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For seasoned librarians interested in exploring new avenues in metadata, as well as library workers looking to learn the fundamentals of cataloging, the Cataloging Maintenance Center provides cataloging training for library workers across the state of Illinois. Subjects range from the basic to the complex — from cataloging fundamentals to the nuances of metadata across lending item types.

All courses are asynchronous, so students may study each module’s materials as their schedules allow so long as they complete the assignments and quizzes by the end of each week.

Courses are free to all library workers in Illinois thanks to a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Office of the Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

Part of the mission of the Cataloging Maintenance Center (CMC) is to catalog special collections items, such as archival documents or realia. In most cases, these special collections items are sent through the IHLS delivery service to the Champaign or Edwardsville hub, where Cataloging Maintenance Center staff are located. However, sometimes the items are either too fragile or too large to send to one of the hubs, and the libraries send photographs and descriptions of the items instead. Even more infrequently, the collection cannot be easily understood from pictures and descriptions alone, and the cataloger needs to make a visit to the library. This was the case with some library repository documents at the Sallie Logan Public Library in Murphysboro.

When the Groff Memorial Library, in Grayville, Ill., recently secured a donation of local history and genealogical materials from S & R Media, LLC, the library director, Kathleen Rister, contacted the Cataloging Maintenance Center (CMC) to ask if they would assist in cataloging this donation, now known as The Navigator Collection.

One of the Cataloging Maintenance Center’s (CMC) recent projects is the cataloging of a world language collection for United Township High School, a public high school in East Moline, Ill. This collection primarily contains Arabic fiction novels and short stories, although it also contains other languages, including French. Some items were originally written in the world languages, and some are translations.