Library Cataloging
Recently on AUTOCAT, there has been discussion about the skills needed by a cataloger. Here is my 2 cents. Catalogers are concerned with national and international standards. We have MARC21, AACR, the ISBDs, Z39.50 and so on. We like standards, interoperability, and sharing. However, our reference staff and users come from our local community. They may call a water fountain a bubbler or a submarine sandwich a hero, grinder, po'boy or whatever. They have no sense of standards, just usage. To create a catalog for our users we must be aware of local usage. We can see only the forest and not the trees, while our users and the reference staff who deal with them see only the trees.
- Lcsh Suggestion Blog-a-thon
The Radical Reference folks are having a Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon.Do subject headings still matter? We say they do. Does the Library of Congress always identify accessible and appropriately named headings and implement...
- End Users
I've been listening to a talk Bill Moen gave at the TLA 2004 conference on my MP3 player. (TLA makes CDs of the conference with MP3 files of the talks available for a very reasonable sum.) In it he talks about our end users. Those are the folks walking...
- Proposal For The Addition Of Dates To Existing Personal Name Headings
The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) has been considering a suggestion to reinstate MARC 21 note field 678 (Biographical or Historical Data) in name authority records in order to provide the death date of persons who are known to be deceased,...
- Wikis
At last, at Library Stuff, I've heard a good use for a Wiki on a library site. Pathfinders, or finding aids could benefit from corrections, annotations and additions from the public. This makes sense. Local experts or fans of a topic could very well...
- Cross Training
The article The Renaissance Librarian: Catalogers Working in Public Services by Douglas King has been published at LISCareer.com He discusses the benefits of working the reference desk and issues to consider before taking the plunge.I've always found...
Library Cataloging
Cataloging Skills
Recently on AUTOCAT, there has been discussion about the skills needed by a cataloger. Here is my 2 cents. Catalogers are concerned with national and international standards. We have MARC21, AACR, the ISBDs, Z39.50 and so on. We like standards, interoperability, and sharing. However, our reference staff and users come from our local community. They may call a water fountain a bubbler or a submarine sandwich a hero, grinder, po'boy or whatever. They have no sense of standards, just usage. To create a catalog for our users we must be aware of local usage. We can see only the forest and not the trees, while our users and the reference staff who deal with them see only the trees.
Both reference and tech services would benefit from seeing things from the different perspective. It would be ideal if catalogers could sit on the reference desk for four hours a week. Reference staff could work on MARC records for their four hours, adding genre/form headings would be useful and not too much of a stretch. Then catalogers could go back and create some of those cross references in the authority file, add annotations using language of the patron's, create headings for characters that would benefit their local users. The reference folks could see that we are not just making it up to have job security.
- Lcsh Suggestion Blog-a-thon
The Radical Reference folks are having a Library of Congress Subject Heading Suggestion Blog-a-Thon.Do subject headings still matter? We say they do. Does the Library of Congress always identify accessible and appropriately named headings and implement...
- End Users
I've been listening to a talk Bill Moen gave at the TLA 2004 conference on my MP3 player. (TLA makes CDs of the conference with MP3 files of the talks available for a very reasonable sum.) In it he talks about our end users. Those are the folks walking...
- Proposal For The Addition Of Dates To Existing Personal Name Headings
The Cataloging Policy and Support Office (CPSO) has been considering a suggestion to reinstate MARC 21 note field 678 (Biographical or Historical Data) in name authority records in order to provide the death date of persons who are known to be deceased,...
- Wikis
At last, at Library Stuff, I've heard a good use for a Wiki on a library site. Pathfinders, or finding aids could benefit from corrections, annotations and additions from the public. This makes sense. Local experts or fans of a topic could very well...
- Cross Training
The article The Renaissance Librarian: Catalogers Working in Public Services by Douglas King has been published at LISCareer.com He discusses the benefits of working the reference desk and issues to consider before taking the plunge.I've always found...