Tag: Cataloging

Education

Greetings from Metadata Management Tools!

| Kelsey George
Image of cut out letters covering a surface, on top of them are Scrabble titles with letters spelling out the word "Hello"

  Earlier this fall, I taught a 3-week online course titled Metadata Management Tools for LITA. The course was designed for library staff who regularly work manipulating MARC and metadata sets or library school students interested in the subject of metadata management. My goal was for students to finish the course with an understanding of the tools available to them for metadata management, example use cases for each tool, and the resources available to them if they would like to further their knowledge or have any questions regarding any of these tools. A big “Thank you!” to LITA for giving me the opportunity to teach this online course. What is “metadata management”? According to Margaret Rouse of WhatIs.com, [m]etadata management is the administration of data that describes other data. It involves establishing policies and processes that ensure information across the organization can be integrated, accessed, shared, linked, analyzed, and maintained to best…

Continue Reading
Technical services

Thoughts on the 3R Project: Part 2

| Kelsey George
Image of road sign with no words, just two arrows pointing in opposite directions on an empty road.

Thoughts on the 3R Project Part 2 Part 1 of this series is available here. Now that some time has passed since the rollout of the beta version of the new RDA Toolkit, in this section, I would like to look at the conversations around the changes and the implications they have for the cataloging community. Three issues that continued to come up in the discussion around the new version were: The absence of an outline, enumeration, or another organizational schema throughout the toolkit; The absence of embedded AACR2 rule links in the RDA Toolkit; RDA’s role as a cataloging standard. Out of Order On rda-l, the first issue that came up in response to the RSC Secretary’s announcement was regarding the removal of numbering throughout the RDA Toolkit. The original online RDA Toolkit was structured much like a print book would be, with numbered chapters containing series of nested…

Continue Reading
Technical services

Thoughts on the 3R Project: Part 1

| Kelsey George
Image of grey card catalog with drawer labelled "Si" slightly opened.

Thoughts on the 3R Project Part 1 What is the 3R Project? On June 13, 2018, the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project (also referred to as the 3R Project) released an English-only beta version of the new RDA Toolkit in North America. An announcement predating the release, News on the RDA 3R Project beta release, was sent out by the RDA Steering Committee (RSC) Secretary to multiple listservs[1] on June 8th. It included links to a ‘document describing the “Outcomes of the RDA Toolkit Restructure and Redesign Project” by RSC Chair Gordon Dunsire’ as well as an ‘announcement titled “What to Expect from the RDA Toolkit beta site”’ (Barnhart, 2018). One of the listservs to receive this communication was the ALA-hosted rda-l, which I follow. Suddenly, emails about the new release inundated my inbox. The RSC Secretary’s email prompted more than 100 responses on the listserv: at least 25…

Continue Reading
Original Content

Organizing Library Workflows with Asana

| Nimisha Bhat|3 Comments

As coordinator for non-Roman language cataloging at my library, I have to keep track of several workflows simultaneously without actual fluency in any of the 10+ languages that my section deals with. As a librarian it goes without saying that I’m a big fan of organization and efficiency. So I’ve implemented a free task-based program called Asana in order to keep track of my section’s productivity, statistics, and progress. Asana was created with the objective of eliminating dependability on email in order to manage projects. Tasks and conversations are all in one place to promote transparency and accessibility, which is extremely valuable when you are on a team of five or more people with multiple established workflows. I’m certain I’m not alone when I say that email can often seem like a void that creates more confusion than clarity when it comes to communicating important work updates. Not everyone that…

Continue Reading
Original Content

Cataloging Board Games

| Lauren Hays|3 Comments

Since September, I have been immersed in the world of games and learning.  I co-wrote a successful grant application to create a library-based Center for Games and Learning. The project is being  funded through a Sparks Ignition! Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. One of our first challenges has been to decide how to catalog the games.  I located this presentation on SlideShare.  We have decided to catalog the games as Three Dimensional Objects (Artifact) and use the following MARC fields: MARC 245  Title Statement MARC 260  Publication, Distribution, Etc. MARC 300  Physical Description MARC 500  General Note MARC 508  Creation/Production Credits MARC 520  Summary, Etc. MARC 521  Target Audience MARC 650  Topical Term MARC 655  Index Term—Genre/Form There are many other fields that we could use, but we decided to keep it as simple as possible.  We decided not to interfile the games and instead, create…

Continue Reading