLIO. This work is either done by Receiving and Inputting staff OR by the Cataloger for languages that the cataloger previously performed their own receiving (e.g.: Thai).
    2. Receiving and inputting includes the creation of a preliminary instance record, a Holdings record as well as an Item record.
    3. This step includes barcoding items.
    4. For reference, receiving procedures: https://confluence.cornell.edu/x/wQUvEw
    5. For reference, barcoding procedure: https://confluence.cornell.edu/x/ooPYEg
  2. Checking out items
    1. Cataloger identifies materials they wish to take home for description.
    2. Cataloger brings materials to their supervisor for check-out; if supervisor is unavailable, another LTS staff member can check-out the material.
    3. Materials will be checked out to the cataloger's "SPEC" patron account to avoid conflating these materials with the materials the cataloger has personally checked-out.
      1. See Remote Cataloging - Circulation (LTS Procedure #168) for step-by-step Circulation instructions: https://confluence.cornell.edu/x/qikkFw
  3.  Carrying out items
    1. If a cataloger brings items home using a personal vehicle, the cataloger brings materials to a designated area inside of the Uris loading dock. The individual is also responsible to return the cart to the designated area in LTS. 
    2. While retrieving their car, boxes of items can be left on a folding table in the tunnel by Shipping across from Adam’s office where Access Services leaves materials for curbside pick-up. When the cataloger pulls up to the loading dock, they should ring the bell to enter via the loading dock door (M-F, 8AM-3:30PM).
    3. If a cataloger is taking home only a small number of items, they may opt to carry these out via the Olin exit rather than the Uris loading dock.
    4. In both cases, use abundant caution to prevent injury.
  4. Returning items
    1. Cataloger returns materials via either Uris loading dock or the Olin front-door.
    2. The cataloger’s supervisor checks-in materials; those materials then go to Post-Cataloging Processing.