The Cataloging Maintenance Center provides free cataloging services to system libraries throughout Illinois. We hope that by now, this is fairly well-known, and we appreciate all the cataloging work we get to do for the many amazing libraries across Illinois. But did you know that the CMC provides metadata cataloging services? If you have any digital collections, like digital photographs, documents, and video or audio recordings, and you need help cataloging them or would like your collection uploaded into the Illinois Digital Archive (run by the Illinois State Library), then we have a dedicated metadata cataloger on staff who is eager to work with you, Katy Egts.

Right now, Katy is working with a few different libraries in Illinois. For example, she is working on transcribing audio recordings for Poplar Creek Public Library in Streamwood, Ill. In addition to transcribing the audio, she then goes through the transcription and verifies all people and place names are accurate as they can be, using services like Ancestry.com and any historical collections made available by the library itself. That way, you can be sure that the information in your transcription is as historically accurate as possible.

Our metadata cataloger is also working with the Marshall Public Library on a couple of different projects, including uploading digital images with detailed metadata and historical context, provided by Marshall Public Library, into the Illinois Digital Archive so that all of Illinois can access their collection! In another project, Katy is creating a collection based on the photo album of a local resident, Jayne Bartlett Kerr, wherein digital images are uploaded and handwriting on those photographs is transcribed.

Lastly, Katy is uploading digital photographs and Civil War-era historical documents into the Illinois Digital Archive for the New Lenox Public Library. As part of this, she is providing full-length, searchable transcriptions of any document with text, such as obituaries and letters.

All this work is done at no additional cost to the libraries and allows their collections to become more accessible to patrons.

If you have any local author or special collection materials that you would like the Cataloging Maintenance Center to catalog for your library, email our staff at cmc@illinoisheartland.org with some information about why you think the collection qualifies for CMC cataloging services, such as how the author relates to Illinois or what type of special collection the item is a part of. As always, what defines a special collection in your library is up to your library. Once our staff confirms your project qualifies, we’ll have you send it to us through IHLS or RAILS Delivery using an ILDS transit slip.

If you have a digital collection you would like metadata cataloging services for, please contact Katy Egts to discuss the project further.