The Catalog Polyglot: Metadata and World Languages
Collections come in all varieties of languages, and, sometimes, in non-Roman character sets. How does a catalog handle Kanji, Cyrillic, Hangul, or Perso-Arabic? Which language goes where? Let’s refresh on the basics for those non-catalogers in our audience. The same principles apply, but become a little more complicated, when we start considering character sets alternate […]
Introducing Project Cat²aloger
You may have seen by now that Backstage intends to expand its cataloging unit this year with a new office space. 4000 square feet will be added to our Bethlehem operations, and we’ll have more pictures and updates as construction nears completion. What you won’t have heard about until today is Backstage’s revolutionary new approach […]
Smells Like Fiche and Chips: A Guide to Keeping Your Microfilm Disease-Free
Microfilm may not enter our spheres of interaction as often as once it did, but it remains a reliable and long-lasting archival medium. There are some exceptions to this rule, and any material may become compromised if not handled correctly. If you’ve got a microfilm collection that you’re learning how to maintain, take heed to […]
Trust Your Technical Librarian, Authority Control is a Must!
Authority control can be a difficult concept to visualize for those who don’t encounter it regularly. Bibliographic records and authority records look very similar, but while a bibliographic record describes an item within a collection, the authority record describes and regulates specific headings within the bibliographic record. The two are separate but intrinsically connected. When […]
Maritime Reels Return to Home Port: Preserving the Hazel Niendorff Collection
Header image provided from page 29, volume 40 of the Hazel W. Niendorff Scrapbooks on North Pacific Marine Casualties and Maritime History Collection If you are researching the maritime history of the North Pacific, the scrapbooks created by Hazel Niendorff between the 1920s and the 1960s may be a resource for you. The collection, which […]
Shipping Library Materials Made Easy: A Step-By-Step Guide
The end of this blog has a quick summary of pertinent details for easy reference, as well as a free, downloadable excel spreadsheet for tracking, printing, and sharing per-box inventories! Getting materials from point A to point B is going to be a big part of your upcoming vendor-outsourced project. The importance of care when […]
Doxie AI Bringing Distinctive Machine Learning Solutions to Library Collections
Over the last year, the media has tended to lump the term “AI” – that is, artificial intelligence – to mean ‘anything where a computer is going to make me a finished product.’ The news is filled with discussions surrounding programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney: about their efficacy, potential scenarios for application, and the ethics […]
Pennsylvania Office Wraps Up Successful 15-Month Showcase of Employee Art
Last month marked the end of an ongoing internal exhibition of employee art and writing. What began as a team-building exercise in our Digitization department back in January of 2022 grew into a 60 submission, year and a half long showcase of talent among our staff. “Originally, I expected it to last maybe a month […]
Our Cameras Go West! Digitization Returns to Provo, UT
The demand for digitization has never been bigger. Following the pandemic, a greater push has been made to make sure documents are accessible in digital repositories, which has, of course, followed an existing trend towards digitization. Last year, we focused on building up our support for such requests. The department has grown with new staff, […]
Backstage Looking Ahead… Newer and Stronger Services in 2023
2022 was a big year for Backstage. We celebrated some major achievements, like becoming General Services Association (GSA) certified for digitization and collection management. We introduced a new department with our Archival Service solutions. We saw and filled a need in the library community with options for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) geared authority control […]
