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Photo by Lindsay Blanchfield. “Cataloged Books.” At the National Sporting Library & Museum, Middleburg, Virginia. July 13, 2023.

In the last week of my internship, I learned how librarians purchase and search for new books to add to their collections. My job was to look through a book, like an encyclopedia, with all of the Derrydale Press published books. Derrydale Press was a big publishing company in the early 19th century that ended in the 1930s during the Great Depression. This was a time before books became mass-produced. My job was to type out every book and its dates on a Word document, so we could go through the record later when seeing what books we needed to add to the collection. Then, I had to go through the National Sporting Library Museum online catalog to see if we had the book and then go back to the document and put an X either on yes or no. I had to thoroughly review the catalog to ensure that even though we had the book, I would ensure we had the first edition. The library always wants the earliest version of the book.
Later that week, I had to do a similar process to what I did with the Derrydal Press, but this time I went through “American Fishing Book.” This book had many fishing books that have been published and organized alphabetically. This time I did not have to create a Word document; I was allowed to write either a checkmark or a circle representing a zero in the book. I still had to use the library’s online catalog to see if we had the book. The most challenging thing I had to overcome was that as I was going through the book, I realized that some authors under their names would have more than one book that I had to look up in the system.
I also got to help work on the finishing touches of the display for the fly fishing festival. This required me to print out the book labels that would go with the books on display that had already been picked out and played on the proper page to represent fly fishing in the display. Then I had to get some clear rapping tape to ensure the page stayed open to the right page and blocks to prop up the books. Lastly, I had to make sure that everything was straight and everything was in its proper place.

From the first week of my internship, I have gotten more opportunities to work with many donated books from several different donations. The NSLM takes in donated books to see if these gracious people have books that the NSLM does not have in their collection, or if they already do, they put them towards their annual donated book sale, which helps to raise money for items the library needs.

The steps required to prepare them for the donation book sale are to individually go through each book by logging them in a document with the person who donated the books with the title, author, and date. Then I go to the NSLM online catalog to then search to see if we already have the book in their collection. If we do, we put them in a separate pile to be a part of the book donation sale, or if they do not have the book already in their collection, they go into a pile to be cataloged. This was a very long and tirades process. My supervisor developed a better system than having one person do both steps simultaneously. One of us logged in to each book while she used the NSLM online catalog to search for each book. This made the process go a lot faster since the donated book sale is coming up very soon, and there are still many books to go through.

The next step that I did was to go through all of the donated books that we are going to use in the donated book sale and put them into categories based on the already established system that the library uses to shelve their books (equestrian, hunting/Fox-holds, fiction, art, & bibliographies). Some books were put into a different category based on their publication, Derrydale Press, which no longer publishes books and first editions. There will also be a separate table with books that are very brittle and falling apart, with the lowest price. Once I did that, I had to devise a money system with different colored post-its representing different prices for the books with the help of my supervisor. How I decide what I make each price book is I use online booksellers to gauge the price those books sell for. I found it very difficult to come up with book prices because I had to figure out the appropriate amount to sell a book while still making sure that the library would gain a profit. However, using the internet to see what the same book is going for is very helpful. We still have a lot to do in a week to prepare for this event, which I will focus on for most of next week to prepare.

I have learned two ways the NSLM goes about cataloging depending on what is being cataloged—one through the material housed in the archives and books for public viewing on the shelves.

I got the extraordinary opportunity to work on and create a new catalog for a large & wonderful donation of a collection of original materials from the start of the National Beagle Club of America headquarters in Aldie. The owners donated to the NSLM a six-figure gift to catalog and digitize the National Beagle Club of America collection. This meant that this project became a priority in the library. The first step before digitizing the material is to create a new catalog for the collection within the archives. This consisted of a Word document telling the viewer each individual donated material given by the National Beagle Club of America. It also shows the viewer where the donation was donated by, the date range of the material, the historical note, and a statement of what the collection consists of. Then each item is broken up into categories under specific headings provided with details of each section. Lastly, those categories are broken up further showing each item, with the box number of where it will be housed, the material name (stating if it is a book, scrapbook, minute book, record, scrapbook, or letter), and the date range.

There were several challenges that I faced throughout the process of cataloging this collection. I had to review each item to determine the date range, which required detective skills to read through the pages to find the date. I also had to make sure what was stated in the index was what was discussed in the body of the book. Another struggle I faced was trying to read the cursive handwriting of these individuals; since I had not adequately learned cursive in school, I struggled with being able to read it. The last challenge I faced throughout the cataloging process was figuring out what categories I was going to create and where each of those items would go.

The other form of cataloging is using a particular cataloging system to catalog books or partials. This is a process that I have learned in earlier weeks of my internship, although this time, I had full rein to do it on my own with some guidance. This required me to fill in the specific fields with the designated material stated in the book, such as the title, alternative title (if stated), author, date, publisher, location of publication, physical description (write out index if stated), and subject field. Then after filling out the fields, I had to create the specific barcode for the book and the identification number.

I got the opportunity to digitize my first book from the rare book room at the library. I had to learn to scan on the flatbed scanner and with software. This differed from what I learned when I had a digitized project last semester. When it came to laying the book on the scanner, it could only fit one page at a time, so with the second page, I had to rotate the page upright in the software. Within the software, I could preview the scanned page to make sure that the page was straight, which sometimes took a lot of trial and error. This is also when I take the dragging tool only to get the page in the final scan. Before pressing the scan button on the final scan, I had to create a new folder for each scanned book page to live.
After I scanned the whole book, it was time to upload it to the internet archive. This is where I had to take the skills I learned from working on the Patricia MacVeagh project with how to create the metadata. Unlike the other project, in this case, I had to write the author, publisher, date, identification number, book measurements, and where the institution housed the book.
The next day, I digitized another book from the rare book room. I had to approach this particular book differently than the last book due to its miniature size. I could still apply the knowledge I gained from digitizing my first book with this book. The miniature angler book came with challenges; even though it could fit the scanner’s length, ensuring the scanned pages were straight was fine. I struggled with it getting straight for the first couple of pages, but I eventually got a system down that straightened both sides of the page. Unlike the first digitizing project, I did not have to scan each page. However, the system, internet archive, like if each page is scanned individually, so when looking at the system, it looks like a flip book. Both digitizing projects allowed me to learn different skills and apply some previous knowledge of digitizing.