Well, to say MARC and I are good friends would be a bit of an understatement. When we first started looking at MARC records, comparing different data, and then creating our own MARC records, all I could think was WHY! Why are we doing this? Doesn't my computer system do this for me? What am I supposed to learn from this? Frustration? And of course, the question students ask every day... When am I ever going to use this in my "real" life?
All kidding aside, I really did ask most of these questions. I know that I should understand the information provided in a MARC record but it felt like such a waste of my time. I had things to do, books to catalogue, a library to organize that hadn't been weeded in over 15 years... But wait... what's this... the information I provide to my library catalogue system Alexandria turns my data into a MARC record. Uh, oh, I don't think I have been giving "it" the data it needs.
This was an aha moment for me in learning about MARC records. I had been "blaming" our previous librarian for poor cataloguing skills, for lack of subject search criteria in the catalogue, and for sloppy data entry, but it turns out I too was not doing a "good" job. Through my analysis of different MARC records I realized that those inconspicuous tabs at the bottom of my "New Item" screen were actually important. Literally, I was just inputting publishing information, ISBN, author, title, bar code and call number. I had not been providing any subject key words, a summary, illustrators, no other key information - no wonder no one could find anything when they searched the catalogue.
Although I am grateful I do not have to create my own MARC records, I am also grateful for the experience. I can now look at a record and "see" information. I can also use the MARC records from other sources to "copy catalogue" my acquisitions. The resources provided in this module were especially helpful. I found I had the Library of Congress information up on my screen and a quick reference "cheat sheet" in front of me as I created each record.
Once we finished our digital libraries, I thought it was interesting to then compare MARC records from different sources. Because I now understood the MARC record divisions I could "see" where records differed and could often notice small inconsistencies. The comparisons also helped me to understand how important consistency is in my own data input. I need to use consistent vocabulary so that my library catalogue users can find what they need.
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