Supporting the school library program through effective organizational strategies

1. Supporting the school library program through effective organizational strategies • Introduction • Standards : • International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD); Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2R); MAchine Readable Catalogue (MARC21) • Subject cataloging • Classification • Copy cataloging • Access, catalogs and the school library

2. Cataloguing is… • A subset of a larger function: • Bibliographic control or the organization of information • And Arlene Taylor states that retrieving information can only be done if it is organized. And organizing information allows us to keep a usable record of human activities for historical purposes.

3. The universe of knowledge • How many of you have written a bibliography for a paper? • In this process, you have organized a small part of what we call the “universe of knowledge.” • The universe of knowledge includes all knowledge, even that which cannot be expressed verbally. Within our universe of knowledge, there is a part which has been written down or recorded in some other way, eg. painted, digitized, taped. This is the bibliographic universe.

4. Yes, we’re amazing, but… • You can probably see why only the bibliographic universe can be controlled • However, in order to have this control, we need a specific set of standards to deal with the information. • And thus, we need to define common data elements within each item so we can arrange them in the same way, using the same pieces of data every time.

5. Why is cataloging about access?

6. The haystack • How would you describe searching for information on the Internet? What are the major problems in finding information? • How do you look for information at the library? • Do you think library catalogues are easy for users to use? Consider the challenges.

7. How do children search? • Use the GVPL catalog • http://catalogue.gvpl.ca • Try car as keyword • Try searching for cars as subject Where do you think the average kid would look for a magazine article?

8. Browsing • Many authors have discussed the power of browsing. When users do not have a known item search: when they have a title and/or author. • Other experts believe that a controlled vocabulary is better. Hagler--Canada’s cataloging guru--among them. • He writes that the days of the manual catalogue was limited, but this was advantageous. Users had to know their search strategy before opening the drawer.

9. Why are library catalogs difficult to use? • In your searching, what confused you? • Other reflections on library catalogs? • One study found people spelled Tchaikovsky 21 different ways! • Try spelling it incorrectly eg. Tchaikovzky and entering in author, then in keyword, then in Google

10. What is this? University of Hong Kong Press Teaching as a leader: A guide to best practice Chan Siu Ming

11. How did you know that? • Would a computer give me the same answers? • How must we communicate with a computer?

12. A catalog card

13. Web catalogue screen

14. MARC display

15. Bibliographic control   Bibliographic control uses common data elements. It also uses bibliographic tools: • Bibliographies • Indexes • Catalogues • Finding aids • Bibliographic databases

16. Bibliographic tools • Catalogs in a library organize information about their holdings. But indexes cover information from a wide range or materials kept in different collections.

17. What do bibliographic tools do? Taylor lists three basic functions: • Finding information. Allows a user to find a known item. (Title or author search). Which is, of course limited by the tool the user is consulting eg. a library catalogue. A user can find items onlyin that library. • Collecting information. Our term is collocating which means to put a whole group of items on the same subject or related in some other way, together.

18. Taylor Three functions cont. • Evaluating. Allows a user to select a specific item according to edition etc.

19. This discussion originally began with Charles Ammi Cutter, the man who developed cataloguing procedures a very long time ago. His “Rules for a Dictionary Catalog” are:

20. To enable a person to find a book of which either: a. the author or b. the title or c. the subject is known To show what a library has d. by a given author e. on a given subject f. in a given literature To assist the user in the choice of book g. as to the edition h. as to its character And when we catalogue an item, we pay close attention to: An author entry the catalogue supplies (a and d) Title entry (b) Subject entry, cross-references and classed subject tables (c and e) And we add notes to our catalogue records so that users can choose (f, g and h) (Taylor 2000)

21. *But we do need to modernize The boxes on the previous slide should state: an item, whether print or non-print And the catalogue does have a function in collocating. Describing the relationships between items. Subjects relating to other subjects, books by the same author, etc.

22. Cataloguing • Is the activity of creating a catalogue. • This usually begins with descriptive cataloguing and continues in subject analysis and guided throughout by authority control. Encoding • The data from cataloguing, subject and authority work is all encoded so that records can be read and stored in a computer.

23. Stages of cataloguing There are two distinct aspects to cataloguing • Descriptive cataloguing • Describing the item • Allocating access points (this is reflected in how AACR2 is arranged) • Subject cataloguing (physical access) • Classification • Subject headings

24. Let’s begin at the end… Classification • In small groups, and in only about five minutes, name and note all the ‘things’ you would need to take camping. • Put the objects in groups according to some type of general characteristic (label the groups with a heading too). Feel free to debate.

25. What is the purpose of classification? Organizing information How does DDC work? Classify knowledge in notations Advantages of notations? Dewey Decimal Classification

26. Conceived by Melvil Dewey in 1873 Published in 1876 Owned and published by OCLC in print and electronic format Developed and maintained by Library of Congress Most widely used classification system in the world (used in 135 countries) Used primarily by public and school libraries History of Dewey Decimal Classification

27. The Dewey Decimal System • DDC is divided into 10 main classes - then 10 divisions - then each division into 10 sections • The first digit in each three-digit number represents the main class. • “500” = natural sciences and mathematics.

28. DDC continued • The second digit in each three-digit number indicates the division. • “500” is used for general works on the sciences • “510” for mathematics • “520” for astronomy • “530” for physics

29. Try searching to see how numbers are ‘built’ Search the www.gvpl.ca catalog in the SUBJECT field Search mammals Then felidae Then tigers And try a search for cats Search hockey; then search Coaching hockey Search KEYWORD Tiger Woods biography, note inconsistenciesAnd compare to searching biography golf; and biography athletes

30. The DDC classes • The Thompson Nicola library system has provided a detailed Dewey page for their users http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/dewey.html

31. More (fun?) DDC sites DDC lesson ideas from LM_NET http://mte.anacortes.k12.wa.us/library/dewey/dewles.htm OCLC multimedia tour http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/tour/ddc7.html

32. Descriptive cataloguing • Identifying and describing an information package or format. The recent term is package. Literally how is the item put and kept together. • Cataloguing aims to uniquely identify an entity so that it cannot be confused with another. Multiple copies of a book will share the same data, but will also be described with other data that sets them apart.

33. Areas of description • Description of an item is an important task - the rules for description are collected in AACR2 • Elements of the description:

34. We also have information packages which cannot be physically touched or held. • Internet documents • Also are described by title, statement of responsibility • Edition • Date of creation • Location (URL)

35. Structure of the rule book: AACR2R • AACR2r is divided into 2 parts: • Pt 1 covers description of an item (chs. 1-12) • Pt 2 covers access points and headings (chs. 21 – 26) • In addition there are appendices: • A Capitalisation • B Abbreviations • C Numerals • D Glossary • E Initial articles

36. Content of AACR2r Part 1 • Chapter 1 has a very general approach & covers many types of materials • Chapters 2-12 deal with specific formats (books, maps, manuscripts, music etc.) These chapters often refer back to Ch.1. The same numbering system used in Ch.1 also applies to subsequent chapters, e.g. date of publication will be in .4D for all formats • Chapter 13 is only about analytical entries

37. Content of AACR2r Part 2 • Chapter 21 is about the choice of access points as the main heading entry & added entries • Chapter 22 is headings for persons • Chapter 23 is geographical names • Chapter 24 is headings for corporate bodies • Chapter 25 is uniform titles • Chapter 26 is about references

38. Access • In a manual catalogue, an item’s record is filed under… • Author? Title? • The point is, we need to put our records somewhere and again, we must make a decision based on what we think provides access.

39. Access points criteria And so access points are really answers to possible questions. Our job is thus to guess, what the questions might be. And so access points are generally, according to Hagler: 'a characteristic' we can easily and accurately remember after reading or viewing a document or 'a characteristic' someone else would likely record when making reference to it. • Such as?

40. Access points criteria What about color? http://portia.nesl.edu/screens/well_its_red.html Hagler also suggests that the most useful characteristics are those that are permanent, associated with the content and unique…common to few documents

41. Where do you put it? • Imagine…In the days of catalog cards you had different sets of card drawers. • Traditional access points: • Author • Title • Subject • Series • What goes at the top of the ISBD? Ie. under what field are items entered? • So you have a MAIN entry, then other entries

42. Access point • As technology has become incorporated into many library processes, the terminology has also evolved • Another name for access point is heading • The term heading is still in use but its origins are in the card catalogue • Headings are divided into two kinds: 1. Main entry 2. Added entry

43. Still today… • The limitations of the card catalog still influence automated (machine readable) cataloging • We still have a main entry • Technically an access point is author, title or subject • Allowed only two authors in added entries (a manual catalog accommodation) • But this is not relevant with the computer age!

44. Imagine • Typing (or even handwriting) catalog cards • The main entry was the most complete record (if author) • Added entries: Title and subject less complete • What do we do with items that have no author?

45. AACR2R and access • When AACR2R came around, even with automated catalogues, it was still assumed that libraries needed to determine an access point. • This is one of the argued limitations of AACR2… • But, even in an automated catalogue, we still need to standardise the way we formulate our access points.

46. Main entry & added entry • The main entry is the most important access point • In an online catalogue, main and added access points are effectively equal • In the card catalogue the main entry was a more detailed record which also included tracings of all the added entries • AACR2 still retains the distinction between main entry and added entry

47. Access points • AACR2 chapter 21 is all about access points • In addition to the access points detailed in AACR2, the online catalogue can provide other entry points, e.g. publisher, keyword, material type. Many catalogues can limit by date • Control numbers such as LC control numbers or ISBN do not feature as access points in AACR2 – they are a direct result of computerisation • But, in a machine readable catalogue almost any part of the record can be used as an access point

48. Access point definition • An access point is the heading • A way for an item in a library catalogue or bibliography to be retrieved or at least located. • What are the traditional access points?

49. Access points cont. • How do we decide… • An admittedly western approach to the process: • Author • The person (mainly) responsible for the creation of the work in hand

50. Authorship • Can include personal authorship AACR2 Ch. 22 • a person prominently named responsible for the work. Remember, this is anyone principally responsible. A child’s picture Hebrew dictionary illustrated by Ita Meshi Entry under Meshi, Ita the illustrator