Cataloguing- Lesson 5

In looking over the bibliographic record of the Mother Goose book I find that it is quite concise and the information that is given seems to represent the book.  I like how the summary section lists some titles of stories that are included in the collection.  All the details and information given will help students and teachers do their search.  I have noticed that most searches that students do are either title search or keyword search.  Older students and teachers seem to also use author search.  When searching for a book I like to know that I can rely on multiple access points to help me find what I’m looking for.  This bibliographic record covers all the important information needed.  Personally, I always try to put as many key words as possible in the subject area.  I find that students and teachers rely heavily on keyword searches therefore the subject area needs to be complete and precise. 

My cataloguing system is quite simple and doesn’t include all the areas the AACR2R recommends.  Some of the areas that are not included are the ISBN, the physical description and the bibliography access point.  With my little experience I thought that maybe this other information such as the physical description wasn’t necessary.  However after doing the cataloguing activity I see that the more information provided the better.  The students may not use all the access points but the teachers or the teacher librarian may appreciate the many details when choosing a book. 

Our school is looking into having a new cataloguing program and I’m a little overwhelmed in choosing the best program.  The one thing that I will be looking at is a program that offers a complete list of the areas in descriptive cataloguing.  It’s important to have a complete bibliographic record and I think that having the AACR2R is essential in ensuring proper organization in the library.

The Connors articles was a little confusing but the main idea I got was that now with the way computers search for results it doesn’t matter the order of the access points nor is it important to have a main access point.  All the access points can be accessed at the same time.  I’m a firm believer in simplicity.  A simple, organized and clear way of cataloguing is what we should all strive for.  This does not mean that important information will be lost.  It just means that libraries need to keep up with the times and simplify things as they embrace changing technology. 

Online dictionaries- lesson 4

In this lesson our instructor gave us two links to online dictionaries of library
terminology.  One is called ODLS http://lu.com/odlis/index.cfm.

This dictionary is very extensive.  I can’t imagine when I will encounter 75% of these words in my little elementary school library but it is still a great resource to have at hand.  I had no idea that running and organizing a library is a science and there are/were some very specific ways of managing the library and books.  Like any field you need to know the language to be able to function in it.

Here are a few of the words that I found to be quite interesting!

Nap: In the context of manuscript production, the slight texture on writing material that causes the nib of the pen to grip the surface and allows the ink to sink in.  Because the parchment and vellum sheets used by medieval scribes tended to be greasy, the surface had to be prepared by rubbing it with an abrasive substance called pounce to raise the nap before the work of copying commenced. Synonymous with tooth.

Netiquette: A neologism formed by shortening the phrase network etiquette. The rules of civility and good manners that apply to communication via the Internet, an environment in which the visual cues available in face-to-face communication and the auditory cues perceptible in voice communication are lacking. Click here to connect to Virginia Shea's Netiquette Home Page. See also: e-mail, flame, shouting, and smiley.

Scrinium: A container in the shape of a cylinder with a removable lid, used by the ancient Romans for storing manuscripts in the form of scrolls. See also: capsa.

Wallet: A style of limp leather binding in which the lower cover of the book extends beyond the sections in a flap, as wide as the fore-edge, that folds over and is fastened by a clasp or a tongue designed to fit into a slot in the upper cover. See also: flap binding.

Widow: A dangling word or phrase or line shorter than one-third the specified line length, at the end of a paragraph, especially when it falls at the head of a column or page of text matter, considered awkward by typographers and eliminated in typesetting whenever possible. See also: orphan.

It would be fun to do a dictionary activity with elementary students of all grades.  I find that students are so lazy to use the dictionary that this would force them to browse the pages of the dictionary to find some interesting and exotic words!  Another interesting activity would be to create a class dictionary of words and expressions that they use in class or amongst themselves.  I remember when I was in elementary school we had a language of our own!

The second link is a glossary.  It is a much shorter list and I think if I’m familiar with most of these words I should have enough of the library lingo to survive.  Here is the link http://www.infopeople.org/training/past/2006/beyond/bcc_glossary.pdf

This activity has helped me open my eyes to how vast library world is.  I started my job knowing very little and now I feel that I know even less! J I’m starting to worry a little bit as we start talking more and more about cataloguing. It seems that we need to include so much information for each book so that it can be properly accessed. How will I ever find the time?! I'm also starting to think about all the cataloguing I've done so far in the last few months...I should have included much more information! Oh, well.... live and learn!