The same, but different

The first wave of purchases for the AU Columbus Center IRC is arriving; cataloging has begun on book kits, reference books, and activity books. Fun factor aside, I was playing with the new puppets earlier, as items are placed in containers prior to cataloging it is obvious the new IRC will be unique, not a carbon copy of the current IRC. More importantly, that's how it should be. As noted on the IRC web site, the IRC collection "supports the teaching programs and curriculum of AU's Dwight Schar College of Education." Students at the Columbus Center will have different needs than traditional main campus users, as such the collection needs to adequately address and reflect this distinction.

In a previous post I mentioned the classification system / call numbers planned for the Columbus IRC would utilize simple word classification and numerical accession, with LC for reference. This will do more than make it simple for locating and shelving items initially; students will be able to use "other call number" in the catalog to have immediate access to only Columbus IRC items. Location codes have been added to the catalog allowing for search limits to be set by users. Cataloging has begun on the following items:

• Activity Books
• Book Kits
• IRC Reference

Using the other call number of "col activ" for activity books and "col bookkit" for book kits, it is easy to create links to these collections. Because location codes were developed for Columbus Circulating and Columbus Reference, users are also able to search in the traditional fashion and limit to a single collection. The IRC Reference link was created by using our catalog's word search option, placing an asterisk as the search term, and limiting the location to Columbus Center Reference (something I've previously used with students scanning the catalog for big books).

Corresponding web support for the new collections are following the same path, as collections are cataloged descriptions and links are placed on both the blog and web page. I've been a bit chagrined to discover my previous collection descriptions will not suffice. The basic bones of each provide a great template, but new information will accompany the new collection on the new support pages. That's how it should be, too.