Cataloguing

I found this post in my "Drafts" folder from January 20, 2012.  Apparently I forgot to hit "publish."


According to Cutter (as referred to in Connors, 2008) "the objectives of the catalog were to:

• Enable the user to find a book of which the author, title, or subject is known.
• Show what works the library has by a given author, on a given subject, or in a given literature.
• Assist in the choice of book as to its edition or as to its character.

My problem here?  I don't think my catalogue or records do any of these.  Because so little information has been input over the last decade, the records are merely a list of titles - some of those not even entered correctly.  I am struggling with fixing things as I go, or waiting until I am done weeding, (which may not be until the end of the year) and then begin updating the catalogue.  Or do I bother?  Do I just make sure that new acquisitions are entered completely and not worry about older records?

Subject searches in our catalogue are even more pointless.  Resources with the word "Canada" in the title don't even come up under a subject search for "Canada."  I am now realizing my own errors in adding new items to our catalogue.  I was so eager to add books, especially fiction, that I was just providing author, title, call number, ISBN and publisher info.  Oh, how I wish I had "clicked" that "subject" tab at the bottom of the page.

 Sometimes I wonder if I should just start over or just make sure I create accurate records from now on?  Organizing this library, that has not been "looked after" for 15 years or more, is a bit overwhelming at times.  Baby steps, I keep telling myself, baby steps.

Getting to know MARC

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.