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About the Collections and Technical Services (CaTS) Forum

Purpose

The purpose of VLA’s Collections and Technical Services (CaTS) Forum is to provide continuing education and an exchange of ideas on topics of interest to cataloging, technical services, collection management and systems staff. In addition, the forum educates and disseminates information on technology that aids professionals in storing for retrieval, diversifying collections, and increasing access to both physical and digital library materials.

Get Involved

Virtual or in-person: Virtual, with meetings held over Zoom and ongoing discussions on Basecamp.

Time commitment: Flexible time commitment - join as many or as few virtual discussions as you like. Meetings are held monthly on the third Friday of each month at 2 p.m. and centered around a pre-selected discussion topic.
Recruiting period: Join at any time.
Committee communication platforms: Basecamp, email, Zoom. 

Conference attendance: Conference attendance is not required, but the CaTS Forum invites all current and interested members to an annual dinner, generally held on Thursday evening of the conference. 

Conference presentation: None.

About the 2026 CaTS Chair

Chair: Anita Rose, Blackwater Regional Library

Anita Rose has cataloged at Blackwater Regional Library since April of 2015. She puts her hands on nearly every new item that arrives to their library. Since 2019, she has used The Library Corporation's LS2Cataloging to catalog, leaving MARC behind. Her favorite thing to catalog is adult nonfiction books. In her spare time, she writes zines about minor events of the 1980s and 1990s, and does research on the department stores and malls of Virginia. 

Your itinerary for one perfect day in Virginia: Traveling to Short Pump Town Center, maybe hitting the thrift stores afterwards.
One thing you can’t live without:
 Old newspaper microfilms. I love using ProQuest from our library neighbors in Newport News!
One challenge you've encountered in cataloguing:
 Items not arriving in time for our patrons to check them out at or around the release date.
One piece of advice for CaTS Forum members:
 Speak up! Don't be afraid to share ideas at meetings. 
One accomplishment you’d like to share: I helped curate a Comfort TV DVD collection with my co workers. It was so fun to catalog all the dvd sets and advertise the collection on social media.