Thanks Toni for sharing the quote from your cataloging professor. I remember
in the dark ages when SUNY Geneseo had its library school (New York State in
its supposed wisdom closed it) my professor told us something in the same
manner. I make up my own rules to benefit the students.
Also, I also encourage my students to access the catalog at home - so, I am
not always there to hold hands and guide them.
I am constanting adding subject headings. My personal guideline has been
that everytime I touch a book I try to access its record to see what I want
to add, change, or subtract. After the Middle Ages project is over I will
take the cart of books (about 50 titles at this point) the students have
built from searching the shelves and add to the records the various headings
suggested by them.
Allan
Dr. Allan O'Grady Cuseo (Brother Donogh Allan, MGC)
Bishop Kearney High School Library
125 Kings Highway South
Rochester, New York 14617
585-342 -4000 x231
585-342- 4694 (FAX)
acuseo@bkhs.org
Education in the tradition of the Christian Brothers
FAC OMNIA BENE (Do all things well)
Bless the work.
Bless the day.
Come to aid us.
Angels stay!
Irish blessing
----- Original Message -----
From: "Toni Koontz" <akoontz@CDEDUCATION.ORG>
To: <LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: CATALOGUING: Your thoughts about adding lots of keywords
toarecord
> This string allows me to quote one of my favorite teachers - the one who
> was such a stickler for exactly following cataloging rules.
> "Now that I have taught you the correct way, remember, you are in charge
> and you are there to help your patrons. Do what is necessary to help
> them find what they need."
>
> I don't think we are creating a problem. After all, the student still
> must go to the book, look up the info and see if it fits their needs.
> They still have to write the paper- and our teachers are very strict
> about quality and plagiarism. So, I think I am actually helping them.
> They get a chance to find a lot on their subject - and then have to sift
> through it for what they need. They thus become even more discriminating
> in their choices. But, they also don't get so discouraged before they
> even start.
>
> Case in point: I just had a boy trying to find info on the Industrial
> Revolution. He checked my catalog - before he would only have found at
> most 5 books. After I started to expand the Notes he now finds info in
> 6 others. These other have statistics or other information on
> Industrial Revolution but not in the subject headings and definitely
> not in the title. He now has 11 books to look through to find info on
> his subject. Also, if I am not here, he still can find that info.
>
> Toni Koontz
> Librarian
> St. Charles Preparatory School
> Columbus OH
> akoontz@cdeducation.org
> Carpe Diem
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: School Library Media & Network Communications
> [mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Dennis Hollingsead
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 2:36 PM
> To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: CATALOGUING: Your thoughts about adding lots of keywords
> toarecord
>
>
> > Even though this makes it easier for students, could it be
> > counter-productive long-term? Where then will they refine the skills
> > to sleuth out a topic that is assigned or of interest? Doing too much
> > of this could result in matches that are lengthy (similar to the
> > problems with the internet). Maybe this exagerates the point, but
> > this solution could create other problems in trying to solve one. What
>
> > do you think?
>
> Dennis Hollingsead
> ****
>
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: School Library Media & Network Communications
> > > [mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Hiebert
> > > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 11:18 AM
> > > To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> > > Subject: CATALOGUING: Your thoughts about adding lots of keywords to
>
> > > a record
> > >
> > >
> > > Hello All,
> > >
> > > As I watch students (I'm in a high school of 500, grades 8 to 12)
> > > search my catalogue I see that their expectations have been
> > > established by
> > > Google: when they do a keyword search for 'marijuana' they expect to
>
> > > find every book with information about marijuana; of course, that is
>
> > > not what happens; they find only the books with the word 'marijuana'
> > > entered
> > > somewhere in the record. I then tell them they need to broaden their
> > > search -- "try 'drugs' or 'drug abuse'" -- and many more hits
> appear.
> > >
> > > There is no chance I am going to effectively teach even a small
> > > minority of our students how to 'broaden the search' (my half-time
> > > librarian status is just one reason), so I'm thinking that my
> > > catalogue has to be
> > > more Google-like. To that end I am considering adding many more
> > > keywords
> > > to the book records. My first thought is to select keywords from the
> > > table of contents of a book and list them in the 'note' field of the
> > > book record.
> > >
> > > I would appreciate your opinions about all this, and I would
> > > especially like to hear from anyone who is already doing this.
> > >
> > > Thanks for listening.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Robert
> > >
> > >
>
> Dennis Hollingsead
> Administrative Assistant to VP for Academic Administration Andrews
> University Berrien Springs, MI 49104 269-471-3404 Graduate Student
> Minnesota State University, Mankato hollings@andrews.edu
>
> "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who
> can't read them." Mark Twain
>
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