Incunabular on a few levels

Take this: ° and this: ± and for good measure, one of these: ´

A special thanks to an unnamed someone for the keys to the kingdom of the Complete ASCII Symbol Set. Of course now, I no longer have an excuse for ignoring accent marks. Except intransigent spite. Neither the other funky little critters that would be sure to enhance your viewing experience as you read these sad little cries for help. Both of you. Großer Gott! (I told you so.) I'm in the "Edit HTML" mode! I hadn't even noticed. I had better quit now before I find out precisely how far down the spiral one can slip. And how fast. Thanks again Mo. NOT the closer for the Yankees, but rather, one of the few who could (possibly) appreciate cataloging a 3-D object. Even an imaginary one. For example, the hairball hacked up by a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser that had been fed to a carnivorous plant. Just for the cheap thrill of it. Hypothetically speaking. Love the ümlaut. Even if it's erroneous.

That's the spot

OK, OK. Yeah. I know. Another cataloging post. But this one has so much more! I gave Jim the sample produced using the map cataloging template I had created. It's really pretty straightforward. I looked over the Huntington Library's map template, and combined some of their ideas with some of my own, et voila! It flowed. He liked it. A lot. It will be the basis for cataloging his collection of 16th-early 18th Century maps. I really was pleased how well it turned out Dear Reader, and I wanted to share it with you. Uh oh. Now how was I going to do THAT? I figured out how to save a FileMaker file as a PDF file. In and of itself, pretty neat. Yet utterly useless for my purposes. I did try to upload the PDF file here, but was told, sternly, that the file must be a JPEG, or, I forgot what else. As far as I knew. A technological inquiry was rendered. I asked a Geek. Politely. (Do not be offended by the Geek label...you know who you are. Besides, I doubt you read Pedestrian Subjunctives. I sometimes doubt anybody does. Most of the time I do. But, I digress. (It has been awhile since I digressed, hasn't it?)). ALT + SCREEN PRINT the PDF file. Go to ACCESSORIES. Select PAINT. PASTE and...there's the screen. Then simply save the file as a JPEG. Cool. Yes? No. The sample record exceeds the limitations of a single screen. Now what? I was in a box. I had to get out. I printed another copy of the FileMaker file copy of the map sample. I then scanned it, cropped it neatly, and saved it to the trusty ole memory stick, brought it to this terminal, and uploaded it here. I don't know whether or not anyone should be afraid. Leave a window open. For air. Really.

Now, Dear Reader, for the spooky part. How would one catalog THIS image? A manifestation of a scanned copy of a metadata record of a government map, the image of which was scanned and uploaded into that record, which was then scanned and uploaded here. Meta-what? Yeah. There's some kind of redundancy there. I know. I did it on purpose. I think I did. I think I did. And does anybody know how to create and insert degree symbols in FileMaker? Should they? Why? Why not? Even though it's only Mississippi, I need to know. Don't I?

New acquisition: CRASS "The Feeding of the 5000"
On order: ELASTICA
On order: TUFF DARTS

How do you know you don't like it, unless you try it first? Scratch my ennui. Yeah. Right there. Don't tickle.

Chaika (Translate it yourself)

Periods of not-particularly insignificant procrastination followed by imaginably mortal struggles with technology and where am I? Literally? (At a computer.) Figuratively? ([insert something clever here].) Spiritually? (Content.) Existentially? (Does it matter?) In the standings? (6th.) I can report success. I picked up the FileMaker gauntlet yesterday. I poked and prodded, prayed and cajoled, clicked, double-clicked, dragged, suffered and sweated, and finally succeeded in creating a template for cataloging the map collection that I am hiring myself out to do. Freelance cartographic materials cataloging. Mercenary metadata creation. Chills and tingles. Anyhooooo. The template has a space for a nice-sized image at the top. Centered (of course!) And I done did figure out how to create as many text fields as my little heart desires. I showed it to a faculty cataloger this morning and he described it as a "good metadata schema." Here's where I had a synaptic incongruity. As I walked back to my cave I thought of Treplev from The Sea Gull by A. P. Chekhov. There was a quote from the play I needed to read. I knew Chekhov would be found at PG3450-something or other. (PG3455-3458 as it turned out.) I just scanned through the shelves until I found the book. Here's where it got weird. I opened the book, randomly, to page 50. There at the top of the page was the dialogue between Treplev and Nina I sought. I had turned right to it. Him: "I was low enough to kill this sea gull. I lay it at your feet." Her: "What's the matter with you?" To H-E-Double-hockey-sticks with him! What's the matter with me?! As I started to return the book to its spot on the shelf, my eye caught a glimpse of the spine, and the rest of the call number: PG3456.S4Y6. That couldn't be right. I headed to the schedules. Russian literature, blah, blah, Chekhov, blah, blah, translations, English, separate works, by Russian title. And then subarrange by translator or editor. I fixed the record in our catalog (PG3456.C5|bY6 1939) and sent it on its way to get re-marked. Now, I should get back to verifying the forms of first-time author headings, while I listen to Not So Quiet on the Western Front. It's a collection of late-seventies/early eighties fringe stuff. My favorite is "Fun with acid" by Fang, but I can't get "Dan with the mellow hair" by Naked Lady Wrestlers out of my mind. Help! (Lennon-McCartney) it wont stop. The brakes are gone.

Collection Development

"Rice, Barry A." Just one of the hundreds of author names that stream before my eyes each week. This one seemed innocuous enough. Verifying forms of names doesn't get much easier than a simple proper name of an individual. But what's this? Not one, but two cross references in the authority record. My eyes jitterbugged through the record. It seems Monsieur Rice was born "Meyers-Rice, Barry." (He's not French. I just wanted to insert something parenthetically here). A compound name requires a 4XX field, in this case, "Rice, Barry Meyers-." Don't ask why Dear Reader. It just does. But wait! There's more. It seems the author prefers "Rice, Barry A." and had his name legally changed to reflect that preference. So, we are left with a 100 and 2 400 fields. All of the preceding would not, and should not warrant a posting here, although it would be quite frivolous and as such fair game to address. No Dear Reader. We are onto something here. I read the 670. Then I re-read the 670. "International Carnivorous Plant Society. Conference (2nd : 1998 : Bonn, Germany). Proceedings ... c1998" This looked promising. What was the title by Herr Rice (again...) that we had added to the catalog? Ooooh! "Growing Carnivorous Plants." I had to see this. I found the book on the shelf, leafed through it, and decided to go buy a copy for My Library. I walked over to the UO Bookstore and learned that it was not in stock. A special order would be necessary. The order was placed and I was told it would be in the next day. Joy! And it was in the next day! As if that weren't enough, I had a 20% off coupon, which beats the standard staff discount of 10% by....well, is the math really necessary? The book was mine. All mine. The next steps are routine for me now. Catalog it for My Library, verifying the bibliographic integrity of the record to be used, paying particular attention to the form of the author's name. The record had the incorrect form. I fixed it, just like I do for a living. I cannot abide invalid headings. Especially in My Library. Then (no, not done yet) scan the cover so I could print a nice color image of the jacket for a display. Best not to ask Dear Reader. Save the scanned image to my 'memory stick.' Later, back at the cave, print the alien-looking image of the cover. Full page print. Lovely. Just lovely. Finally, well, almost, emboss the lower right hand corner of the title page with my personalized stamp. (It was a gift from my mom years ago). "Library of..." Only one thing left to do. Really. Just one. Find a place for it on a shelf. Much easier said than done. Trust me on this point. And that Dearest of Readers is how to buy a book.