This blog to give me a place to vent about cataloging issues I encounter every day.
Although I use Destiny Library Manager from Follett Software Company and have access to their Alliance Plus records I never accept catalog records from elsewhere without editing to make them suitable for my own catalog.
I love cataloging for a lot of reasons:
  • My mind runs to organizing stuff
  • I love learning about new things and trying to figure out how to make information resources accessible to my students and teachers
  • I'm a bit obsessive about making sure subject headings, keywords, classification numbers, etc. are consistent.
Follow this blog to learn how I catalog my collection, my pet peeves with subject and classification schemes, maybe a little about RDA, the new cataloging rules which are set to replace the old Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, and whatever else I'm inspired by.

Friday, July 13, 2012

I am such a cataloging nerd that I am checking the cross references in the catalog to make sure that all of the genre/form headings from LC are in the authorities database. Actually, I think this will help patrons when they are looking for materials of a certain type. The headings I've checked and added as necessary so far are types of: Cartographic materials such as Globes and Relief maps, and for Law materials such as Statutes and codes and Law for laypersons. There approximately fifty individual types of law materials and about a dozen cartographic materials headings.
The next group I will tackle is a big one--Motion pictures. I have many of those, e.g. Science fiction films and Comedy films, already in the authority file, but will be double checking to make sure all legitimate references are in the file. There are approximately one-hundred different film genres listed in the LC Authorities database.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Nowadays most library automation systems use keyword searching for all types of searches, Whether searching for titles, authors or subject headings, the results displayed are those which have the words the user searches on in the particular field they have chosen to search. (The default for most catalogs being a general keyword search, of course, one does have to select a particular type of field to the get specific results for that field, something librarians need to continually stress to their patrons.)
One result of this is that the older lists of titles, authors, subjects, etc. which used to present themselves as the initial search result, are no longer so obvious to the patron. In the Follett Destiny catalog, for example, the patron needs to click on a very small link which asks "Browse subjects?" to get to that list. My guess is that most patrons don't know what that means or bother to find out. One more opportunity to educate when we get the chance.
Because of this keyword default in searching any field, one thing I've begun doing in my cataloging practice to to put multiple subject headings where one used to do. Here's an example: instead of Sports--History--Great Britain, I make two headings: Sports--Great Britain and Sports--History. If the patron searches using the terms "great britain history sports" or "sports history" or "history sports" or any of a number of other combinations this title will appear in the results list. In the past with a strict alphabetical listing of subject headings it wouldn't have been as easy to get this item in the results list except through a full keyword search. I definitely like the new keyword searching capabilities of the catalog but it can also create traps. More on that next time.
Enhanced by Zemanta