Wednesday, January 20, 2010

What is an acronym for a hiccup?

This is a query that has led at least 2 people to my blog recently and deserves some serious thought.
Let me think about this.  An acronym is where you take the first letter of each word in a phrase, or sometimes the initial sound, and create a 'word' or something that can be pronounced as a word.  For example, FRBR! Functional Requirements (for) Bibliographic Records (charmingly pronounced 'ferber', like a Furby).

Ah, look there, they left out the for.  Then it would be FRFBR (which would be pronounced 'ferf-ber', a disease not unlike scrofula, pictured at the right).

I assume there is a rule concerning little helper words like and, the, for, of, but, histologic dysmorphism, at, on, stuff like that.
...
(the sound of thinking)
...
perhaps they meant an ANTONYM?
An antonym for hiccup would be...a belch?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Prickly Cataloging Issues in Realia Part Two






Stasi Smell Jars. 

A concrete object, not a theoretical one.
The jar is sealed well and the scent stored in such a way as to preserve it.

The people involved would be the scent-producer, the scentee, I suppose, and the collector. In the statement of responsibility it just isn't clear cut to say it is the scentee only; you must have a smeller, I would think.
These smells were also collected without the scentee's knowledge or permission, but are attributed to them.
How important would the storage vessel be, or the mode of smell transmission: i..e., the article of clothing or what have you that is in the vessel, versus the smell itself?

Are you cataloging the smell? >>>oniony, acrid with a hint of rose. (and who gets to be the authority on what it smells like?  Isn't that a little subjective and debatable?)
Or the person? >>> Nino DeGubernatorial.
Or the item of scentedness? >>> one white gym towel, 12 inches by 24.
Or the entire vessel and contents? >>> A towel scented with the odor of Nino DeGubernatorial.

Here is a scent artist: right up my (bowling) alley.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

How do, howto!

I have been asked to present a 2 hour instructional workshop on cataloging realia at the 2010 OLAC (OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers) convention in Macon, GA.  This is beyond exciting, and quite serendipitous as I live about 3 hours from Macon and am familiar with Nu-Way Weiners, a hotdog stand extraordinaire.
I will be using this blog as a testing site (similar to White Sands, with less protective gear needed) for the workshop.
My initial idea is to make it hands on and provide real-life realia to do a rough catalog record on.  Some early ideas include the carrot, as it raises many questions as far as series, creator, etc., and a book that sets itself on fire (mentioned earlier).