What advice do school librarians give to those learning how to organize and access information? Here are the questions posed to veteran school librarians from LM_NET and their responses:
When I think about my cataloging class I think about how I lugged a full version of AACR2 on a cross country move with my husband, 2 kids and a dog in order to finish the summer quarter!I'm teaching in a large district that does the centralized cataloging you mentioned, but the one thing that I'd recommend new librarians remember is that the 984 field is for flexibility!Alternate call numbers are our friends.Your library has to serve your patrons and what helps your students is what's best, even if it's a little "off the Marc" (pun intended). For example...I have a copy of John Groban's Marley: A Dog Like No Other that is correctly cataloged in DDS as either 636.7xxx or 92 GROBAN, but my students won't find it in either of those places, so even though it's a memoir, I've chosen to mark it with an alternate call number (noted in the 984 field) and shelve it as GRO with chapter fiction.Other examples might be choosing to "984" the Disney Fairies series books as DIS instead of all of the individual authors so that my 2-5 grade girls don't have to search the entire fiction section when they're looking for these titles or making an "excutive decision" about how (or whether) to use 741.5 for all graphic materials (F and NF), or how to best use 394.2 for holidays (i.e. extend out 394.2xxx for specific holidays or leave the CN as 394.2 and use the spine stickers (which are easier for "visual" students to find anyway!). ~S.Z. Alaska I actually love cataloging and classification.If I were teaching such a class I would point out... 1. Cataloging (using the correct MARC field, punctuation, etc) is a science, which has specific rules to be followed, almost religiously. While classification (assigning subject headings and call numbers) is more of an art and is relative to your collection. 2. In the 504 field... I make a distinction between bibliographic references (tied to specific pages and chapters) and bibliography - a list of materials for the whole book.. similar to suggested readings. 3. As key-word searching has grown in automation systems, the contents in the 505 field (and summary in 520) become more useful. 4. I still put "Includes index) in the 500 field and in non-fiction also list here glossary, and chronology. 5. Subject headings should refer to the whole book (if there is a chapter on something, it should be in 505, not a subject heading) 6. Especially in a school library, I make use of the 690 local subject... sometimes kids will look for things that are not standard subjects in Sears or LOC. 7. Point out the Name authority list in http://authorities.loc.gov... It is important for keeping consistent with people like "Jimmy Carter", "Shirley Temple" 8.I ALWAYS include dates in personal subject field (in the d subfield) as they are an important reference.I also add dates of death after I hear someone has died in the news.In my first job when we were using a physical card catalog there was one person who was in chargeof deaths.. of course to change subjects on paper cards was a big job, involving multiple cards for each book. ~F.M. New Jersey I had the chance to learn the details of cataloging but when I began to practice I moved right into full automation within a large district.So, I haven't ever had to do all of my own cataloging.Still I do original cataloging every year.In fact I have at least 20 items that need to be cataloged and I don't expect to find records within Destiny when I get to them. I like the fact that I understand the details and their importance.That background knowledge helps me make good decisions when I do catalog.I understand the most important fields and those where I can fudge. My two most important things to keep in mind and understand as a librarian... 1)The importance of standardization among records, particularly within districts that are medium or large. 2)When you need a call number look at similar materials on your own shelves or check the catalog of other libraries.I've learned a lot by comparing materials among different collections. L.H. Oklahoma I love cataloging. It's one of the best parts of my job. I work in a small district with three libraries. I'm the only professional. There are aides at the other 2 campuses. Cataloging lets me learn the collections on the other campuses. Yes, I do the purchasing, but holding the book in your hands is much more meaningful. Cataloging allows me to consider my students and how they use our facility. I'm able to add subject headings I know they'll think of - and yes, I know that technically I shouldn't do that, but it's all about access. The only thing better than discussing books, reading, and learning with students and staff is knowing the materials I bought to support the curriculum and entice my students to further reading are easily accessible. Collection development, library climate, and accessibility (cataloging) are the 3 areas I have complete control of my program. It's vital to my job satisfaction. S.B. Texas
I always thought I was a frustrated cataloger since I loved the days (like conference days) when I could catalog without interruption.For me, even though it's not always easy, it was sort of a "relax, get into the flow" sort of thing, especially when it became mostly "copy cataloging."My biggest frustration in that I wasn't always sure how to handle them were books that came from a rebinder like Econoclad (now Tandem), which has a plant here in Topeka with an annual "tent sale" (so I generally had lots of their books) or from Scholastic Book Fairs since they had their own ISBN numbers which were not the originals so giving credit to the original publishers and providing the original copyright date and deciding which ISBNs and whichto include and which field to put them in was a headache for me. When I was going to library school automation was in it's infancy and we were only given a quick look at MARC.I basically learned it on my own through reading and attending cataloging workshops at our state conferences so what I would be sure to emphasize is the importance of professional development opportunities (in every area of the field of course) as the only certainty is change and you just have to keep up. I even occasionally get to do a bit of cataloging in my volunteer job (I enter obituary data) at the public library and I love those nights (it sure beats locating the obits in the microfilm). ~J.P. Kansas
I guess I'm a bit of a library geek, but I think cataloging is both fun and fascinating. Classification is an excellent mental exercise, asking oneself what this item is about, not only for me but for any prospective user. How can I make sure that anybody who might think this item useful will be able to find it efficiently? It's a great discipline for anybody interested in making a professional commitment to helping others not only to find what they're looking for, but, more important, to define exactly what that is. Perhaps I was lucky. I learned DDC and MARC from a great teacher, Kathy Wisser at Carolina, who at the time was a graduate assistant with Jerry Saye, the author of recent editions of "Manheimer's Cataloging and Classification." At the start of the first class, she asked each of us to share with the others any first impressions we had of cataloging. I told her I had lots of librarian friends and that my impression was that it was something everybody had to study but that I'd never met anyone who actually enjoyed it. She said, "Well, you just met one." Her enthusiasm was infectious. A few years ago, during some rough times with a principal (whom I later came to admire deeply), I almost became a cataloger at NC State. I'm glad now that I didn't get the job, but at the time I was ready to make the leap. As you alluded in your target post, in my current job I'm actually barred by district policy from altering the cataloging records (which I find infuriating -- I've begged Library Services just to let me add comments in the 500 field, but the answer is always categorically negative). In my previous position, I did all the cataloging for items acquired through donation or from other than our primary vendor (Follett, who did a decent job). Mostly I'd copy and adapt existing records from the LC or from universities (Duke libraries, for example, still use DDC -- or at least did a few years ago), but occasionally someone would donate something obscure and I'd get to build a record from scratch. It was wonderful. Of course, there's another massive layer to find-ability now in user tagging, which is incredibly valuable. But I still maintain there's room for both, indeed that both are equally necessary. Tim Spalding from LibraryThing gives a great example with the book Neuromancer by William Gibson. One of the LC headings is "Information superhighway -- Fiction." There is virtually no library user who will find that subject useful. But on LT, it's tagged "cyberpunk," a genre of which is it one of the most conspicuous exemplars. If you click on the cyberpunk tag, you get a list of all the other books that LT users have tagged that way, which, Spalding points out, amounts to the cyberpunk reading list. A very powerful tool. Still, I would add, when it comes to actually wrapping your fingers around the book (or downloading it to your iPhone as the case may be), there is some "place," either virtually or physically, where it must be kept. It's less urgent for electronic materials, but as long as we have physical books and realia, there is a pressing need for some hierarchical system of findability that specialists can rely on to help users. DDC is by no means perfect, but the breadth of its adoption and the historical depth of its use, not to mention the flexibility of the system itself, suggests it's the best thing we've got (except for LC classification, which is simply too complex and cumbersome for most libraries to bother with). Even with online materials, anyone serious about research is well advised to know how reliably to find known items, which assumes some measure of organization. If there's one thing I might have gotten from my course that I didn't, it might be a broader, more balanced approach to the subject. I took it in summer session, which is more compressed. But we did little more than drill the nuts and bolts of AACR2, DDC, and MARC. But a nice supplement might have been some readings from books like "Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences" by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, "Ambient Findability" by Peter Morville (one of my all-time favorites), or Weinberger's "Everything is Miscellaneous." The latter two hadn't been published at the time, but there were other books like them. The Morville book includes references to dozens of tangentially related books, nearly all of them intriguing and provocative. ~B.H. Virginia I love cataloging but did not need it until two years after I took it. While I remembered the fundamentals, the meanings of everything eluded me and the text we used was not any help.It would be nice if there was an online refresher for practicing professionals that did not cost an arm and leg. I don't remember talking about the flexibility of placing items in a patron friendly manner.By this I mean things like classic literature that you'd normally find in the 800's and placing it in fiction.Or creating new Call prefixes like GR for Graphic Novels and placing these in the fiction collection, not in the 700's with cartoons. This is one class I wish I could take over now that I'm actually doing it. ~R.W. Minnesota
In my cataloging class, we had to create a system to catalog our own personal collections. I was an elementary teacher and had 100's of children's books plus all my own blackline masters. I had already created something for the kids to use (color coded dots with numbers on them) so they knew which boxes to return the books to, never realizing at the time that this was a library cataloging thing. Blue was for Easy books, Yellow for Fiction, and Green for Nonfiction. Only the kids & I didn't call them easy, fiction, nonfiction. The reason for the certain colors? Blue, my favorite color, was for picture books. Yellow, my next favorite color, for chapter books. Green for science because green is for things that grow. My black line masters had a similar thing. Red dots for reading, blue for math, green for science/social studies, etc. When I took the cataloging class I realized I had created my own "Dewey" system. I thought I was being so clever with "my system". HaIt was good to do this because I had to really think of how "my system" would or would not work. Lots of glitches because where do you put a Tomie dePaola nonfiction picture book?It made me actually appreciate Dewey because someone else had made all these decisions for me and I just had to find a good source for the Dewey numbers. T.T. Kansas In my undergrad cataloging class, we had to learn how to write out records by hand like in the "olden days," with the precise number of spaces, little triangles, slashes, and everything.This was in 2003!!!I have never, ever needed to do such a thing in my career and that was by far the most pointless part of the class.Today's students don't need to be subjected to that, other than in the form of a "here is how it used to be done" history lesson.(That's my opinion, anyhow.) Personally, I purchase 99% of my cataloging right from the vendors when I buy the books, and for what I do myself, I simply "grab" records through our circulation system (Destiny).It's very rare that I have to create a record from scratch, and even then, it's more of a fill-in-the-blank kind of thing.I wish I could just take a cataloging refresher course that would deal with making judgment calls about vendor-provided cataloging, with subject headings and how to be consistent, and MAYBE a reminder of the number fields (particularly those where vendors are likely to ask you if you want any information in a certain field, or if you want a particular piece of information "here" or "there."That's the only time I care about the numbers.) J.F. Wisconsin What I think definitely needs to be shared with new librarians (or those studying to become librarians) is the Cataloging Listserve!When I took Cat. online the professor was from out of state and he stayed out of state most of the time.His answers to emails or online questions were short quips of answers, without the questions attached (he even went as far as deleting the questions in our BB venue), usually a week or two after one had sent the question!So I learned much more from that listserve than I did from the professor.At first it is all GREEK, but after a few hundred emails and asking a few questions, you get the jargon down. What do I think is the MOST important thing to know about cataloging, is answered above. What is the WORST thing about cataloging is that huge book written in Greek, by trolls who seem to think we understand what is written and organized therein. What do I WISH someone had taught me when I took my cataloging class is how to really do it, what all the different lines really mean, codes, etc.I really am at a loss when it comes to cataloging, but I can add on the fly when that tool is up and running. What was the least important thing that I learned from cat, I am not sure except that in my current position I don't have to catalog.I know many who are at their own libraries use what the venders send, or try to download from different sources.I do believe that Dallas does the same thing, except for those few items that don't have original cataloging. What do I wish I knew more about now that I'm in the field is not a great deal as it pertains to my current position, but if I move to another job where I have to cat. I will have to take a refresher course, or get a great deal of help.I think some people are meant to do certain jobs, cataloging is just not one of the jobs I guess I was meant to do! ~C.E. Texas I think access and consistency are the most important points to stress about cataloging. The classes I took while earning my LTA certificate, and later my MLS, both focused on LC more than Dewey, and that was not helpful since most school libraries use Dewey.Also, we spent all the time on original cataloging but did not talk about any of the practical tools, like copy cataloging and downloading MARC records from other libraries.These are such a great time savers, and the majority of records can be found at one site or another and then edited to fit your library needs.I find that I can spend a couple of hours searching for and downloading records and then finishing processing the materials little by little as time allows.It takes a lot of the pressure off to have the records already created. ~J.P. Connecticut
I speak from experience being both a reference librarian in the past and cataloger now.I have worked in small libraries during my career, but sometimes academic libraries and public libraries.I have found that the best reference librarians were those that knew the most about how the MARC record is structured.They knew how to use the structure of the records to locate what they were looking for.They also knew how to recognize when they should have gotten a hit and didn't or why they may have gotten false positives. Not every library has a "clean" catalog as I am sure you are aware.
But knowing how records are structured and how searches can go wrong (computers are quite literal, you know) improves one's chances of success regardless the sloppy data entered. Catalogers know that the most important thing in cataloging is consistency.It doesn't matter if you enter the data wrong as long as you enter it wrong EVERY time.It can easily be found.You would be surprised how many people still need to learn that lesson when entering data. Always enter it the same way with the same subfields, with the same punctuation (or lack thereof).Hopefully, it is entered the correct way.
The AACR rules weren't designed to drive librarians crazy, they were designed to achieve consistency.Learn them and follow them.If you aren't sure what the rule says about entering particular data, find out. If you must enter data without following the rules, make note of what you are doing and do it the same way next time. Remember that the catalog is really the critical thing that makes a library different from a book store.It is the guide that helps the reference librarian help the patron.Even in small libraries, it can be dangerous to rely solely on one's memory to find what the patron wants on the shelves.The Dewey decimal classification is designed as a shelving aid. The catalog is the finding aid. Using both together will ensure greater success in finding information.
One final plea, Proofread.It is amazing to see how many catalog records get entered in small one person libraries with misspelled titles, transposed ISBN numbers, abbreviations where not appropriate, etc.Records won't be found when those errors are present. ~L.W. Colorado I have worked in 3 different districts, 2 with Central Processing and 1 without.One of the ongoing problems with central processing is that big districts tend to purchase cataloging - which, of course, means some clerk somewhere, who may or may not be library trained, is doing the cataloging.I have always had to keep an eye out for anomalies and wrongly numbered books, as I am sure we all do.There have been some really funny ones through the years.
The other side of that coin, which I am sure you have covered, is the need to tailor to ones particular collection - do sports bios go in 921 or 796?; holocaust stories in 921 or 950s? etc. However, I think the biggest annoyance in my 27 years has been the changes decreed from on high, but never really passed on to those of us in the trenchs.Negroes to Blacks to African Americans is one example. Every time I have come to a new (to me) library, I have had to look closely at the 913, 914, etc.The rules changed years ago, so that country books are now in 930, 940, etc. unless strictly travel or geography (which I am sure you know).
Of course, at this point, those books still in the teens are undoubtedly candidates for weeding. The social issues like sexual abuse, domestic violence, civil rights, etc. seem to change too.I have often had to re-catalog from 300s to 600s in order to put all the books on the same subject in the same place. Sometimes, this is a matter of interpretation - which brings us back to that nameless clerk.
I guess what I am trying to emphasize is the need to respond to the needs of one’s particular library.This is more complicated in districts with a union catalog.Sometime in the future, the librarian here is going to have to deal with my decisions in terms of the whole district.For example, I moved all the classic lit to the 800s where the Honors and AP kids can still find them, thus making room for all the new and wonderful fiction for YAs. It works in this library with the current crop of teachers. It will be interesting to see what your get as responses. Let us know - in a condensed form, if everyone is as wordy as I. ~L.W. Oregon I think I'd tell your students that you need to know your patrons when cataloging.Sometimes the "right" DDC # for a book isn't where your students will look for it.So you as the librarian / media specialist have to make a decision and maybe change the number to put it in a more accessible spot. Also, you need to know your curriculum.I know that current practice is to assign DD#'s to biographies that relate overall subject (Sports bios go in the 790's in their appropriate sports section.)But in my school, teachers still assign biographies and autobiographies as book reports - so it makes much more sense to have a separate biography section to facilitate browsing and finding biographies, especially when students have only a few minutes to find one. Thanks for giving us a chance to give you some input. PS - I'm a copy cataloguer in a small district -- I use OCLC's WorldCat for my MARC records.Sometimes I find a record for media in the wrong format (VHS, when I have DVD, etc.)I've learned over the years what to change to make my MARC record fit my item, but this might be something your students should know. ~D.V. Montana Although I buy as much pre-cataloged as possible, and I can create a MARC record, I find that most of the cataloging I do myself (in the wee hours) is of the quick-and-dirty approach.I have finally reconciled my lack of proper standardization by knowing that I am doing my best to get the books on the shelves and provide service.It IS a dilemma. ~G.C. New Jersey I taught cataloging at UNLV for 8 years.I had each class culminate in a "cataloging project."I taught the class out of my high school library, and so had tons of materials to work with.Depending on how many people in the class, I put together a stack of items (books, CD or video, etc.) that needed to be: 1) originally cataloged, 2) reclassified, or3) added as an additional copy.I also taught them how to process the items with mylar covers, etc.We use Destiny and part was also printing the labels.They did the cataloging with Marc Magician and then had to export/import the records into Destiny.I never had any complaints--actually they all loved it because it was "real."Larger classes resulted in smaller piles to work with (and just about killed me, running from person to person), but four items was the minimum. They came away with a new appreciation for what is involved in processing and how long it takes to get an item on the shelf.Oh and they each had a variety of items as far as processing goes--dust jackets, no dust jackets, etc. As far as what was "hard"--they all said working with Dewey because it was so difficult to understand the notes.I explained number combining, but did not require them to do it.And Sears!!This surprised me, but I found the younger teachers to have limited vocabularies and little imagination when hunting for appropriate headings.Then there are those who are spelling-challenged and refuse to even try to punctuate records correctly.A must-have is access to Follett's Tag of the Month website. I'm no longer teaching the class, but supervise our Destiny catalog.We have 305 schools and 4 million records--half of which are just awful.I could work for another 30 years and not get them all merged and/or corrected. ~L.G. Nevada One thing I have learned is that occasionally you need to assign a call number other than the 'standard' so that YOUR specific patrons can access and locate the material.Sometimes I have more than one copy of a book in two locations.For example we have The Diary of Anne Frank in the 940s in 921 and a copy in Spanish. ~C.Y. Georgia To me the catalog is the heart of the library and will remain so for many years to come. As a matter of fact one of the major problems with the Internet is that it is NOT cataloged which is why, tho' you can gets lots of "information," finding GOOD information efficiently is still not very easy. Cataloging is an art--not a science--but there are definitely some things worth having your students keep in mind. I think consistency is key to making the catalog work for us and our users. That's why I'm very careful about using authority files and not having overlapping/parallel subject headings (LC and Sears) in my catalog. I took my cataloging course in 1974 when automation was only a dream for most school librarians and have pretty much taught myself about MARC and other aspects of cataloging since then. I think I've kept up pretty well but I know we are in a transitional time right now and there are many decisions about cataloging and catalog records which I will probably never have to worry about since I'll be retired! ~T.K. California
My Advice
What advice do school librarians give to those learning how to organize and access information? Here are the questions posed to veteran school librarians from LM_NET and their responses:When I think about my cataloging class I think about how I lugged a full version of AACR2 on a cross country move with my husband, 2 kids and a dog in order to finish the summer quarter! I'm teaching in a large district that does the centralized cataloging you mentioned, but the one thing that I'd recommend new librarians remember is that the 984 field is for flexibility! Alternate call numbers are our friends. Your library has to serve your patrons and what helps your students is what's best, even if it's a little "off the Marc" (pun intended).
For example...I have a copy of John Groban's Marley: A Dog Like No Other that is correctly cataloged in DDS as either 636.7xxx or 92 GROBAN, but my students won't find it in either of those places, so even though it's a memoir, I've chosen to mark it with an alternate call number (noted in the 984 field) and shelve it as GRO with chapter fiction. Other examples might be choosing to "984" the Disney Fairies series books as DIS instead of all of the individual authors so that my 2-5 grade girls don't have to search the entire fiction section when they're looking for these titles or making an "excutive decision" about how (or whether) to use 741.5 for all graphic materials (F and NF), or how to best use 394.2 for holidays (i.e. extend out 394.2xxx for specific holidays or leave the CN as 394.2 and use the spine stickers (which are easier for "visual" students to find anyway!).
~S.Z.
Alaska
I actually love cataloging and classification. If I were teaching
such a class I would point out...
1. Cataloging (using the correct MARC field, punctuation, etc) is a
science, which has specific rules to be followed, almost religiously.
While classification (assigning subject headings and call numbers) is
more of an art and is relative to your collection.
2. In the 504 field... I make a distinction between bibliographic
references (tied to specific pages and chapters) and bibliography - a
list of materials for the whole book.. similar to suggested readings.
3. As key-word searching has grown in automation systems, the contents
in the 505 field (and summary in 520) become more useful.
4. I still put "Includes index) in the 500 field and in non-fiction
also list here glossary, and chronology.
5. Subject headings should refer to the whole book (if there is a
chapter on something, it should be in 505, not a subject heading)
6. Especially in a school library, I make use of the 690 local
subject... sometimes kids will look for things that are not standard
subjects in Sears or LOC.
7. Point out the Name authority list in http://authorities.loc.gov...
It is important for keeping consistent with people like "Jimmy
Carter", "Shirley Temple"
8. I ALWAYS include dates in personal subject field (in the d
subfield) as they are an important reference. I also add dates of
death after I hear someone has died in the news. In my first job when
we were using a physical card catalog there was one person who was in
charge of deaths.. of course to change subjects on paper cards was a
big job, involving multiple cards for each book.
~F.M.
New Jersey
I had the chance to learn the details of cataloging but when I began to practice I moved right into full automation within a large district. So, I haven't ever had to do all of my own cataloging. Still I do original cataloging every year. In fact I have at least 20 items that need to be cataloged and I don't expect to find records within Destiny when I get to them.
I like the fact that I understand the details and their importance. That background knowledge helps me make good decisions when I do catalog. I understand the most important fields and those where I can fudge.
My two most important things to keep in mind and understand as a librarian...
1) The importance of standardization among records, particularly within districts that are medium or large.
2) When you need a call number look at similar materials on your own shelves or check the catalog of other libraries. I've learned a lot by comparing materials among different collections.
L.H.
Oklahoma
I love cataloging. It's one of the best parts of my job. I work in a small district with three libraries. I'm the only professional. There are aides at the other 2 campuses. Cataloging lets me learn the collections on the other campuses. Yes, I do the purchasing, but holding the book in your hands is much more meaningful. Cataloging allows me to consider my students and how they use our facility. I'm able to add subject headings I know they'll think of - and yes, I know that technically I shouldn't do that, but it's all about access.
The only thing better than discussing books, reading, and learning with students and staff is knowing the materials I bought to support the curriculum and entice my students to further reading are easily accessible.
Collection development, library climate, and accessibility (cataloging) are the 3 areas I have complete control of my program. It's vital to my job satisfaction.
S.B.
Texas
I always thought I was a frustrated cataloger since I loved the days (like conference days) when I could catalog without interruption. For me, even though it's not always easy, it was sort of a "relax, get into the flow" sort of thing, especially when it became mostly "copy cataloging." My biggest frustration in that I wasn't always sure how to handle them were books that came from a rebinder like Econoclad (now Tandem), which has a plant here in Topeka with an annual "tent sale" (so I generally had lots of their books) or from Scholastic Book Fairs since they had their own ISBN numbers which were not the originals so giving credit to the original publishers and providing the original copyright date and deciding which ISBNs and which to include and which field to put them in was a headache for me.
When I was going to library school automation was in it's infancy and we were only given a quick look at MARC. I basically learned it on my own through reading and attending cataloging workshops at our state conferences so what I would be sure to emphasize is the importance of professional development opportunities (in every area of the field of course) as the only certainty is change and you just have to keep up.
I even occasionally get to do a bit of cataloging in my volunteer job (I enter obituary data) at the public library and I love those nights (it sure beats locating the obits in the microfilm).
~J.P.
Kansas
I guess I'm a bit of a library geek, but I think cataloging is both fun
and fascinating. Classification is an excellent mental exercise, asking
oneself what this item is about, not only for me but for any prospective
user. How can I make sure that anybody who might think this item useful
will be able to find it efficiently? It's a great discipline for anybody
interested in making a professional commitment to helping others not
only to find what they're looking for, but, more important, to define
exactly what that is.
Perhaps I was lucky. I learned DDC and MARC from a great teacher, Kathy
Wisser at Carolina, who at the time was a graduate assistant with Jerry
Saye, the author of recent editions of "Manheimer's Cataloging and
Classification." At the start of the first class, she asked each of us
to share with the others any first impressions we had of cataloging. I
told her I had lots of librarian friends and that my impression was that
it was something everybody had to study but that I'd never met anyone
who actually enjoyed it. She said, "Well, you just met one." Her
enthusiasm was infectious.
A few years ago, during some rough times with a principal (whom I later
came to admire deeply), I almost became a cataloger at NC State. I'm
glad now that I didn't get the job, but at the time I was ready to make
the leap. As you alluded in your target post, in my current job I'm
actually barred by district policy from altering the cataloging records
(which I find infuriating -- I've begged Library Services just to let me
add comments in the 500 field, but the answer is always categorically
negative). In my previous position, I did all the cataloging for items
acquired through donation or from other than our primary vendor
(Follett, who did a decent job). Mostly I'd copy and adapt existing
records from the LC or from universities (Duke libraries, for example,
still use DDC -- or at least did a few years ago), but occasionally
someone would donate something obscure and I'd get to build a record
from scratch. It was wonderful.
Of course, there's another massive layer to find-ability now in user
tagging, which is incredibly valuable. But I still maintain there's room
for both, indeed that both are equally necessary. Tim Spalding from
LibraryThing gives a great example with the book Neuromancer by William
Gibson. One of the LC headings is "Information superhighway -- Fiction."
There is virtually no library user who will find that subject useful.
But on LT, it's tagged "cyberpunk," a genre of which is it one of the
most conspicuous exemplars. If you click on the cyberpunk tag, you get a
list of all the other books that LT users have tagged that way, which,
Spalding points out, amounts to the cyberpunk reading list. A very
powerful tool. Still, I would add, when it comes to actually wrapping
your fingers around the book (or downloading it to your iPhone as the
case may be), there is some "place," either virtually or physically,
where it must be kept. It's less urgent for electronic materials, but as
long as we have physical books and realia, there is a pressing need for
some hierarchical system of findability that specialists can rely on to
help users. DDC is by no means perfect, but the breadth of its adoption
and the historical depth of its use, not to mention the flexibility of
the system itself, suggests it's the best thing we've got (except for LC
classification, which is simply too complex and cumbersome for most
libraries to bother with). Even with online materials, anyone serious
about research is well advised to know how reliably to find known items,
which assumes some measure of organization.
If there's one thing I might have gotten from my course that I didn't,
it might be a broader, more balanced approach to the subject. I took it
in summer session, which is more compressed. But we did little more than
drill the nuts and bolts of AACR2, DDC, and MARC. But a nice supplement
might have been some readings from books like "Sorting Things Out:
Classification and Its Consequences" by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan
Leigh Star, "Ambient Findability" by Peter Morville (one of my all-time
favorites), or Weinberger's "Everything is Miscellaneous." The latter
two hadn't been published at the time, but there were other books like
them. The Morville book includes references to dozens of tangentially
related books, nearly all of them intriguing and provocative.
~B.H.
Virginia
I love cataloging but did not need it until two years after I took it.
While I remembered the fundamentals, the meanings of everything eluded
me and the text we used was not any help. It would be nice if there was
an online refresher for practicing professionals that did not cost an
arm and leg.
I don't remember talking about the flexibility of placing items in a
patron friendly manner. By this I mean things like classic literature
that you'd normally find in the 800's and placing it in fiction. Or
creating new Call prefixes like GR for Graphic Novels and placing these
in the fiction collection, not in the 700's with cartoons.
This is one class I wish I could take over now that I'm actually doing
it.
~R.W.
Minnesota
In my cataloging class, we had to create a system to catalog our own
personal collections. I was an elementary teacher and had 100's of
children's books plus all my own blackline masters. I had already
created something for the kids to use (color coded dots with numbers on
them) so they knew which boxes to return the books to, never realizing
at the time that this was a library cataloging thing. Blue was for Easy
books, Yellow for Fiction, and Green for Nonfiction. Only the kids & I
didn't call them easy, fiction, nonfiction. The reason for the certain
colors? Blue, my favorite color, was for picture books. Yellow, my next
favorite color, for chapter books. Green for science because green is
for things that grow. My black line masters had a similar thing. Red dots
for reading, blue for math, green for science/social studies, etc.
When I took the cataloging class I realized I had created my own "Dewey"
system. I thought I was being so clever with "my system". Ha It was
good to do this because I had to really think of how "my system" would
or would not work. Lots of glitches because where do you put a Tomie
dePaola nonfiction picture book? It made me actually appreciate Dewey
because someone else had made all these decisions for me and I just had
to find a good source for the Dewey numbers.
T.T.
Kansas
In my undergrad cataloging class, we had to learn how to write out records by hand like in the "olden days," with the precise number of spaces, little triangles, slashes, and everything. This was in 2003!!! I have never, ever needed to do such a thing in my career and that was by far the most pointless part of the class. Today's students don't need to be subjected to that, other than in the form of a "here is how it used to be done" history lesson. (That's my opinion, anyhow.)
Personally, I purchase 99% of my cataloging right from the vendors when I buy the books, and for what I do myself, I simply "grab" records through our circulation system (Destiny). It's very rare that I have to create a record from scratch, and even then, it's more of a fill-in-the-blank kind of thing. I wish I could just take a cataloging refresher course that would deal with making judgment calls about vendor-provided cataloging, with subject headings and how to be consistent, and MAYBE a reminder of the number fields (particularly those where vendors are likely to ask you if you want any information in a certain field, or if you want a particular piece of information "here" or "there." That's the only time I care about the numbers.)
J.F.
Wisconsin
What I think definitely needs to be shared with new librarians (or those studying to become librarians) is the Cataloging Listserve! When I took Cat. online the professor was from out of state and he stayed out of state most of the time. His answers to emails or online questions were short quips of answers, without the questions attached (he even went as far as deleting the questions in our BB venue), usually a week
or two after one had sent the question! So I learned much more from that listserve than I did from the professor. At first it is all GREEK, but after a few hundred emails and asking a few questions, you get the jargon down.
What do I think is the MOST important thing to know about cataloging, is answered above.
What is the WORST thing about cataloging is that huge book written in
Greek, by trolls who seem to think we understand what is written and organized therein.
What do I WISH someone had taught me when I took my cataloging class is how to really do it, what all the different lines really mean, codes, etc. I really am at a loss when it comes to cataloging, but I can add on the fly when that tool is up and running.
What was the least important thing that I learned from cat, I am not sure except that in my current position I don't have to catalog. I know many who are at their own libraries use what the venders send, or try to download from different sources. I do believe that Dallas does the same thing, except for those few items that don't have original cataloging.
What do I wish I knew more about now that I'm in the field is not a great deal as it pertains to my current position, but if I move to another job where I have to cat. I will have to take a refresher course, or get a great deal of help. I think some people are meant to do certain jobs, cataloging is just not one of the jobs I guess I was meant to do!
~C.E.
Texas
I think access and consistency are the most important points to stress about cataloging. The classes I took while earning my LTA certificate, and later my MLS, both focused on LC more than Dewey, and that was not helpful since most school libraries use Dewey. Also, we spent all the time on original cataloging but did not talk about any of the practical tools, like copy cataloging and downloading MARC records from other libraries. These are such a great time savers, and the majority of records can be found at one site or another and then edited to fit your library needs. I find that I can spend a couple of hours searching for and downloading records and then finishing processing the materials little by little as time allows. It takes a lot of the pressure off to have the records already created.
~J.P.
Connecticut
I speak from experience being both a reference librarian in the past and cataloger now. I have worked in small libraries during my career, but sometimes academic libraries and public libraries. I have found that the best reference librarians were those that knew the most about how the MARC record is structured. They knew how to use the structure of the records to locate what they were looking for. They also knew how to recognize when they should have gotten a hit and didn't or why they may have gotten false positives.
Not every library has a "clean" catalog as I am sure you are aware.
But knowing how records are structured and how searches can go wrong (computers are quite literal, you know) improves one's chances of success regardless the sloppy data entered. Catalogers know that the most important thing in cataloging is consistency. It doesn't matter if you enter the data wrong as long as you enter it wrong EVERY time. It can easily be found. You would be surprised how many people still need to learn that lesson when entering data. Always enter it the same way with the same subfields, with the same punctuation (or lack thereof). Hopefully, it is entered the correct way.
The AACR rules weren't designed to drive librarians crazy, they were designed to achieve consistency. Learn them and follow them. If you aren't sure what the rule says about entering particular data, find out. If you must enter data without following the rules, make note of what you are doing and do it the same way next time. Remember that the catalog is really the critical thing that makes a library different from a book store. It is the guide that helps the reference librarian help the patron. Even in small libraries, it can be dangerous to rely solely on one's memory to find what the patron wants on the shelves. The Dewey decimal classification is designed as a shelving aid. The catalog is the finding aid. Using both together will ensure greater success in finding information.
One final plea, Proofread. It is amazing to see how many catalog records get entered in small one person libraries with misspelled titles, transposed ISBN numbers, abbreviations where not appropriate, etc. Records won't be found when those errors are present.
~L.W.
Colorado
I have worked in 3 different districts, 2 with Central Processing and 1 without. One of the ongoing problems with central processing is that big districts tend to purchase cataloging - which, of course, means some clerk somewhere, who may or may not be library trained, is doing the cataloging. I have always had to keep an eye out for anomalies and wrongly numbered books, as I am sure we all do. There have been some really funny ones through the years.
The other side of that coin, which I am sure you have covered, is the need to tailor to ones particular collection - do sports bios go in 921 or 796?; holocaust stories in 921 or 950s? etc. However, I think the biggest annoyance in my 27 years has been the changes decreed from on high, but never really passed on to those of us in the trenchs. Negroes to Blacks to African Americans is one example. Every time I have come to a new (to me) library, I have had to look closely at the 913, 914, etc. The rules changed years ago, so that country books are now in 930, 940, etc. unless strictly travel or geography (which I am sure you know).
Of course, at this point, those books still in the teens are undoubtedly candidates for weeding. The social issues like sexual abuse, domestic violence, civil rights, etc. seem to change too. I have often had to re-catalog from 300s to 600s in order to put all the books on the same subject in the same place. Sometimes, this is a matter of interpretation - which brings us back to that nameless clerk.
I guess what I am trying to emphasize is the need to respond to the needs of one’s particular library. This is more complicated in districts with a union catalog. Sometime in the future, the librarian here is going to have to deal with my decisions in terms of the whole district. For example, I moved all the classic lit to the 800s where the Honors and AP kids can still find them, thus making room for all the new and wonderful fiction for YAs. It works in this library with the current crop of teachers. It will be interesting to see what your get as responses. Let us know - in a condensed form, if everyone is as wordy as I.
~L.W.
Oregon
I think I'd tell your students that you need to know your patrons when
cataloging. Sometimes the "right" DDC # for a book isn't where your
students will look for it. So you as the librarian / media specialist
have to make a decision and maybe change the number to put it in a more
accessible spot.
Also, you need to know your curriculum. I know that current practice is
to assign DD#'s to biographies that relate overall subject (Sports bios
go in the 790's in their appropriate sports section.) But in my school,
teachers still assign biographies and autobiographies as book reports -
so it makes much more sense to have a separate biography section to
facilitate browsing and finding biographies, especially when students
have only a few minutes to find one.
Thanks for giving us a chance to give you some input.
PS - I'm a copy cataloguer in a small district -- I use OCLC's WorldCat
for my MARC records. Sometimes I find a record for media in the wrong
format (VHS, when I have DVD, etc.) I've learned over the years what to
change to make my MARC record fit my item, but this might be something
your students should know.
~D.V.
Montana
Although I buy as much pre-cataloged as possible, and I can create a MARC record, I find that most of the cataloging I do myself (in the wee hours) is of the quick-and-dirty approach. I have finally reconciled my lack of proper standardization by knowing that I am doing my best to get the books on the shelves and provide service. It IS a dilemma.
~G.C.
New Jersey
I taught cataloging at UNLV for 8 years. I had each class culminate in a "cataloging project." I taught the class out of my high school library, and so had tons of materials to work with. Depending on how many people in the class, I put together a stack of items (books, CD or video, etc.) that needed to be: 1) originally cataloged, 2) reclassified, or 3) added as an additional copy. I also taught them how to process the items with mylar covers, etc. We use Destiny and part was also printing the labels. They did the cataloging with Marc Magician and then had to export/import the records into Destiny. I never had any complaints--actually they all loved it because it was "real." Larger classes resulted in smaller piles to work with (and just about killed me, running from person to person), but four items was the minimum.
They came away with a new appreciation for what is involved in processing and how long it takes to get an item on the shelf. Oh and they each had a variety of items as far as processing goes--dust jackets, no dust jackets, etc.
As far as what was "hard"--they all said working with Dewey because it was so difficult to understand the notes. I explained number combining, but did not require them to do it. And Sears!! This surprised me, but I found the younger teachers to have limited vocabularies and little imagination when hunting for appropriate headings. Then there are those who are spelling-challenged and refuse to even try to punctuate records correctly. A must-have is access to Follett's Tag of the Month website.
I'm no longer teaching the class, but supervise our Destiny catalog. We have 305 schools and 4 million records--half of which are just awful. I could work for another 30 years and not get them all merged and/or corrected.
~L.G.
Nevada
One thing I have learned is that occasionally you need to assign a call number other than the 'standard' so that YOUR specific patrons can access and locate the material. Sometimes I have more than one copy of a book in two locations. For example we have The Diary of Anne Frank in the 940s in 921 and a copy in Spanish.
~C.Y.
Georgia
To me the catalog is the heart of the library and will remain so for many years to come. As a matter of fact one of the major problems with the Internet is that it is NOT cataloged which is why, tho' you can gets lots of "information," finding GOOD information efficiently is still not very easy.
Cataloging is an art--not a science--but there are definitely some things worth having your students keep in mind. I think consistency is key to making the catalog work for us and our users. That's why I'm very careful about using authority files and not having overlapping/parallel subject headings (LC and Sears) in my catalog.
I took my cataloging course in 1974 when automation was only a dream for most school librarians and have pretty much taught myself about MARC and other aspects of cataloging since then. I think I've kept up pretty well but I know we are in a transitional time right now and there are many decisions about cataloging and catalog records which I will probably never have to worry about since I'll be retired!
~T.K.
California