Shelf List

The shelf list is a database containing minimal but key information about every book in the library. In the process of automating the library during 2001, the sparse information of the shelf list will be used to search the Library of Congress MARC record database of many millions of books to glean far more detailed information about each holding and to create the Library's core database. Obtaining this more detailed information is an automated computer-driven search and match operation, so the data of the shelf list must be organized in a computer database, not in handwritten sheets.

The shelf list is a custom FileMaker database resident on the Library's iMac computer in the ADMIN folder. Double click on the file "shelflist.fp3" to launch it.

You can enter data about each book. While there are fields for Title, Author, and Publisher, the most important information is the ISBN and/or LCCN (Library of Congress Catalog Number) of the book. When our list is matched against the "LC MARC English" database (Library of Congress MARC record database in the English language), these unique identifiers will match exactly and there will be no confusion among authors or titles with the same name... When older books are listed, they may have neither catalog number, and the Title/Author/Date fields will be used for matching.

The shelfList database has two modes, one for data entry and one for listing: