By Dig Chinn
BCR's Cataloging Services Project staff now catalog materials in Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian and most Western European languages.
BCR established the Cataloging Services Project more than 10 years ago to provide
quality cataloging and processing services for BCR member libraries. BCR's catalogers work in book and special formats, such as
electronic resources, AV materials, art prints and musical scores, as well as foreign
language formats. But the foreign language cataloging projects best demonstrate the
substantial expertise available among BCR's cataloging staff.
Most BCR catalogers are either employed at libraries in the area and work only part
time at BCR or contract with BCR to provide cataloging services as needed. Most of the staff
responsible for BCR's foreign language cataloging projects are native speakers and many have years of cataloging experience.
For example, Sarah Stein, a Denver Public Library cataloging specialist, is responsible for BCR's
Hebrew cataloging projects. Stein, a teacher, lived in Israel for a number of years
after studying Hebrew in the United States. After her return to the U.S., she obtained
her MLS. In addition to Hebrew, she catalogs in a number of Western European
languages.
Lois Kristjanson worked previously as a Scandinavian languages specialist at the
University of Washington. She has been a cataloger (or head of cataloging) at a
number of libraries and formerly worked for CARL. Kristjanson is BCR's primary
cataloger for Icelandic (and ancient Norse), Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian.
In addition, she catalogs in a number of other European, Roman-alphabet languages.
Xue (Cher) Gao Pritzkau and Vera Gao (no relation) are natives of China. Pritzkau
cataloged classical Chinese archival materials and edited a journal before coming to
America. After obtaining her MLS in the U.S., she worked in college, a historical
society and public libraries. Gao was an assistant professor of English in China.
Subsequent to obtaining her MLS in the U.S., she worked at a college library and at OCLC
before joining Auraria Library at the University of Colorado at Denver.
Jae Mwi Myong, a native of Korea, is providing cataloging services for Japanese and
Korean works. He began his professional career as a medical librarian in Seoul,
Korea, and later taught library science at Yonsei University there. After moving to the
United States, he worked as a catalog librarian at a medical and a university library
(ending as head of cataloging). Later, he worked as a Japanese language bibliographic
specialist.
Anna Veprinsky, who has an MS in Russian language and literature, is BCR's primary
cataloger in Russian and Ukrainian. Her library degree is the Russian equivalent of an
MLS. Although a native of Russia, she lived in the Ukraine for many years. In
addition to Russian and Ukrainian, she can catalog in several Slavic languages.
Veprinsky is assisted by Alla Kroychik, another Russian native. Kroychik, who also
has the Russian equivalent of an MLS, worked as a librarian/bibliographer at the
Library of Natural Sciences in Moscow before coming to the U.S. Veprinsky and
Kroychik also work for the Arapahoe Library District.
In total, BCR catalogers have cataloged in more than 50 languages. If your library is interested in contracting with BCR to catalog a foreign language
collection, contact Dig Chinn at BCR at dchinn@bcr.org. Even if your collection is in
a different language than those listed above, BCR will find someone who is able to do
the work for you.
