Thanks so much for all your very thoughtful responses! We are all trying to make
our catalogs better. But guess what - we need help! I agree - the problem I
described of not being able to locate information in our catalog about Albrecht
Durer IS definitely a cataloging problem. I too have added access points as much
as possible. For instance, all the people in my collective biographies have been
added to the marc records. That didn’t help with Albrecht who only appears in our
art and history books. Let's be realistic. No matter how diligent we are with
cataloging - none of us has time to do what REALLY needs to be done to make our
catalogs as user-friendly as Google. And whay should we have to? Why can't we get
that info automatically with our MARC records? Surely the technology is available.
Of course it is possible * and necessary * to teach students to look for more
general topics, think af alternative keywords etc. - and then use indexes. As
librarians, we do that all the time. Still * I think it is time for us to provide
our students with a better search solution. Is there anyone out there doing that?
Who should I contact? I know nothing about it - who IS in charge of MARC records?
Is anyone at that level thinking along these lines? Is there some way I can get
in touch with them? Here are my ideas: 1. If Marc records came with both the full
table of contents and the full index - it would be a giant step forward. We
already can search the table of contents in some materials - or enter it ourselves.
But it is not enough. Who of us would have time to enter the entire index of a
multi volume reference set ourselves into the MARC record? And why should we have
to? Why - at the very least - can't that come to us when we order MARC records
for our books? 2. Why doesn’t the table of contents for our books pop up in a
library catalog search so our students can look at it - just like Google Books,
Amazon et al? 3. And how about full-text search * why not? Google can do it * why
can’t we? Yes - Google Book Search is a wonderful tool that we can use right now.
Yes * it already points people in the direction of area libraries that own the
book. However, it is overwhelming. Again - in an effort to bring us everything -
it takes too much time to sift through the dross to find the gold. Instead - why
can’t we use this technology to easily search a SINGLE collection - our own - which
has been carefully selected to serve our own unique clientele? It just seems to me
that in the age of Google - that library catalogs could be a LOT more efficient!
If libraries don't figure out a way to make this happen - then it will be no wonder
if folks prefer a google search! Thanks again for listening!Jacquie"The
Librarian, whose job is to heal ignorance, to keep life safe for poetry and to put
knowledge smack dab in the middle of the American way."From The Philadelphia
Inquirer, 9-20-03
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacquie Henry, MLS
Ruben A. Cirillo High School (GHS)
Gananda Central School District
3195 Wiedrick Road
P.O. Box 609
Macedon, NY 14502
315-986-3521 x 3144
jhenry@gananda.org
Library Page: http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
Blog: http://nlcommunities.com/communities/wanderings/default.aspx
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