Joni Cassidy founded CASSIDY CATALOGUING SERVICES, INC. in 1985 in response to her discovery of the need for good cataloging in the private law sector. For many reasons, the Library of Congress Cataloguing Distribution Service doesn't meet the needs of a law library as well as it meets those of public and small academic libraries. Although many law collections are represented in OCLC and RLIN, those records require significant editing for quality and consistency. A law library still needs a skilled cataloger to enhance the records, and Cassidy provides that service for a broad array of clients.
During the company's first year, Joni performed most of her work from home using an electronic typewriter and assisted by one part-time clerk. The following year, the company was automated by Joni's husband, Michael, then a full-time theatre lighting technician working for Cassidy Cataloguing in his "spare" time. The law/business bibliographic database he set up in 1986 has grown to more than 90,000 records and serves as the heart of the company's activities today. By 1988, in-house and client demand for technical computer support led to Michael's full-time commitment to the company and its future growth.
Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. opened its first office in Manhattan in February, 1989. Joni was joined by a highly regarded law cataloger who left Wall Street to work for Cassidy. This first office was one room only and contained 250 square feet! Over the next four years, the company moved to two successively larger offices in the same building. Then, on an early evening in December 1993, Joni and another staff member were robbed at gunpoint and tied up in their own office. The company left the Big Apple one month later for safer, larger commercial space in Harrison, N.J.
With a full-time staff of fifteen, Cassidy Cataloguing provides cataloging and other technical services to 50+ law and corporate libraries. In addition to the private law firms and corporations, the company has provided services to three northeast law schools, one of the Smithsonian museums and the New York Law Institute.
Most of the actual cataloging and computer work is done in the New Jersey office, where catalog and shelf list cards, book catalogs and labels are produced. The staff works onsite at one-quarter of the company's client libraries comparing their holdings to records in Cassidy's database for full retrospective conversion projects. For titles they don't find in the company database, they photocopy title pages and record the bibliographic details needed for original cataloging. Then they return to the library at a later date to file cards, attach labels to books, etc. Records are delivered to the client library on disks in USMARC II format. As the labeling progresses, Cassidy's staff shift and re-arrange the books into correct classification order. The company provides maintenance cataloging services to most of the libraries which have undergone a retrospective conversion project.
In 1991, the company was invited to participate in a joint venture with Gaylord Information Systems, a division of Gaylord Bros. Gaylord introduced a new database of detailed MARC cataloguing records for the specialized subject areas of law and business on compact disk. Records are accessed using Gaylord's CD-ROM MARC Cataloguing System, "SuperCat." These records are contributed by Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. and updated quarterly. Cassidy was chosen for this new product along with the National Library of Medicine's cataloging records, which are the recognized authority in medical cataloguing. This successful collaboration lasted for five years.
In 1993, the company expanded from a regional to an international service area overnight by altering its methodology to provide contract cataloguing by mail. Three-quarters of Cassidy's clients contract for services of this kind. That same year, the company went into the union list business, compiling and maintaining serials holdings for regional groups of law libraries.
In 1996, the Lillian Goldman Law Library of Yale Law School contracted with Cassidy Cataloguing for the re-classification of their collection into Library of Congress Classification. This project, which included 227,000 titles, took only eighteen months to complete! Cassidy was pleased to be able to accomplish this project using law school catalogers and LC contractors who were excited to be involved in such an interesting retrospective conversion.
The company continued to expand its services when it developed a web-hosted OPAC in 1998. Using in-house records or MARC records sent by a client library, Cassidy creates an online catalog, mounts it on their web server and continues to update and maintain the product monthly. Clients can access their catalog over a secure Internet connection.
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Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. kicked off the new century by extending its technical services evaluation and consulting services to libraries outside the law community. Additionally, a separate consulting division focusing on content asset management and data archiving is currently being developed. Cassidy will always be on the forefront of "what's going on in YOUR library."
Cassidy Cataloguing has worked hard to attain a reputation for high-quality cataloguing in the law library community. All of the staff have lectured extensively on the successful application of national bibliographic standards to the private firm setting. Cassidy has been instrumental in the widespread acceptance of those standards by making high-quality records available to firms too small to add a cataloger to the library staff. In addition, Cassidy's staff are also active in professional associations, both national and regional, supporting a strong commitment to continuing library education in the area of technical services.
One of the keys to success for Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. is that people trust the company with their libraries. Cassidy's President is proud of her company's work product as well as the ties the company has forged with so many law libraries over the years.