Organization of the School Library

Assignment #3 has given me the opportunity to really look at my experience while working in several libraries as a TOC and choose organization strategies I could adapt to my own program. Being a TOC, I am lucky because I have seen the good, bad, and the ugly as far as organization. Worst being a library with no Teacher-Librarian and piles of un-shelved books, and best being an elementary school library run by a dynamic Master Teacher Librarian who has a trained group of student Library Monitors at her side. For the first time I could put together what I like to think of as my dream library Action Plan. Most of the strategies I would like to adapt are from the Master Teacher Librarian at a school in Surrey that I worked in some time ago.

The Library at this particular elementary school has recently been renovated and the layout is well planned out to incorporate the right amount of space for teaching and practical organization of books. Most of the shelving is built into the perimeter of the room, leaving the center of the room open as a work space for students. Low shelves around the left side of the room are for Easy readers leading up to taller shelves for more Fiction books for the older students. The right perimeter of the room is reserved for the entire Non-Fiction collection that is kept in perfect order by the TL. The layout of the room is practical and allows easy visibility from any area of the room, especially when standing at the circulation desk at the front of the room.

The Master TL in this library dedicates many hours to training responsible student Library Monitors, who help to conduct book exchanges, and shelve books, before school, during lunch hour, and after school. Because of their help the library program runs beautifully, and books are shelved consistently in the right place. The only area that the TL does not allow the Library Monitors to shelve is the Non-Fiction collection. She prefers to take sole responsibility for shelving this area. As I worked as a TOC in this elementary school library I took note of the commitment her Library Monitors have for attending to their scheduled tasks. I was very impressed at how responsible they were. This is a reflection of the respect they have for their Teacher Librarian. I also took notes on the organization systems that she had in place around the room. Every class had a box of duo-tangs where students keep their work, and each class had a set of book marks with individual barcodes for each student. The rules for proper behaviour where visibly displayed on a poster in a high traffic area in the room, and the students seemed to be aware of them when asked. I also couldn’t help but notice that she sends home many newsletters to parents informing them about the rules and policies of the library including, how to take care of books, upcoming events, and the hours of operation before and after school when parents can accompany their children for book exchanges or reading time.

For this assignment I tried to apply many of the techniques I saw work effectively in this elementary school library, so that I may apply these to my own situation in the future. This assignment was a great opportunity to reflect on what I have seen and produce a workable plan for myself. I am glad that I had this opportunity to develop a useful organization plan that I can use in my own school library!

Assignment #2: ISBD and MARC Records

After completing Assignment #2, I feel more knowledgeable about the cataloguing process. Although I have only seen the tip of the ice berg, this assignment helped me understand the function of MARC tags and the purpose other necessary entries. Because of this assignment I have a great deal more respect for professional librarians, and their knowledge of descriptive cataloguing, and the processing of MARC records. It must takes years before one feels confident in creating MARC records from scratch. Thank goodness for sites like the www.loc.gov/ and www.nypl.org/. Without the help of these sites I highly doubt I could have ever completed this assignment with any success.

Part B of Assignment #2 proved to be unexpectedly fun. Finding some of the records was like finding a needle in a hay stack. I felt like I was trying to solve a riddle half the time, or solving a mystery while searching for clues. Once you begin searching for some of the title records it is difficult to quit until you have found them. I think the one I spent the most time trying to find was “Jigga Jump”, but once I found records for this one I felt as though I had run a marathon. I never knew that cataloguing could be so exhilarating!

Finding Authority Tools for Audiovisual and Music Catalogs is Proving to Be a Challenge!

This week a lot of my focus has been on Part A of Assignment 2. Most of the information was easy to find using the Library of Congress Website and the New York Public Library site. I am still having challenges finding information for exercise 128- Authority Tools for Audiovisual and Music Catalogs. I think that I have spent too much time looking already, so I thought that I should email Sandra for some suggestions. She suggested that because this is a Web site, I should try to find examples of Web sites catalogued on library pages. Or examples of cataloguing web pages for libraries. I am trying to do this but so far haven’t had much success. I tried the link that is given in our text book on page 151 (www.ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/olac/capc/authtools.html) but it turns out that this link is broken. I hope that I will have more success with Part B of Assignment 2, but for now I think I will take a break.

Week 4: Amazing Media Center Websites!

This past week I have been working to complete Activity 4 and 5 so that I can confront my fear of beginning the dreaded Assignment 2! While completing Activity 4 I gained a new perspective on school library websites- they are full of amazing resources for teachers and parents, and full of fun literacy based activities for students! I was amazed at how much fun it was to explore the Scotch College website and especially the North Elementary School Library Media Centre website. While both where inspiring I could definitely see elementary aged students excited to use the North Elementary School Library Media Center website for research purposes, literacy activities and just for fun. I was, however, a little bit disappointed that Reading with Ms. Byrd was more like Reading with Sylvia Brown. I could not see myself, nor elementary students using this particular site to access literacy based resources, activities, or using this site as a base for research tools. The Lord Byng School Library website was not much better, as it featured broken link, after broken link. The only thing this site had going for it was its link to webcat to access its library records. This was a helpful Activity to work through to learn more about how different schools are showcasing their school library media centers, and the assistance provided by the school library media staff. Through this activity I have learned that the school library media center websites can be a great advocacy tool. For instance, the North Elementary School Library Media Center website communicates to staff, parents and students that literacy resources and assistance is the library staffs main priority. Websites like the North Elementary Library website really reflect the commitment, integrity, knowledge and capabilities of the Teacher Librarian at that particular school. Some day I hope to also create a website that is similar, but for now I will begin Assignment #2, and learn how to catalog!

Week 3: Introducing MARC Records

This week balancing work and this course have been a struggle, but after reading some of the discussion from Activity 3 it made me feel like maybe I am not the only one. I tried to do my best in completing Activity 3 by using many of the notes provided for us in our course notes. It was nice to learn more about the Library of Congress Classification which was something that I had never heard of before taking this course. Once I got the hang of it, I felt more confident in using it. But I think I am a visual learner Louise Thomson pointed out on the discussion forum, and I would have had an easier time if I had seen a model of what our responses should look like. I just hope that I completed it correctly. Anyways, I also found Roberta MacQuarrie’s reflection on the discussion forum reassuring since I am also coming from a beginner’s level and sometimes feel overwhelmed with new information that we are learning about in this course. I think that my biggest fear at the moment is completing Assignment #2. As I have been looking through the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules and looking at MARC tags I hope that I will finish this Assignment correctly and on time.
The website provided in week three Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Cataloging at URL: www.loc.gov/marc/umb/ is a comprehensive guide to understanding what MARC is, why it is important, how to use it. The site also explains MARC terms and their definitions, where MARC records originated and data issues. MARC 21 Reference Materials Parts VII to X provides a summary of commonly used MARC 21 Fields, a list of other fields often seen in MARC records. MARC 21 Reference Materials Parts XI to XII provides a sample record in various formats, AV records from cards to MARC 21, selected Bibliography, and a complete review. Although printing the information from this site took about 40 to 50 pages, I think that the information it provides is very helpful with clear explanations and visual examples of various formats. After reading through selective parts of this document, I feel more informed about terms such as tags, indicators, subfield codes, and so on. At least I know where to look if I need to identify one of these terms or codes in the future. I have spent some time working in an elementary library before, but I have not come across the need to look up MARC records yet. The most cataloguing I have done is creating call numbers using the Dewey Decimal sytem. Creating MARC records seems daunting, but I understand the need for a means of interpreting the information found on a cataloguing record. The process of creating MARC records seems very intricate and complex. After reading through chapter 12 in our text, I learned some history about the origins of MARC. I also learned that there are five MARC formats that have been developed including the one for bibliographic data which would probably concern me the most. The others area for authority data, holdings data, classification data, and community information. Each one of these fields are similar in the fact that they have fields, subfields, and content designators to help identify and manipulate the type of information needed for its type or category. I have also learned that MARC records are not a new type of cataloguing but an encoded version of cataloguing. So, basically it contains all of the information that a catalog record would include plus more for computer processing. The content of the record is the main and added entries, title statements, edition statements, and more. The other information to identify individual records and their parts are the encoding. Encoding catalog records are divided into fields, and each element of the catalog has a corresponding field, and each element has a tag. For example tag 250 means edition statement. This is a lot for me to process. I guess it is kind of like cataloguers speak in a type of code or a tag language or markup language instead of using words to describe the meanings. All of this is very confusing. I hope that this will become clearer in the weeks to come.

Week 2: Cataloguing: An Overview of the Process

This week I have been working on completing Activity 2 and I have found inspiration from others who have completed their Activity 2 such as Bridget Hearsey, and Louise Thompson who got the ball rolling. I was shocked at all of information available about the AACR2 and MARC on the internet. I am discovering how little I really know about cataloguing as I search the web for information about cataloguing tools. The article that I found using the UBC databases “RDA (Resource Description and Access): The New Way to Say, “AACR2” by Tom Adamich has taught me that the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules are very commonly known among people in the library field and has been for decades. I was glad that this article could teach me a little bit about the history of what seems to be one of the staple components of the library system today. Apparently the predecessor to Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules was an innovation behind an effort by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Library of Congress to combine American Library Associations’ cataloguing rules with the Library of Congress’s plan to introduce its printed catalogue card program. The result of combing the Condensed Rules for an Author and Title Catalogue, and the Library of Congress card catalogue project plans was the introduction of a comprehensive version of the ALA rules in 1902 (and was continuously revised up until just recently) becoming the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2. Adamich’s article also explains that the latest version of AACR2 rules were too specific and not easily adaptable to the cataloguing requirements for new formats (which are electronic based and may contain similar descriptive characteristics, and be assigned to multiple chapters in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2). To meet the needs of cataloguing electronic based formats, a committee for the revision of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, has developed Resource Description and Access (RDA) which will provide guidelines and instructions on resource description and access covering all types of content and media. Resource Description Access helps people find, identify, select, and obtain resources appropriate to their information needs. Apparently, Resource Description and Access will not have a profound impact on the daily cataloguing and processing of materials in school libraries, but it may affect how school library catalogs will be organized and accessed in the future. RDA will be the cataloguing of library resources such as streaming videos, and online document formats. School libraries will continue to use the Machine Readable Cataloging standard, other bibliographic standards will become more widespread in the near future. School libraries as expected to become more aligned with other libraries around the world and describing library collections including websites, data records, and other documents beyond the traditional library holdings which did not include electronic data. It seems that I have a lot to learn.

Week 1: Introduction

In my first week of this course I have concentrated on organizing myself to the best of my ability in preparation for my course work. I have printed out all of the weeks from the web site, organized my 4 inch binder into 12 week sections and visited the UBC book store two times to purchase all of the necessary and recommended books for this course. I was discouraged to find out that I had to order the AACR2 from Amazon though (I know that we do not need to buy this book or the Sears Headings but I want to make sure that I have what I need at my finger tips). As I read over the upcoming assignments, and browse through the assignments I can’t help but feel overwhelmed. I just want to learn everything all at once. I am anxious to understand the what all of the codes stand for, it seems like some secret language that is very exclusive and intimidating to me at this point. When I look at the MARC record template that I have downloaded from the Unlocking the Mysteries of Cataloguing website I am puzzled. I feel scared and worried that I will not be successful at completing the templates for my assignments, but I just need to take a deep breath and calm myself. This week I have completed my first Activity which was the introduction. I enjoyed reading the introductions from people in my course. I have noticed that many of the people taking this course are just completing their Library Diploma and some already work in school libraries. I hope that I will also be lucky enough to complete my Library Diploma this summer and find a job working in a school library this coming year. It seems that school library positions are scarce these days especially where I live. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in a library for the last 6 weeks of the school year in 2008. I learned many things. I basically taught myself how to use the destiny program to check books in and out and to do inventory of the books that were missing. I also had the opportunity to re-organize and re-shelve all of the books in the particular library I was working in. It seems as though the shelving of books had been badly neglected and I learned the value of proper book placement. Students were not able to locate many of the books that they needed because they were shelved in the wrong areas, and that defeats the purpose of having those book in the collection. It was a mess when I got there, but by the time I left I can honestly say that no book was out of place, or left behind! Some people make fun of me for my need for organization, but I think that in the library it is necessary to shelve books with precision, especially when it can affect if a book is located to be used, or not. I am excited to learn more about proper cataloguing strategies so that I can strengthen my organizational techniques.