CURRENT POSITION Assistant Director, Cataloging, New York Public Library/Brooklyn Public Library DEGREE MLS, Pratt Institute, 2007 FAST FACT Kalata makes elaborate, detailed paper models that take months to assemble. FOLLOW linkedin.com/in/tomasz-kalata-03b2096 Photo by William Neumann Photography

BookOps Optimalization

Tomasz Kalata is a library data whiz. That wasn’t his original plan, but his ideas have solved many collection issues for New York Public Library (NYPL) and Brooklyn Public Library (BPL). 

The Polish-born Kalata is responsible for “transforming” BookOps, NYPL and BPL’s shared technical services division, according to nominator Michael Santangelo, BookOps deputy director of collection management. 

Kalata’s software innovations include Overload, which eliminates duplicate listings; Babel, which manages non-English materials; and BookOps– WorldCat/Nightshift, open-source software that automates processes. The last has been adopted by the British Library, Stanford University, and UCLA, among others. 

Kalata had planned to become an archivist, but he needed a job and saw an opening for a cataloguer. “I really liked it,” he says, still surprised. 

And programming? After doing volunteer work and seeing how macros could simplify tasks, Kalata taught himself coding to solve library issues, such as how loading records to BookOps’ integrated library system could create numerous duplicates. Overload allows the system to recognize copies and delete or overwrite the extras. He also provided greater awareness of non-English works issued by small vendors. Babel keeps track so that NYPL/BPL can purchase and direct those materials to branches where they’ll find an audience. He was instrumental in creating software that can be customized by other libraries; BookOps–WorldCat/Nightshift is available on GitHub. 

Collaboration is something Kalata is particularly proud of. “Cataloging is not a large world,” he says. “We had ideas how we could create some building blocks for our own needs that would be universal. That’s really valuable.”