Monday, January 30, 2012

Spotlight on... Marilou Z. Hinchcliff

This is the first in a series of blog posts to help you get acquainted with some of the people who work in the library.  Today we introduce you to someone whose face you might not have seen before.


What is your name?  Marilou Z. Hinchcliff

What is your title? Coordinator of Cataloging and Interim Coordinator of Collection Development

What do you do in the library? As Coordinator of Cataloging, I am ultimately responsible for the information about Library materials that is found in the Pilot online catalog. 

How do you do that? One aspect of this work is authority control—making sure all of the subjects and names in the catalog are in the standard form and accessible via cross references.  So, for example, a search for books by Mark Twain also leads to books he wrote under other names.  Ten of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) libraries work as a group to send their new catalog records to the authorized vendor to have the necessary authority work done.   I coordinate this process for the group every January with the PASSHE hub, including trouble-shooting problems that arise.  

I am also a contributor to the national database of authorized names via a cooperative project of the Library of Congress, a project that ensures that searches in local, national, and international library catalogs (accessible through resources such as Google) retrieve all relevant materials.

What else should people know about you?
  I have been a cataloger at BU for 33 ½ years and Coordinator of Cataloging for 30 ½ years.  I have also twice served as Interim Coordinator of Government Documents.  I am principal organist at First Reformed United Church of Christ, Berwick and Fourth Sunday organist and choir director at First United Methodist Church, Shickshinny.

How can people get in contact with you?  My office is AL 240.  Phone: 389-4226.  Email:  mhinchcl@bloomu.edu

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