No-Fee Cataloging Support for Languages from A to Z

Do You Have a Foreign Language Special Collection? The Cataloging Maintenance Center Catalogs Foreign Language Materials for Free—from Arabic to Zulu

Statewide, libraries have used the special collections cataloging services by the Cataloging Maintenance Center to provide their patrons access to materials in their own languages—something not always available to them through other means. Many Illinois libraries have large ethnic populations and purchase books, sound recordings, and video recordings in their patrons’ native language. This helps give these patrons a sense of inclusion and belonging—an important aspect in EDIA, or Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, initiatives.

As part of the Cataloging Maintenance Center’s mission to provide cataloging support to Illinois library system members, the staff catalogs foreign language materials. In fact, the Cataloging Maintenance Center actively seeks out foreign language materials. Since 2019, the CMC has cataloged 198 books and two sound recordings in Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese—that’s 200 items in just two-and-a-half years!

Whether your library already has a foreign language collection or is thinking about starting one, the Cataloging Maintenance Center can help make it happen by providing cataloging consulting, training, or bibliographic services at no cost to your library. Contact CMC staff to learn more.