Week 11: Cataloging

While I did struggle with the assigned reading this week, I did take away a lot of important information and certainly have a better understanding of how cataloging in general works.

Having the opportunity to expand my knowledge of Dewey was really helpful and frankly, I find his classification system fascinating and brilliant. While I don't believe students need to know what each 10 main classes of the DDC are, I do think it's helpful that the understand that there is a system, why there is a system, and how to access the system. I also really appreciated understanding why folk and fairy tales were classified as 384.2 as well as why poetry and graphic novels are in non-fiction as well. I like the flexibility that is accepted for school librarians to organize the remaining types of fiction in their own departments. Personally, I like having graphic novels remain in the non-fiction area because while students are browsing, they may discover other books in the 700s (or nearby classes) that they would not have found otherwise.

I was unfamiliar with the Metis and Bookstore models until reading Catalog It!. I like the idea of organizing a library in the 26 designated categories, because this can be a way to introduce students to more non-fiction during browsing. With that said, I don't feel confident pioneering a new organizational program at my library since I'm still new to the field and position.

The challenging part of the week was understanding the MARC records. I had a hard time understanding all of the components of a MARC, but I do respect the system. The vendors I purchase from create the MARCs for me, but it is important to understand how a title is classified. I definitely haven't hit mastery with this yet.

All in all, for an organizational lover like myself, this was great reading to tackle and I enjoyed learning more about the inner workings of cataloging.