My Interview about OPAC systems

For this week's assignment, I talked to S., an elementary school librarian I observed last semester. She's used two OPAC systems before, Winnebago and Destiny. When they decided to replace Winnebago, Destiny was the only system they looked at. We discussed the pros and cons of Dentiny. Here's what she had to say:

Pros of Destiny:

• Simple to catalog new books
• Follett orders can just be uploaded
• The catalog is accessible from anywhere
• Destiny Quest: kids can create profiles, see book covers, share reviews, locate web sources, and put books on hold
• Easy to print out barcodes and labels
• Webpath Express (for extra money)- Internet search filter - gives grade-level appropriate resources
• Patron reports, patron history, patron entry, patron updates are all easy
• Late slips can be generated automatically
• Great access to circulation stats to give to administrators
• New dashboard tab shows daily and monthly circulation
• Titlewave ordering is easy
• Can keep a running list of items to buy
• Great fill records
• Books look great with mylar and barcodes

Cons of Destiny:

• Destiny Quest has to be actively monitored - the kids can get silly
• Catalog is not very forgiving of misspelled words (she thinks there may be an option to improve this, but she doesn't have it right now); better when it shows the book covers for hints
• Can't email overdue notices
• The homepage could be more visually friendly
• When a patron has a message, the Destiny screen freezes. You have to actively watch the screen.
• It doesn't count the items checked in (like Winnebago did)
• Expensive

The Future of Catologing

Chapter seven tackled the question of whether websites should be cataloged. Kaplan and Riedling recommend that you do catalog websites, so that eventually when a student searches in the catalog for a particular subject, websites will appear in the listings along with print material and other formats. I can see their point, but in reality it seems so odd to me. Aren't LibGuides and pathfinders enough? What's more helpful for students? I think LibGuides/pathfinders are more useful for specific assignments. They also curate resources and reduce the overwhelming amount of information online ("the Internet Ocean," 163). Maybe by college, cataloging websites makes sense. Besides, college libraries would have the staff to work on cataloging, without teaching 24 classes a week! At least the rules for cataloging websites seem straightforward.

Chapter eight discussed processing information packages. I felt comfortable reading about barcodes, labels, stamping, spine labels, shelving, etc... the power of background knowledge! I know the subject of interfiling can be controversial. I see both sides. I like to see the graphic novels all filed together at the public library. On the other hand, if they were filed within the regular fiction and nonfiction sections, maybe there'd be more of the joy of discovery.

And then, lo and behold, page 173, Appendix I . Having the whole MARC format on one page really helped me. I almost wonder if it would've been easier for me if they had just written the book in order of the tags, although I understand why they didn't.

It's hard to believe that automation isn't in every library, but I know it's true. When I taught in Springfield, the LMS was slowly working on barcoding/cataloging. Automation seems so necessary! So far I've only seen Follett used in school libraries. I know someone whose library uses Alexandria, but I haven't seen it in action. I wonder if the differences are significant.

The Nitty Gritty

After a half week of work for my other course (Instructional Resource Selection), it was back to the cataloging book. I plunged right into a very long chapter--six--that went into each tag in depth. Once again, it's telling how many pages of notes I took... 11 (*Lowers head in shame.* I learn that way! I swear!) Again, I got bogged down by the sheer amount of detail and the rules about the tags, including punctuation, spacing, and codes. (I got a lot of exercises wrong again...) I'm very glad to have this book to keep for future reference, though.

So much information gets cataloged for each item! And most of the information is useful. Editions, publications, series, award winners, etc. all seem like they could be helpful, especially if it helps trace a material. On the teaching side, summaries, reading level, and interest level are great, although it's important to realize they are just guidelines. Subtitles and alternate names are so useful. Can you imagine if we only had Theodore Geisel in the catalog for some kid who was searching for Dr. Seuss? Sometimes the information seems unnecessary, like the dimensions of certain materials. I guess that information could be necessary if you're checking to see if you have the correct item during inventory? It seems extraneous to me when there's so much else to do.

The topic of cataloging equipment was new to me. The school library where I subbed didn't catalog equipment. I'm picturing barcodes on the laminator and the iPads... but that's a discussion to have with your school/district's tech staff, too.

Dewey! Dewey! Dewey! and an Ironic Day

Chapter 5: The Dewey Decimal System! Finally, something I had background knowledge for. I thought it was really cool how the call numbers could expand as needed and still keep up with changes over time. I was a bit confused about Schedules vs. Tables, though (78-80). My favorite quote: "The process of adding a number as directed is fairly simple as long as the directions are crystal clear (81)". Yep. Crystal.

The folklore, poetry, short stories, etc. section is a great topic for elementary school librarians. The kids have to be taught specifically where poetry is, for example. As long as we have good signage, they find the poetry just fine, but they don't understand why it's in the nonfiction section. The explanation about the change in the view of children's literature made sense, though. I do have to say, I like graphic novels in their own little section; some kids go on a graphic novel binge, and this way they're so easy to find. The last point in chapter 5 (89) was a good one; you can change call numbers on your own, but as we're getting more connected, standardization may be more necessary.

                                          No catalog police!


And then... irony!

Here I was reading (and moaning) about cataloging, and I got a call to substitute for the middle school librarian I observed earlier in the semester. We talked on the phone in the morning, and since she didn't have classes coming in, she wanted to know if I wanted to do some cataloging for her! How perfect is that? The first book must have taken me 25 minutes. The more I did, the quicker I got. I did have three books out of the three shelves that didn't have any information in the system, so it was helpful to know that I could've pulled out our book to help me look for/create the information. And I was the one thinking we'd never need the information in this book. That'll teach me!

Cataloging... Lisa gets confused

Chapter 4 had lots of helpful information in it. The discussion of keywords vs. subject headings was so useful. I'd been around school librarians who have tried to explain it to the kids, but honestly, I didn't really have a handle on it. I liked the idea of controlled vocabulary (42)--made sense.

Once Ch. 4 started into LCSH and Sears, I understood the advantages and disadvantages, but my brain was just screaming for everyone to agree! Just pick something already! I was really in for it once we started on the MARC tags. I could follow the ideas in each section, but it all seemed so very complicated. There was even punctuation from a different system. (I guess I should've tried to get a copy of Sears or LCSH or LC/AC.) I did a poor job with the exercises in this section. It's a good thing they weren't being graded! Hopefully the important part here is for me to know these tags exist and that I can look them up in this book when needed.

I loved the part about curriculum tags (67). It does seem like a lot of work to enter the extra information, but as the classroom teacher, I would love to be able to search by standard, especially for mentor texts that we would actually have on the shelves. Hopefully this tag could come already prepared with CCSS standards in the future.

(how much sense this all made to me at the beginning)

Cataloging, Part 2

Chapter Two made total sense: where to find information for the bibliographic record if it doesn't come with the materials. The Library of Congress has some great tools that I'm sure I'll use (although it doesn't seem as school friendly). The reference to CLEVNET made me happy--all the libraries near me in Stow, OH used CLEVNET.

And then, on to Chapter Three. At this point, my reading rate got super slow, just like we always tell the kids at school it does when we don't understand something (when to skim and scan, when to slow down and read closely). I also produced pages and pages and pages of notes. I always take a lot of notes; it helps me learn. But I've noticed a negative correlation between how much I understand and how many pages of notes I take.

Anyway, on to the content. As soon as the authors started talking about tags, I got completely confused. I understood all the information that you'd need to have on a bibliographic record, but it seemed so bizarre to me that you had to have all this code for each line. It just seems like the $a and the other $ codes and the tag numbers could be simplified so much. Why not just a numbered list? I'm sure there's a good reason, like it wouldn't contain enough spots. I understood the concept of leaders, directories, variable fields, etc. as they were explained, but it was hard to imagine that it all had to be so complicated! And this was just the first application chapter!

Reading About Cataloging

This week we started learning about cataloging, mostly through a book, Catalog It! A Guide to Cataloging School Library Materials by Allison Kaplan and Ann Riedling. I knew very little about cataloging; okay, I'll be honest, I barely knew what it was. Library books have some extra information if you look at their records. That was about all I knew!

In the first chapter of the book, I learned about the history of cataloging. I liked Kaplan and Riedling's definition of cataloging: "the organization of information so that it is easily accessible for anyone who needs it" (1). I also enjoyed hearing about different ways different cultures organized their materials; my favorite was how the ancient Chinese put the materials with the highest literary merit on red glazed rods, and the lesser material on lacquer rods (2). The late 19th into 20th centuries led to logical changes in cataloging, making materials easier to find. I got lost in all the acronyms--AACR, ISBD, IFLA, FRBR, OPAC, MARC, CIP, etc. Once I started reading about the card catalog and the electronic catalog, it got easier to understand. Although I would never want a paper card catalog now, I do have fond memories of using one (probably every library enthusiast does!). Cataloging equals access, in whatever form it may be. Isn't that our whole purpose?