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Course Description
This course does not provide an introduction to the organization of knowledge. It introduces the organization of information instead. We cover the very basics organization of information as practiced in libraries. This is a type of activity basically known as cataloging. We only look at the basic groundwork of cataloging. We look at the background of the activity. We also consider the wider world is doing with respect to organizing information. Here we place particular emphasis on activities that have connections to the world wide web.
Course objectives
After taking this course the students
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites for this course.
Instructor
Thomas
Krichel
Palmer School of Library
and Information Science
C.W. Post
Campus of Long Island
University
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548–1300
krichel@openlib.org
work phone: +1–(516)299–2843
Private contact details may be obtained from the online CV.
Class structure
Classes will be held in room 223 or in the computer lab 1 of the Brentwood graduate campus of LIU, between 16:20 and 18:10. The instructor will be in the Palmer School office, number 212, shortly after 12:00 and until 19:10.
Class details
and more sound cataloging| 2010–09–08 | 16:20 to 18:10 | no class |
| 2010–09–15 | 16:20 to 18:10 | introduction to the course |
| 2010–09–22 | 16:20 to 18:10 | the entity-relationship model |
| 2010–09–29 | 16:20 to 18:10 | FRBR |
| 2010–10–06 | 16:20 to 18:10 | numbers and characters |
| 2010–10–13 | 16:20 to 18:10 | the MARC leader and directory and copy catalaging on our koha installation |
| 2010–10–20 | 16:20 to 18:10 | the MARC control fields |
| 2010–10–27 | 16:20 to 18:10 | MARC code and number fields and AAAR2 description I |
| 2010–11–03 | 16:20 to 18:10 | XML based metadata esp. MARC XML and AAAR2 description II |
| 2010–11–10 | 16:20 to 18:10 | Introduction to access points and sound cataloging exercise |
| 2010–11–24 | 16:20 to 18:10 | Library of Congress Subject Headings I |
| 2010–11–24 | 10:00 to 15:00 | cataloging surgery |
| 2010–12–01 | 16:20 to 18:10 | no class |
| 2010–12–08 | 16:20 to 18:10 | Library of Congress Subject Headings II |
| 2010–12–15 | 16:20 to 18:10 | Library of Congress Classification |
| 2010–12–22 | 16:20 to 18:10 | conclusions |
To print the slides in Microsoft powerpoint, press control-p to print, then under "Print what" choose "Handouts", and under "Color/grayscale" choose "Pure Black and White". You can also use openoffice to print the slides.
Readings
There is no required textbook for this course. The instructor will try to photocopy relevant materials, or refer you to the home grown resources.
Assessment
Before each class except the first and second, there will be a quiz on the issued covered in the previous class. The average of all the quiz results will count for 12/20 of the assessment. There are two more assignments, the and the original catalog record exercise. In the copy cataloging assignment each student will be expected to set up a personal library with at least five different copy-cataloged items. The student writes a brief paper about the copy-cataloging experience, to be handed in by the 8th of December. This paper should be no longer than 3 pages. This will count for 4/20. The remaining 4/20 are based on the composition of an original cataloging record for which no copy-cataloging record could be found. In the original catalog record assignment, the students writes a paper about the creation of the cataloging record, again about three pages long, justifying the decisions taken.
Students who do badly in the quizzes may choose to do on optional essay on a topic suggested by them and approved by the instructor. That is worth an extra 10 points. It has to be handed in at the last class meeting.
Mailing list
There is a mailing list for the course at https://lists-1.liu.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwp-lis512-krichel. All students are encouraged to subscribe. As a rule, answers to email sent to the instructor will be copied to the list. There are exceptions to this rule
Literature
There is no required textbook for this course. The instructor does not like students to spend money on textbooks. Therefore, the only text that he would want people to require he typed it into a web page.
An important documnet that we use is IFLA (2008) known as FRBR.
The Library of Congress provide excellent training materials. Two that we use are Basic Subject Cataloging Using LCSH, and Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification.
The Library of Congress provide excellent training materials. Two that we use are Basic Subject Cataloging Using LCSH, and Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification. They also provide a tutorial "Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Cataloging". But more importantly, they provide some reference guides on the web. We use the MARC21 bibliographic format and the US National Level Full and Minimal Requirements for MARC records.
To keep up to date on wide issues, in cataloging, Planet Cataloging is an interesting source. It's automatically-generated aggregation of blogs related to cataloging and metadata designed and maintained by Jennifer W. Baxmeyer and Kevin S. Clarke.
There are several mailing lists dedicated to cataloging. AutoCat is the most widely read and active. There are smaller list RDA-L that deals with RDA. Finally, there is the classweb-users mailing list for users of the LoC's classification web.
Taylor and Joudrey (2009) is probably the most widely used textbook. It is a poorly organized bird's eye view. What they cover is so broad that one does neither get a basic understanding nor a cerebral challenge.
Chan (2007) is better organized, but focuses narrowly on cataloging. When the author strays away from narrow cataloging it becomes clear that her knowledge about related topics is limited.
Gorman (2004) is an admirable piece of work. It does an excellent job at detailing AARC rules in an easy-to-understand, no nonsense way. It does not providing a rationale.
To understand more of the logic behind cataloging, Svenonius (2000) promises to be of some use. However, it is an extreme snorefest, a wonderful help for a sleepless night.
There are three useful mailing lists. For traditional cataloging, the main list is AutoCat For thought-provoking expert reflection on the future of library catalogs sign up to the NGC4LIB mailing list.
There are some research articles that students interested in expanding their horizons might want to consider. Chen (1976) is the classic reference about the entity-relationship model. Thomale (2010) illuminates the MARC format.
The students also have access to the Library of Congress's classification web.
Finally, the instructor has made up some home grown resources.