The Society is fortunate to have long-term, experienced catalogers on its staff. But with retirement dates twinkling in the not too distant future, it became apparent that we needed to document our practices, both for the future of the department and to assure we are all following the same procedures.

This manual is not a “How to catalog manual” but our attempt to document our local practice of cataloging and handling materials. As cataloger Steve Krause put it, “You think you know what you are doing until you try to write it down.”

Our manual is a work in progress. Its creation began in the fall of 1999 as we examined our former cataloging manual for practices that were still current. We identified pieces that were common across all of the formats we catalog, and moved all of that information into the appendices. We then identified the formats that we catalog and decided to create a chapter for each format, beginning with those we catalog most frequently. About half are done, with the rest forthcoming.

The proliferation of Web resources available for cataloging made the creation of our manual as a Web document a logical and necessary choice. We also want to have printouts available for those who prefer working from a hard copy. To meet these needs we create the pieces of the manual in Word format and then transfer them into HTML documents. The print version exists on our network drive and may be easily updated, corrected, added to and printed. The Web version resides on one of the MHS servers and is updated, corrected or added to in concert with the print version.

This manual would not be possible without the cooperation and hard work of several people. Library catalogers Nancy Devine, Steve Krause and Dave Ehasz wrote most of the chapters and provided guidance for the manual's format and creation. With already heavy workloads, they made time for biweekly meetings, worked together on content, and put what they do in their daily work lives into words.

Jason Roy, former Central Collections Services Manager created the Web version and advised us throughout the creation of the manual, keeping us focused on creating a document that will exist in only one place and is easily updated. John Chapman has created much of the HTML code for the Web version. Val Brown typed many of the appendices for us, creating electronic versions of documents that previously only existed on 14 year-old paper.

Edward Swanson, former Library Processing Manager, developed the Minnesota Geographic Codes, the Minnesota Classification System, and the Minnesota Schools Classification System, all still in use today. Frank Hennessy, former MHS cataloger, and Monica Manny Ralston revised the Minnesota Geographic Codes scheme, and Frank also wrote two of the chapters.

Sheila Hatchell
Library Processing Manager, Minnesota Historical Society
June 2002