"Librarians are almost always very helpful and often almost absurdly knowledgeable. Their skills are probably very underestimated and largely underemployed." (The Social Audit Consumer Handbook)
Oh, to be "absurdly knowledgeable"! - the kind of person everyone wants on their Trivial Pursuit team! Frankly, I'm not feeling remotely akin to this description at the moment. Maybe I'll feel slightly knowledgeable once I get my head around the NAPs (Name Access Points), SAPs (Subject Access Points) and the AAPs (Additional Access Points) of cataloguing! I can relate to the "Housekeeping" details...for some reason that's all too familiar.
Librarian Lingo
I'm thankful for the Glossary at the back of our Standard Cataloguing text because I'm learning that Librarians have a unique and extensive lingo associated with their field! "Marge, I'm going to check the NAF (Name Authority File) from the LAC (Library and Archives Canada), LC (Library of Congress) and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). Would you like a coffee while you read the AACR2-2005?"
However, our glossary did not contain the word "Patronymics" (p.71). I had to look that one up in the dictionary. I now know that it means: a name derived from the name of one's father or a paternal ancestor usually by the addition of an affix. Does that make me "absurdly knowledgeable"? :)
Some of the details and complications of cataloguing are astounding to me. For example, in the section of chapter 5: Access Points that describes the Form of Corporate Body Names, the text describes the many layers of hierarchy that can exist within a corporate body. The cataloguer must determine that the CC:DA (Committee on Cataloguing: Description and Access) is a committee of a section of a division of an association! No wonder librarians are "absurdly knowledgeable"; they have to be!
And then there are the rules about the Form of Personal Names. Apparently the rule here is simple: we use the most frequently encountered form. Therefore, Mark Twain will always be labelled as Mark Twain, and not his birth name of Samuel Clemens. I would argue that a simpler rule would be this: Authors are allowed one name and one name only. None of this pseudonym or "pen name" stuff. Do they realize how difficult they make it for librarians? And librarians are their friends. We purchase, catalogue and promote their books. It's the least they can do!
Kidding aside, I appreciated the text's final definition of Access: it "is the process of selecting names and titles--the most important descriptive elements--to use as headings in the catalog, and formulating them consistently, so that searchers can find them expeditiously."
Cataloguing can be a complicated business - not for the faint of heart! And to think my principal wants me to find a parent volunteer to do the cataloguing for me. "After all," he says, "how hard can it be?"
After all that reading, I think I need a NAP!
Oh, to be "absurdly knowledgeable"! - the kind of person everyone wants on their Trivial Pursuit team! Frankly, I'm not feeling remotely akin to this description at the moment. Maybe I'll feel slightly knowledgeable once I get my head around the NAPs (Name Access Points), SAPs (Subject Access Points) and the AAPs (Additional Access Points) of cataloguing! I can relate to the "Housekeeping" details...for some reason that's all too familiar.
Librarian Lingo
I'm thankful for the Glossary at the back of our Standard Cataloguing text because I'm learning that Librarians have a unique and extensive lingo associated with their field! "Marge, I'm going to check the NAF (Name Authority File) from the LAC (Library and Archives Canada), LC (Library of Congress) and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). Would you like a coffee while you read the AACR2-2005?"
However, our glossary did not contain the word "Patronymics" (p.71). I had to look that one up in the dictionary. I now know that it means: a name derived from the name of one's father or a paternal ancestor usually by the addition of an affix. Does that make me "absurdly knowledgeable"? :)
Some of the details and complications of cataloguing are astounding to me. For example, in the section of chapter 5: Access Points that describes the Form of Corporate Body Names, the text describes the many layers of hierarchy that can exist within a corporate body. The cataloguer must determine that the CC:DA (Committee on Cataloguing: Description and Access) is a committee of a section of a division of an association! No wonder librarians are "absurdly knowledgeable"; they have to be!
And then there are the rules about the Form of Personal Names. Apparently the rule here is simple: we use the most frequently encountered form. Therefore, Mark Twain will always be labelled as Mark Twain, and not his birth name of Samuel Clemens. I would argue that a simpler rule would be this: Authors are allowed one name and one name only. None of this pseudonym or "pen name" stuff. Do they realize how difficult they make it for librarians? And librarians are their friends. We purchase, catalogue and promote their books. It's the least they can do!
Kidding aside, I appreciated the text's final definition of Access: it "is the process of selecting names and titles--the most important descriptive elements--to use as headings in the catalog, and formulating them consistently, so that searchers can find them expeditiously."
Cataloguing can be a complicated business - not for the faint of heart! And to think my principal wants me to find a parent volunteer to do the cataloguing for me. "After all," he says, "how hard can it be?"
After all that reading, I think I need a NAP!
Michelle, I love your posts. They are funny and they also summarize the main points of the lesson. Thanks for taking the time to write them. You always make me smile. I can relate to the NAP!! I think your principal really has NO idea. I know I didn't before all this.
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