For over twenty years, the Library used the same system to manage the data for offsite inventory and it was time for a change. The Collections Management Division spent the last three years helping to design and implement a brand new inventory management system (IMS). The new system, FETCH, was brought online this past spring and has been used daily ever since. Read more about the how Library staff helped develop a new system “built from the ground up” to manage our collection materials.
This summer marks a major milestone in the Library of Congress mission to preserve and provide access to its wide range of collections as the ten millionth item is transferred to offsite storage. Since the Library’s collection is continuously growing, it is essential to rely on offsite storage for managing such a vast and varied …
For over a hundred years, endless rows of oak drawers filled with index cards served as the primary guide for collection information for countless Library staff. The Library’s card catalog is actually a combination of many catalogs and served as the public’s main bibliographic information access point for books and periodicals until 1980, and despite our current online catalog, staff continue to use the wealth of information found on these index cards. Recently the Library decided to move these catalog cards from the oak cabinets found across the Capitol Hill campus to offsite storage and the Collections Management Division was tasked with inventorying and transporting the cards while simultaneously ensuring their accessibility.
The Preservation Services Division came to the rescue as newspapers from Africa needed a brief holdover on their seven-thousand-mile journey to become part of the Library of Congress’ collection.
This blog highlights some suggestions to keep in mind when moving collections off-site based on the presentation given by Cathy Martyniak, Chief of the Collections Management Division (CMD), during the 2022 Preservation Week.
