[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] 226 subscribers

[Andrea Buntz]

OK, OK, I know this is a late introduction, but I'm really more of lurker.

My awesome coworker, Karen Collier (who has much better people AND computer skills, may I add), introduced herself a couple weeks ago to the list.  I won't repeat much of what she said about our system and our interest in open source, except to reiterate that as a small public library we are very, very interested in the possibilities open source can offer.  Anyway, I am said cataloger referenced in Karen's email.  

My background (as in, B.A.) is in Music History (!!!), and my M.L.S. coursework was focused on information structure/organization and cataloging/ILS software.  I am in love with modern computer applications of facet theory and wrote as many grad school papers on it as I could get away with.

I am pretty good with computers but have zero programming skills and almost-zero formal training (I'm promised some training $ in the next fiscal year, so if anyone has some suggestions I'd love to hear them off-list).  If we do go with Evergreen, I would be thrilled to contribute documentation on the cataloging end of things.

I started my career bouncing around various temp positions at the Library of Congress, but got frustrated at the lack of permanent jobs and, well, the aging institutional culture, shall we say?  However, I did get to learn quite a lot about relational databases there, which I guess is still my strongest area of computer skills.  So I came to a small rural library (13 FTE; 20,000 total county residents) on the lovely Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I am Cataloger, ILS Administrator, Systems Girl, Computer Fixer, and Office-Machine Troubleshooter.  When we have regional Tech meetings, I call myself "the Over-Promoted Cataloger" but I'm a fast learner and I'm picking up the tech stuff.

As a cataloger, I'm really excited about the possibilities open source offers to finally shake loose the hopelessly 'card based' mentality that MARC, AACR, and thus most ILS systems are beholden to.  I would love to see open source help libraries realize a more modern theory of information delivery and content that really takes advantage of technological tools.  Come on, librarians, we have had some of the theoretical underpinnings of this stuff for a century!  Let's make it happen.

On a side note, Karen & I are being sent to 'Computers in Libraries' next week in Crystal City, VA.  If other Evergreen folks are attending, perhaps a get-together is in order!

Best,
Andrea

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Andrea J. Buntz
Technical Services Librarian
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-778-3636 x15
abuntz at kent.lib.md.us