What makes a good cataloguer? The main thing is to have a sense of humour. You will have to apply rules which you find quite silly, and you cannot really take them all seriously. On a scale of the world’s problems, cataloguing would not feature at all. However, you must pretend to take them seriously, and pretend, while you are doing it, that cataloguing is the most important thing in the world. You must regard every decision, as well as every full stop and comma, as being of vital importance.
My upcoming autobiography on being a cataloger
librarianpop:
deweydecimator:
“May Subdivide Geographically: Wit and Humor in Librarianship, See also: Librarians—Humor”
I love seeing librarian autobiographies!
Love this title.
library land- LCSH and semen
longhairandblankstares:
So I come across weird things when browsing cataloging rules/authority files. My favorite example of proper capitalization is in AACR2 for proper names of Satan. Like “His Satanic Majesty” should be capitalized. Today I came across a gem while trying to look up the correct LCSH subject heading for recipes with eel in it. I was browsing the “cooking” list of terms for eel and came across this. I kind of stared at it for a minute because I was sure it had to be a joke.
Cooking (Semen) (May Subd Geog)
UF Cooking with semen
Semen—Use in cooking
BT Cooking
Apparently AACR2 has provisions for books written by deceased authors through spirit mediums.
You rock, library sciences.
in my Cataloging and Classification class today, discussing RDA
Student: You could catalog the CARPET in the library with these rules!
Professor: Yes, you can. And you should! ...If the library collects carpets.
I’m rather sure that when a layperson imagines an MLIS program, they imagine my Cataloging and Classification class. There are whole days on the syllabus labeled things like: MARC formats, metadata schemas, subject headings, Library of Congress Classification, Dewey Decimal Classification, etc.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I’m just saying that I spent this afternoon (the first day of my second semester of Library School) with a cotton candy haired, glasses wearing, library-world icon lecturing me about bibliographic control. Squee!
She also offhandedly told us she has a conference call with the Library of Congress on Monday. If ever there was a way to get a bunch of library students to shut up and listen to every word you’re saying with bated breath…
