Cataloguing Under Covid 1

As a Collections Librarian, managing a collection under Covid is a new way of thinking.

I’m working from home at the moment, going into the library occasionally to collect more books. It’s an excellent chance to work through some of the older material that has been sitting awaiting cataloguing. So I thought I’d write a short post highlighting a few of the books that are making their way into the collection and will be available for you to borrow once the library is open again.

The winner for best title is: Riding Bareback Backwards On A Pig: A book about the Collingwood Children’s Farm. It tells the story of the Collingwood Children’s Farm based on interviews with farm workers, volunteers, gardeners, children, local residents and workers in Collingwood.

The winner for most engaging cover is: The Wintringham Story by Elaine Farrelly

It explores the foundation of Wintringham-specialst aged care for the elderly who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Telling the stories of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. An essentially important part of the collection.

https://www.wintringham.org.au/

The oldest book I’ve catalogued over the last week is A Census of the Plants of Victoria,  written by the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria in 1923. As well as some lovely maps of Victoria it has a comprehensive list of plants from across Victoria. The natural history of Victoria is an important part of the PMI’s collection.

So that’s just three of the books that I’ve been working on for the last couple of days. The others range from everything from family histories, to calendars, annual reports, biographies, historic  walks, guidebooks and much more.

I’ve also been indexing periodicals from the historical societies that are still putting them out. The last couple of days I’ve worked my way through the Genealogist

https://library.pmi.net.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=1760

And the Australian Book Review- which is always a great source of new material we will eventually be purchasing for the library.

https://library.pmi.net.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=26624

I’ve also been indexing a number of local historical society periodicals, which are being put out due to the sterling effort of groups of volunteers, working out new ways to work together remotely in these uncertain times.

So life at the PMI Library goes on, the collection is still being tended to- even if from a distance -and when we open there’ll be lots of new and exciting material for you to borrow.

Ellen, Collections Librarian