The Textile Museum Library (Arthur D. Jenkins Library--ADJL) has a collection of about 35,000 items, which are in our Alma Institution Zone, in the “GW Textile Museum Library” location. Their collection is non-circulating, except to Textile Museum staff within the building. The collection displays to users in the main GW Libraries Primo search, and there is also a separate Textile Museum Library Primo instance that only displays the holdings of the museum library. Including the museum library collection in Alma and Primo brings visibility to resources that are available to GW students and faculty who might not otherwise discover this valuable specialized collection. With just one full-time staff member, the librarian handles all aspects of the Textile Museum Library, and LAI has been a resource to her not just in terms of cataloging but also in other areas of expertise. RDG meets with the Textile Museum librarian monthly and refers questions to other LAI staff as needed.
RDG primarily provides cataloging assistance to the Textile Museum library. We have developed a process and provided training to the Textile Museum librarian whereby the museum does basic copy cataloging of new library resources – finding a record in OCLC, adding their holdings, importing the record do Alma, providing a modified Dewey Decimal call number, creating holdings and items, and doing physical processing. This process works well and covers the vast majority of materials they add to the collection. RDG does the cataloging of items that need enhancement of an existing record or original cataloging, creating an OCLC record that the museum can then use to perform their copy cataloging steps. There are usually not many records requiring RDG cataloging; under 100 per year.
The Textile Museum Library also does individual article-level cataloging for some print journal articles in their collection. These records are also in Alma and discoverable in Primo. RDG has also provided input and support on digitization projects and metadata schema, weeding, metadata for pamphlet files, collection inventory, rare book preservation, and similar topics. Additionally, the Textile Museum librarian has a strong working relationship with LAI’s Art and Design Librarian focusing on outreach and instruction.