Skip to main content

WKLLA?*

*Who Knew Librarians Loved Acronyms?

Well, phew! Back in a simpler time (last week), I had a very halcyon view of cataloging. I pictured a librarian receiving a book, following some three-digit organization system that might require a moment of thought, then adding the first three letters of the author's last name, and ta-da! All set! If I had given it a few moments of thought, it would not have made sense, but...details.

I've been picking up (and putting down, and picking up, and putting down...) the third edition of Catalog It!: A Guide to Cataloging School Library Materials. The writing is surprisingly engaging for a textbook, but it's slow-going as it feels like I'm reading a foreign language and typically I'm tackling it around 9:30pm nightly.

In that regard, here is my acronym cheatsheet for the first three chapters of Catalog It!

RDA: Resource Description and Access
  • Provides information on WHAT should be recorded, but not how to do it
  • The foundation of RDA “rests squarely on the constructs of FRBR and FRAD.
pXIII, 7
AACR: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules
  • Frequently revised…
P5
ISBD: International Standard Bibliographic Description
  • “While troublesome at first for the new cataloger, it is just one aspect of the bibliographic record that makes it possible for library users to feel comfortable in using different types of libraries in their communities and around the world.”
P5
FRBR: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
  • FRBR is based on the concepts of “work,” “expression,” “manifestation,” and “item” (WEMI) rather than “information package” and “surrogate record”
  • There is much more emphasis on relationships between items rather than the isolation of individual items
P7. 8
WEMI: “work” “expression” “manifestation” and “item”
  • WORK: could mean a “higher level of abstraction, the conceptual content that underlies all of the linguistic versions, the story being told in the book, the ideas in a person’s head for the book”
  • EXPRESSION: “when we say book, as in ‘who translated the book,’ we may have a particular text in mind and a specific language”
  • MANIFESTATION: “We may know its ISBN but the particular copy does not matter as long as it’s in good condition and not missing pages”
  • ITEM: “when we say ‘book’ to describe a physical object that has paper pages and a binding...FRBR calls that an ’item’”
P7, 8
FRAD: Functional Requirements for Authority Data
  • Designed to help draw connections between names, such as names of creators, corporations, titles, concepts, objects and places
  • For example, drawing connections between William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, and Leonardo DiCaprio
P8
Surrogate Record: basically, bibliographic record
  • Includes information about the physical and intellectual aspects of an item and its location in the collection. There have been three types of surrogate records:
    • The Book list: became more practical with the advent of computers and easily updating lists without having to rewrite them. “Union lists are often published this way”
    • Card Catalog: the problem was creating cards for all three types of entries: title, author, subject
    • Electronic Record: easily updated, shared. Multiple subject headings, added titles and notes can be created with ease
P9, 10
MARC Records: MAchine Readable Cataloging
  • Has become a national and international template for creating surrogate records in an electronic environment
  • Is it software???
  • A MARC record is divided into three parts: the leader, directory, and variable fields
P11, 24
BIBFRAME: Bibliographic Framework
  • Slated to replace MARC
P. 11
OPAC: Online Public Access Catalog
  • How people share their cataloging efforts & records so that others can grab them for their own libraries
P11
CIP: Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Program
  • LOC CIP makes cards from galleys from publishers
    • When the book is published, the publisher includes the CIP data on the copyright page thereby facilitating book processing for libraries and book dealers
  • Ergo, often there are errors (changes from galley to final)
  • Do people still use these?
  • Other people now create CIPs…?
  • www.loc.gov/publish/cip
P12
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange standards

  • What the typography in the MARC record is based on


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This week’s focus is on SCARY books and Bibliotherapy! While it seems like a random pairing at first (sorry, Barb!), I realized that people derive comfort AND strength from characters who are undergoing the same hardships as them (mental health challenges) and from characters who are overcoming incredible and unrealistic situations (zombies, ghosts) with bravery and resilience. Below are my selections for this week. I dabbled in mental health, a modern day horror story, and a throwback that has probably entertained four generations by now! Matters of Mental Health Chisholm, Holly. (2019.) Just Peachy: Comics About Depression, Anxiety, Love, and Finding the Humor in Being Sad . New York City, New York: Skyhorse Publishing.  Plot summary: Author and illustrator Holly Chisholm bares her soul in this comic collection that explains and explores  her life grappling (and making peace) with depression and anxiety. The pocket-sized book is broken into four parts: depres...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

This week kicked off LBS 730: Managing & Evaluating School Library Programs. As far as I can tell, this course does not require blog entries. However, it looks like we'll have a ton of discussion posts/essays, and I'll post those here. The question this essay addresses: How much have the issues surrounding school libraries changed? Librarian at the card files at a senior high school in New Ulm, Minnesota, October 1974 Plus ça change... I explored with great interest the articles in Module Two that cover the history of school libraries. And while I read the articles expecting to learn about the halcyonic days of school librarianship, where school librarians were recognized and lauded for their role in schools…”plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.” For example, in “School Library: A Historical Perspective,” the following is written: “Although certification requirements were written, in many states, school districts often ignored them simply by not creati...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Good Things Must Come to An End...

We've reached the end of LBS 850! I enjoyed the class, diving deep into technologies for schools, and dabbling in cataloging...I do think the class experience is highly dependent upon who someone has as an instructor. Luckily, thankfully, Barb Fecteau at Salem State is an excellent, patient, and knowledgeable teacher, and she created a wonderful experience with an atmosphere conducive to learning and exploration. Here's a reminder of what the class was, so here's the course description for future me: LBS 850 - Emerging Technologies for Libraries 3   Credit(s)  This course presents tools and procedures that school library personnel implement to manage the ever-evolving organizational landscape. Course topics include basic strategies for dealing with, organizing and managing change professionally, new computer and internet-based methods of cataloging physical materials and web based applications that address libraries’ systemic needs. I started off the course feelin...
Post a Comment
Read more