What a great quick class testdrive as we ran over RDA Toolkit and refreshed the descriptive cat skills in #libr511.  We’re all awake now?

May and I share the same Cataloguing Prof from our degree times, Lynne Lighthall.  I realized by class end Lynne had been a precursor blogger.  Always debriefing us and eliciting discussion.  One of our biggest challenges for us is to give #libr511 that discursive underpinning.  Big thanks to everyone in class who on DAY ONE stepped up and spoke up.  Thank you for playing!  We’ll be glad to have it on the blog rather than listserv. Ah, modern conveniences!

Looking over the cold cat work, good first attempts.  We realize you are on solid ground with rules but not exceptions. That’s natural.  As practitioners we want to ensure we help you learn about how policy of an agency affects the style of cataloguing. How packaging/dis-assembly wrecks the process of description.  Many of you quickly located the challenges of certain materials for example how donations skew not just collection development but also data management.  It’s all a system, no?

I was intrigued by the standard nascent cataloguer urgency to transcribe everything and of couse.. MAKE STUFF UP.  Don’t do that, okay? Not even ‘this page left intentionally blank.’  We’re in transcription phase, analysis and enrichment is coming. Wait for it.

It was certainly heartening to hear clearly that it feels good to do the work and that it is ‘strangely rewarding’.  That’s the way I like it.. keep the learning sneaky.

#LIBR511 students do already know all they need to know but I know in the coming weeks we’ll have a busy place alongside them to remind how to sequence what to do and where to learn more.