Last week was educational, though no single day stood out enough to make me write up a blog post. I got through a fair number of copy cataloging items. More excitingly I created my first original catalog record and added it to OCLC! So if you see a record for Portland's Blue Bike Lanes: Improved Safety Through Enhanced Visibility out there it could be because of me. I also started my second original record and after reviewing it with my supervisor today, added it to OCLC as well. So, if you use the record for Report to Governor Parris N. Glendening from the Transit-Oriented-Development Task Force, well, I added that one to. Creating the second record also entailed creating an authority record for for the task force as well, so I got to do a little bit of authority work too.
Another bit from last week consisted of dealing with multi-volume sets of materials. The relationship between items and bibliographic entities in the cataloging system is more clear to me now.
I've also started working on original records for some theses. These aren't that much different that monographs, but require some extra note fields and are treated a bit more like manuscripts since they aren't officially "published". Mostly this seems to mean that the 260 field only has a copyright date.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Starting original cataloging
As stated in a previous post, I've started doing original cataloging, for Portland's Blue Bike Lanes. After checking to b sure that there was no previously catalog record to copy or upgrade, I started building one from scratch with the OCLC Connexion software. So far it's brought out many details that I'd previously been able to gloss over when doing copy cataloging. This has included some intellectual elements such as the choice of the publisher name and the statement of responsibility. While discussing the statement of responsibility with my supervisor, she pointed out that the statement should be for those who are responsible for the intellectual content of the work (which I'm sure is in AACR2, but I can't find the rule from this computer).
Other elements I had to focus on for original cataloging were more based on minor fields or purely policy issues. While the date fixed fields can be useful, choosing the date isn't much of an intellectual exercise. Similarly setting the encoding level is pretty straightforward. And the choice of filling in the call number in field 050 or field 090 is largely policy based for the library I'm at.
After finishing the descriptive elements, I worked on the access points. Without an obvious responsible person, it was clear this book should be under title main entry. When looking at the entry for the corporate body, I looked at AACR2 rule 21.1B2 to determine whether corporate main entry applied in this case. In the end it didn't. So an added access point was created for the issuing office and each of the three listed members of the project team from the cover.
I've started on the subject cataloging. I found some reasonable headings from other strongly related works which ought to be useful. It's a pretty tricky to discern which of the lengthy list of subject headings in the LCSH are most applicable.
Overall, the process has shown me that while there are a number of rules to be followed, there's still a strong subjective element to the cataloging.
Other elements I had to focus on for original cataloging were more based on minor fields or purely policy issues. While the date fixed fields can be useful, choosing the date isn't much of an intellectual exercise. Similarly setting the encoding level is pretty straightforward. And the choice of filling in the call number in field 050 or field 090 is largely policy based for the library I'm at.
After finishing the descriptive elements, I worked on the access points. Without an obvious responsible person, it was clear this book should be under title main entry. When looking at the entry for the corporate body, I looked at AACR2 rule 21.1B2 to determine whether corporate main entry applied in this case. In the end it didn't. So an added access point was created for the issuing office and each of the three listed members of the project team from the cover.
I've started on the subject cataloging. I found some reasonable headings from other strongly related works which ought to be useful. It's a pretty tricky to discern which of the lengthy list of subject headings in the LCSH are most applicable.
Overall, the process has shown me that while there are a number of rules to be followed, there's still a strong subjective element to the cataloging.
Another week gone by
Another week has passed, and it's time for another blog entry to keep up on what I'm doing. Toward the start of the week, my supervisor and I sat down and cleared up the last issues in the backlog of cataloging problems that came up while she was at the ALA conference. One significant element that came up was the assignment of call numbers. Because call numbering is a classification system it can be tricky to specify a single number to represent the subject of a book. Is this book more about bicycles or traffic safety? It becomes a judgment call on the part of the cataloger, and not all catalogers will make the same judgments.
I also pulled a few more theses for cataloging in the future. I tried to keep to subjects that were interesting and that I also had some knowledge of. "Alpine Samurai", about samurai in the mountains of Japan, ought to be interesting and two others are computer science related which was my field before getting into library science and cataloging.
On Thursday I started with original cataloging for one book. But I think it makes sense to discuss that in a separate post.
I also pulled a few more theses for cataloging in the future. I tried to keep to subjects that were interesting and that I also had some knowledge of. "Alpine Samurai", about samurai in the mountains of Japan, ought to be interesting and two others are computer science related which was my field before getting into library science and cataloging.
On Thursday I started with original cataloging for one book. But I think it makes sense to discuss that in a separate post.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
One additional thought
One more thought when reflecting on my visitations. There are a number of small details in the cataloging process that are not spelled out in any standard or are otherwise more subject to the library's policies and judgment. For this reason, it's helpful for libraries to have their own internal policy documents and flowcharts or guidelines on how to catalog items.
It seems that this is further complicated by the subjective nature of cataloging. While there are some hard and fast rules, there is a lot of room for interpretation in almost any field. Is this section of the title page intended to be part of the title? How should it be recorded, if at all? And then there are matters of subject headings and call numbers which are inherently still more subjective. This was reinforced yesterday when talking to my supervisor who explained that she preferred the term "accurate" rather than "correct" for cataloging records, since correct implies that there is one true record out there to try to approach, when really there are multiple records which could legitimately be argued to be accurate.
It seems that this is further complicated by the subjective nature of cataloging. While there are some hard and fast rules, there is a lot of room for interpretation in almost any field. Is this section of the title page intended to be part of the title? How should it be recorded, if at all? And then there are matters of subject headings and call numbers which are inherently still more subjective. This was reinforced yesterday when talking to my supervisor who explained that she preferred the term "accurate" rather than "correct" for cataloging records, since correct implies that there is one true record out there to try to approach, when really there are multiple records which could legitimately be argued to be accurate.
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