My name is Karen Pierce and I’m a Cataloguing Librarian at Cardiff University, with special responsibility for cataloguing items for the medical and healthcare libraries, and the Human Genetics Historical Library. I also oversee the cataloguing work of the NHS Wales libraries and am the Regional Editor for Wales for HLISD (Health Libraries and Information Services Directory).
Once a week I am delighted to contribute to cataloguing the rare and antiquarian books in our collection at Cardiff, primarily our History of Medicine collection which ranges from the 16th to the 20th century.
I was the Chair of the staff development sub-group of CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation) for ten years. During this time I was also a member of my library service’s Staff Development and Engagement Group, taking responsibility for editing the quarterly newsletter.
I currently represent Wales on CILIP’s Metadata & Discovery Group (formerly known as the Cataloguing and Indexing Group (CIG)) and co-edit their professional journal Catalogue & Index.
This blog will primarily focus on cataloguing, librarianship, and staff development issues, but it will on occasion detour through Helen of Troy and Greek myth (the subject of my PhD – 2004), or French and Breton folk dancing (I’m the secretary for Pentreffest, a South Wales based organisation):
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