How to Catalog a Hiccup

Turning into a personal blog

2012-01-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

The way the Internet works these days is such that I can start using this as a personal blog while maintaining the cataloging part of it in an integral fashion. Meaning I can start being unprofessional on my professional blog, because anyone searching for the professional aspects will be led right to them, away from the new chatty bits.

Exciting Updates on RDA

2010-11-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

I've taken a few webinars on RDA, both a free one through ALA called RDA Toolkit: What's New Since August and a paid series, Using RDA: Moving into the Metadata Future. This includes

RDA: Designated for Current and Future Environments and New Models of Metadata. There is a third session in that trilogy called RDA Vocabularies in the Semantic Web, which I'll link to when I've taken it.

The greatest part is that on one level this all sounds like total gobbledy gook to me but on another level I really get it, and it's exciting.

The worst part is that RDA Toolkit is designed for use in a web environment, not a text environment, and so if I want to learn more about it, I have to pay $195 to get a one-user subscription. The text version is $150, I think. But it isn't meant to be used and interacted with as text.

There are so many things going on and I'll try to explain as best as I can.

RDA is being translated while it's being developed, and is open to any other translations anyone wants to do. It's being conceived in a semantic web vocabulary and uses more of a digital way of thinking than AACR2 does.

RDA is meant to be used with an XML encoding schema (instead of MARC).

RDA is making MARC go away. So all the questions about RDA and MARC are being answered with roundabout responses because it's like trying to attach street car lines to carriage ruts. It's two different technologies/languages/philosophies. The developers would rather you NOT use MARC please thank you very much.

Now is the time to learn XML. Not because XML is replacing MARC. But because the first encoding schema will be XML, and the next will be some technology we don't know about yet. People will develop RDA Wizard tools like MARC Magician or any program where you just pop in AACR2 info into MARC tags. But knowing XML will help us learn whatever is coming next!

If you attend one of these workshops, please stop asking questions about RDA and MARC. Asking about RDA and AACR2 doesn't help much either: it's time to move on.

RDA will change the way we think about information, as we have changed the way that computers interact with information. It's a very warm relationship, computers and RDA and people. I'm psyched.

Cataloging Tattoos using different schema: Bibliographic Description

2010-05-21T08:48:00.000-04:00

This is a work in progress: check back for updates.

I'm going to try 3 schemas: AACR2 with MARC21, RDA/FRBR, CCO/VRA and CDWA.
Let's start with a bibliographic description. I know, it's not a book.

Title and Statement of Responsibility: We're going to use a descriptive phrase instead of the 'title' of the tattooed image. I'll use my own tattoo(s) as examples.

[Navaho sun symbol] [realia] / Suzanne M. DeGrasse

I tattooed it myself so the subject and s.o.r. are the same. Let's pretend I didn't.

[Navaho sun symbol] [realia] / Dude Withaneedle.

Edition Statement: Well, sometimes people have work re-done/re-inked, or altered. This particular one started out as a dot and underwent many revisions. So I'd estimate this as edition 6. "They" say you don't need edition statements with realia but I think it's useful with this, don't you?

6th ed

Material specific details: This 'edition' was finalized in (approx.) 1988. It is 10 cm by 10 cm. The medium is skin. Human skin. The ink I used was black calligraphy ink. The implement was a sewing needle.

1988 (Rochester, NY: Dude's Tattoo Blunderland)
Black Calligraphy ink on human skin
Hmmm. I'm not sure if I need to put the method (needle) in here or the size or wait until the physical description.

Publication, Distribution: nope.
Physical Description:

10 mm x 10 mm
image is of one central dot surrounded by a circle. 8 2 to 3 mm lines extend out from the circle in each compass direction: N,S, E, W, NW, SW, NE, SE
image is oriented so that it can be viewed from any angle
located on inner left ankle directly on top of ankle joint (yeah, oww)
black ink inserted subcutaneously with a 5 cm sewing needle

It might be nice if someone drew me a picture of what I described so I can see if I did it accurately. You can use Word and just attach or email it. If anyone (ANYONE) does I will then take a photo and we can see the similarities to the real thing!

Notes: Ahh, notes. The sad little realm of the MARC21 realia cataloger. Oh 500, how we love you. Here we cram the important stuff like:

Dude Withaneedle (1969-)
Suzanne M DeGrasse (1970-)
Original design was a simple dot. Further renderings included a larger dot; a dot with a circle around it; an eyeball; and a compass rose. When subject saw the Navaho sand carvings in Albuqueque NM in 1997 she recognized her design as that of a Navaho sun symbol.

What else might we put in here?

How To Catalog a Tattoo

2010-05-12T08:57:00.000-04:00

Some questions to ask:

1. Is it still on the person?

2. Is the person still alive?

3. Is it the design, the placement, the method, the tattooer or the person-as-canvas that we are cataloging?

4. How many points of access do we want before it gets too confusing?

Japanese tattooed men have been known to donate their skin-as-canvas after their death to museums: I'm going to see how they are cataloged there.

Toyko Medical Museum-Article by Ben Hill

Probably as works of art.

I looked on WorldCat and found two cataloged tattoos, as well as a record for probably a temporary tattoo:

http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/ephemeraextremus/lists/1720151

Trivialliteratur and Ephemera

2010-05-12T08:33:00.000-04:00

A German genre, so to speak, of literature, also so to speak. from answer.com:

Trivialliteratur, term for long loosely applied to light literature appealing to popular taste. Since the 1960s a number of theories have suggested a more constructive use, the major trend being its dissociation from aesthetically subjective approaches (see Kitsch) and its integration into the historical assessment of literary periods, e.g. their changing communication structures and value judgements (H. Kreuzer and J. Schulte-Sasse). (See also Rezeptionsästhetik.) Historical examples include, for example, the Ritter- und Räuberroman. The terms Trivialfilm and Triviallied have the same romantic and escapist connotations.

Trivialfilm=chick flicks? monster movies?
Trivilalied=Pop music?
Trivialding? (ding is German for 'thing', if we're going to stay in a Teutonic vein)

Weird Stuff Gets Its Own Day

2010-03-06T09:01:00.001-05:00

http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day

The difference between Realia and Ephemera

2010-02-06T18:52:00.000-05:00

First, some standard dictionary definitions for those people.

Realia: Objects that are real. Objects that teach you about the real world. ~~Manipulative~~ Manipulatable, three-dimensional things. Usually refers to games, educational objects, toys, models. Realia is generally non-print: not paper, audio, or visual mediums.

Ephemera: "The minor transient objects of everyday life".
Informational/educational objects that either do not last for a long time or were not intended to last for a long time, such as tickets. Usually refers to printed matter, since paper breaks down relatively quickly (as compared to, say, stone).

Read on, oh curious one....

In AACR2, Realia has a chapter. It has a general material descriptor. Ephemera does not. A brief record is not going to scream Ephemera at you: it's location might tip you off (George Carlin Fortune Cookie Fortune Collection, 2nd floor), it's measurements (0.25 linear feet), or maybe a nice cataloger put ephemera in the 655 field.
Measurements for ephemera (and realia sometimes) are a little weird. Instead of referring to the exact dimensions of each item, it refers to the amount of space the item(s), as part of a collection, take up.
This is good. It would be very hard to determine the thickness of a piece of paper without calipers on every desk.
So the cataloger puts a bunch of ephemera in a box and puts that box with some other boxes (all archival quality, of course) and then measures how much space they take up. In the record for that BOX, they give you an overview, as inclusive as possible but not exhaustive, or what kind of specimens are in there.
Now here's something interesting. "The collection consists of a few of the clippings, correspondence, awards, photos, printed material and ephemera".
Clippings, correspondence, awards, and vaguely defined printed material ARE ephemera. Is there something in this collection that is more ephemeral than that? Some air?

I like this :

655	_7 \|a Clippings (information artifacts). \|2 aat

I personally have several collections of information artifacts I need to put in my scrapbook.

I'll talk about specimens, the Descriptive Catalog of Rare Materials, grey literature, Rules for Archival description, later.

What is an acronym for a hiccup?

2010-01-20T22:00:00.009-05:00

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?

Prickly Cataloging Issues in Realia Part Two

2010-01-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Scent-lab

How do, howto!

2010-01-14T11:48:00.000-05:00

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).

Prickly Cataloging Issues in Realia Part One

2009-12-18T17:46:00.001-05:00

These are from the Instructable website: they're called Antagonistic Books. The first one is called Curiosity:

It can only be opened once, due to a rachet welded to the cover. What a cataloging nightmare: once it's opened, it can never resume it's original shape, so do you catalog it with the unopened or opened dimensions? Probably opened, since I'd assume that is how it will spend the majority of it's time, unless it immediately got shunted to a closet an archive that no one looked in. And it is our mission to prevent this, yes?

ANTAGONISTIC BOOKS: Curiosity - How To make a book that can only be opened once - More DIY How To Projects

The second one is called Danger: a book that sets itself on fire. Now what physical dimensions would you use? And where on earth would you shelve it???

ANTAGONISTIC BOOKS: Danger - How To make a book that sets itself on fire - More DIY How To Projects

Interesting mention of this blog

2009-12-15T17:47:00.001-05:00

QUICK T.S.: Bits and Pieces

My blog is for experienced catalogers? ! ? Cool!

Officially a Librarian

2009-12-15T17:44:00.003-05:00

with a real degree and everything.

The Difference Between MARC and AACR2

2009-12-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

Providing straight answers to some FAQs that lead people to my blog...

Quick and Dirty answer:

AACR2 is a way to write out information so people everywhere can understand what you are describing.

MARC is a way to write out information so you can transfer it to a computer database.

Read on, if you like!

AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd revision) is a standardized way to describe an item for categorizing and cataloging purposes. You have a choice of words, and you use those so everyone else knows what you are talking about. There is a standardized way of writing it with punctuation. (I'm sure someone else could tell you why, probably for the same reason, so all catalog records look the same.) AACR2 helps you figure out what you need to know about an item to describe and categorize it well enough so that other people can find it. Finding things is very, very important. I know that sounds like I'm oversimplifying it, you aren't an idiot. But really: spelling and controlled vocabulary and access points (the first thing you type in to get you to that record) make or break our mission. You follow the rules and then write it in the ISBD format (International Standard Book Description) An AACR2 record looks like this:

Title proper = parallel title : other title information / first statement of responsibility ; each subsequent statement of responsibility. - Edition statement / statement of responsibility relating to the edition. - Place of publication : publisher, date of publication.-Pagination : illustration ; dimensions + accompanying material. - (Series)

Note.

Example:

Joe likes eggs = Jose se gusta los huevos : this is not a yolk / Ferdinand, Franz ; Norton, Edward. - Second edition / with introduction by The Egg Board of Alabama. - Hot Coffee : Chicken Printers Unlimited, 2009. -344 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. - (Alabaman Animal Product Propaganda Society Book Series)

Censorship rating : Material may not be suitable for vegetarians.

ISBN : 9780231676221

$5.00

**********************************************************************************

MARC21 is absolutely nothing like AACR2. It's like HTML for catalog records. It's a transfer format. It's a computer language, but only for libraries. You stick certain information that you created using the AACR2 (or another set of rules) into these database-boxes (there are even MARC wizards, you just plug what you know in and poof!) and feed it to the computer and the computer spits out what was in your original record, but in a manner that other library computers can read. Basically.

MARC is ONLY in libraries. AACR2 is used in other places. The old card catalog cards? The typewritten ones? They didn't use MARC.

For me, MARC doesn't provide enough ways for me to create access points for realia records. There's no author or publisher or edition when it comes to a blade of grass. You have to stick it all in the 500s, the notes.

Our MARC record:

(lots of numbers and letters and ##s and stuff at the beginning usually generated by your computer program so you don't have to worry about it)

020##$a9780231676221 :$c$5.00

043##$sd-us---

1001#Ferdinand, Franz.

1001#Norton, Edward.

24510$aJoe likes eggs = Jose se gusta los huevos : $bthis is not a yolk

250##$a2nd edition / with introduction by The Egg Board of Alabama.

260##$aHot Coffee, AL:$bChicken Printers Unlimited,$c2009

300##$a344 p. :$bill. ; $c30 cm.

490##$aAlabaman Animal Product Propaganda Society Book Series.

500##Censorship rating : Material may not be suitable for vegetarians.

Keep in mind that only do library school students have to type this all out: a program will do it for you (for the most part) (unless you like this).

Recommended titles:

-Learn Descriptive Book Cataloging, Mary Mortimer.

The AACR2 itself. You can look at mine.

CDWA record for a hiccup

2009-12-06T20:49:00.001-05:00

Object/work	Catalog Level: item Type: physical activity
Classification	Terms: physical activity-hiccup
Title or Names	Text: A Hiccup Preference: preferred Type: descriptive
Creation	Creator description: Suzanne DeGrasse (American, contemporary)
	Identity: DeGrasse, Suzanne Role: Information Scientist
	Statement: I drank too much soda pop.
	Creation Date: October 27, 2009, 10:00:01-10:00:03 Earliest: 2009 Latest: 2009
	Creation place/original location: Pocataligo, GA, United States, 612.26’02’758’152’05
Measurements	Dimensions Description: 1 hiccup lasting .02 seconds
	Value:.02 Unit: seconds Type: time
Materials and Techniques	Description: hiccuping
	Material Name: personalia Technique Name: swallowing, inhaling, exhaling Implement: larynx, diaphragm, lungs
Subject Matter	Indexing Terms: hiccup, hiccups,
Descriptive note	Text : A single hiccup issued forth suddenly by a haywire electrical impulse directed at the diaphragm
Current location	Repository Name/Geographic Location: not applicable

I FOAFed myself

2009-12-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

Friend Of A Friend is like MARC21 for people. I think if enough people FOAFed themselves we'd get a much better idea of how interconnected we all are.
Of course, we might not want to know.
I think we can combine FOAFing with library records and get some amazing results.
However, I do not know where to put my foaf.rdf so it's kind of useless.

http://semanticweb.org/wiki/FOAF

Wonderful Weirdness in the Smithsonian Catalogs

2009-11-20T23:13:00.098-05:00

Out of a possible 2, 297, 354 records, I am going to look at the following that I find curiosity-piquing.
If it turns out they aren't, I'll cross them off. If they pan out, they'll get linked.
Searching by TYPE, not subject...
Starting from fewest number of records (1) to highest:

Wheelbarrows-only one, and it's red!

(I guess because so much depends on it)

Seating Charts

Pillows

Palm Prints (aka dermatoglyphics)

Orderly Books (as opposed to disorderly?)these are really just order books

Miniature Books

(Meh.) (However, this here is a special miniature book exhibition slide show curated by Barbara Zuckerman that I found quite absorbing and inspiring)

Holograms-One-and it's a KKK image

Wickets-yes, as in Croquet

Report Cards

Accident Reports

Festschriften (learned about these in library school)

Fake Books (these will probably turn out to be music)(yup)

Coloring Books-fun!

Stickers-In Lakota!

Love Letters(not from anyone I know)

Direct Mail

(this has got to be interesting: direct mail cataloged in the Smithsonian?)

Yes! It is very cool!
"Unsolicited mail received by Ellen Wells during two twelve month periods, 1976-1977 and 1980-1981. Ms. Wells kept all materials received during these periods as a sample of the changing use of this mass communication medium. Ms. Wells received the first group in Ithaca, New York, and the latter in Alexandria, Virginia. This collection provides a substantial sample of materials used in direct mail advertising and solicitation. These techniques of mass communication have became increasingly sophisticated and more widely used in recent years and the products of these techniques--commonly called "junk mail"--are ubquitious in contemporary society."

Bombs- 4 of them!!!

Yarn Drawings
(of or with?) These are all Huichol artifacts

Apologetics(sorry)(boring)(sorry)

Birthday Cards

Recipes(You'd think this was interesting but it wasn't. However,The Southampton Diet Book is cataloged in the Smithsonian, god knows why)

Placemats???Wow!

Blogs

Cottages(Just photos, I thought there might be the whole building)

Bumper Stickerssadly, boring, nothing too memorable from a layman's perspective)

Wrappers-Really Weird Soap!

Floating Nut!

Big Master!

Sunny Monday!

Minute Books

Underwear-Apollo Spacecraft Cooling Underwear!

Decals

Postal Money Orders- oldest from 1863, and I also found something called encased postage, a token for Ayer's Cathartic Pills with part of a stamp glued (?) on the back.

Three-Dimensional Objects-there were only 7 records listed as this type, so it's not a popular cataloging term. Almost everything is three-dimensional, except for an image, or what is IN the image, since the object the image is on is three-dimensional. And if you took a photo of a photo, then it would be a 3-D image of a 2-D image, but there's still some 3-D going on in there.

Ephemerides(?) (Moon and Stars and Sun charts)

Questionnaires

MenusLunch on a Zeppelin, anyone?

Comic Books-some from 1889

Wind Tunnels (where do they store them?!)(Darn, all are just models)

Rituals-Native American Potlach sound recordings!

Animal Husbandry Equipment-mostly tack, but here is a llama rope

Impellers(apparently a variation on a PROpeller)

Paralectotypes(don't know what this is either) (oh, it's an entomology word)(but there are some nice squashed bug slides)

Noisemakers

One Hundred and Ninety One Unmanned Spacecraft!!!

Souvenirs, Headgear, People

Little Magazines-
this led me to the Museum of Temporary Art, which is right up my alley. "Little" isn't in reference to size, although they may be smaller than the typical literary magazine. The little refers to the scope and the audience, in that it reaches/serves a smaller range and can have a narrower literary focus.

Personalia, Footwear, Food, Specimens

I am compelled to point out the two typos:
Skectchbooks
Baloons

Fantastic Realia on WorldCat

2009-11-20T22:37:00.000-05:00

I've created a list on World Cat called Fantastic Realia. Into it I'm sticking every catalog record that strikes my fancy, all realia, except for a few zines I was actually involved in (they make me feel kind of special). Unlike these people, Fumiko Coyne, Judy DeBuse, and Gail Grocott, I am not actually cataloged. The second I get a chance, you know I will. I'm already in Wikipedia.
I particularly enjoyed finding Daniel Webster's socks, a taxidermied bear whom I happen to know is named Luego, and a Literary Lager, it's bottle emptied of its contents by an unnamed, uncataloged collaborator.

Riddle me this:
Why does spell check believe cataloged to be properly spelled without the U, but uncatalogued WITH??? Do only British people uncatalog things?

I am so happy to know that not only do other people catalog very, very strange things, but that out of 1.4 billion items on WorldCat only 27,752 are realia. Which means there is a place for me in this world.

Catalog record for Daniel Webster's SOCKS!!!!

2009-11-18T23:02:00.000-05:00

Socks. (Object/artifact)
[WorldCat.org]

Cataloging the Weird Stuff

2009-11-18T19:54:00.001-05:00

Finally! I found something!

Cataloging the Weird Stuff

View more presentations from nanettedonohue.

CDWA and CONA and CCO

2009-11-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

Of course, this being an independent study, I have no one off which to bounce things and no guaranted place/person to turn to for answers.
I'm trying to catalog a hiccup with CCO/CDWA now, and in my searching for any models to base mine on I am finding there are no catalog records of things that happened: there are records of the things that recorded the thing happening. Even under performance art, or events, the record is for a visual recording of the art/event. NOT the event itself. And when I search it the Getty vocabularies and such I do find ephemera, but that is stil just recorded things: papers, videosrecordings. Not the thing itself.
I know you can catalog realia as itself, e.g., a meteorite. Not a photo of it, or a video or a book, but the thing itself.
Why can't I find a way to catalog an event...the actual event itself?

Bibliographic Control Alphabet Soup: AACR to RDA and the Evolution of MARC; a webinar report

2009-11-10T19:57:00.002-05:00

These are my raw notes and will be updated and cleaned out....

Wednesday. October 14, 2009
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Sponsored by NISO: the National Information Standards Organization
Speakers:
Barbara Tillett, btil@loc.gov
Diane L. Hillmann, metadata.maven@gmail.com
William E Moen,william.moen@int.edu
some acronyms you'll encounter
IFLA: the International Federation of Library Associations
FRBR: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
RDA: Resource and Description Access
ISBD: International Standard Bibliographic Description
FRBR was first published in 1998

users tasks
new view of universe
groups and things
networks
data elements and attributes

RDA was born from IFLA's cataloging principles and FRBR
In 2002 the draft for AACR3 was started: this evolved into RDA.
ICP, International Cataloging Principles, was developed between 2002 and 2003. It was posted in February of 2009 and has been translated into 20 languages.
The world wanted cataloging rules that were defensible, not arbitrary.
Designed to build catalogers judgement of decsription and access.
The metadata for publishers is called ONIX.
Also incolved:
DublinCore and IEEE/LOM
RDA/MARC working group (MARBI)
RDA is web based
FRAD: Functional Requirements for Authority Data
Work, Expression, Manifestation and Item: that's what FRBR works with
Transcription: principle of Representation
No More Abbreviating!!!
no more "et al"
no more "s.l." or "s.n."
No more GMD (General material Description)
instead, Content, Media and Carrier
new MARC fields: 336, 337 and 338
RDA is not a display standard (MARC is)
No more "polyglot"
more data in the authority records
FRAD helped RDA a lot

In the past we had a very small view, now it is broader. We have an expanded bibliographic universe. We need to show more connections, relationships and pathways.

RDA is a change in technology, in focus and in view.
Metadata created with RDA can be used beyond the library.
Catalogs will no longer be isolated because they will all be online. There will be global access to data.
Coding and mapping tables
registered controlled vocabulary
more open source
LCSH uses SKOS as their controlled vocabulary
(Library of Congress Subject Headings use Simple Knowledge Organization Schema)

We are moving beyond MARC into a linked data environment. We will be able to re-use metadata.
Westarted out with a card catalog, written by had, on paper cards.
We moved to MARC inside buildings, but not online (because there wasn't "online" yet)
Now all data can be linked on the web.

VIAF: Virtual International Authority File
It's a mashup of data from 15 International institutions
gives us a view of published aaes
variants of names
send a comment
uses MARC21 and UNIMARC and OCLC
Diane Hillmann says we are moving away from MARC and towards information ecosystems. MARC is only used in libraries and no one else wants to use it.
Libraries need to be participating in universal descriptive metadata.
Dbpedia: a community effort to extract structured information from Wikipedia and to make this information available on the Web. DBpedia allows you to ask sophisticated queries against Wikipedia, and to link other data sets on the Web to Wikipedia data
Libraries and our information is not being utilized.
Volunteers helped create the RDA vocabulary.
entity-relationship diagrams

RDF and XML vocabularies are encoding standards.
Semantic Web Community helped with RDA.
NSDL (National Science Digital Library) registry supports metadata interoperability.
Aggregated Statements
The library community can support innovation and change with the rest of the world.
RDA elements and vocabularies will help in the migration from MARC.
MARC is a "lossy output format" and can't convey as rich a description.
metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm

William Moen did an analysis of record use from 2005 to 2007.
MARC was supposed to be just a transfer format but it turned into a metadata scheme.

data driven evidence for a core bibliographic metadata record. We need to express and represent bibliographic data in XML and RDF.
MARC has 200 fields and 800 subfields.
Only 4% of fields account for 80% of all records.
He examined 56 million records from OCLC World Cat. Only 62 records of non-Library of Congress-cataloged realia out of the 73,000 realia records.
Only 7 MARC tags were used in all records. There was only ONE occurrence of 656 field out of 56 million records!!!
In an LC created record typically 7 fields and 10 field/subfields combinations were used.
In a non-LC created record, 10 fields and 18 field/subfield combinations were recorded.
Most used fields were:
8, 10, 43, 245, 246, 260, 300, 500, 650, 700.

empirical evidence indicates catalogers utilization of MARC fields is not directly aligned with the fields prescribed by BIBCO, CONSER and National Bibliographic records.
We need to look at what catalogers are doing before we change what we are telling them to do.
Some questions:
What does the low occurrence of fields suggest?
What is needed from FRBR for a bib record?
Should there be higher value data in fewer fields?
Can we argue persuasively for the cost/benefit of exisiting rpactices?
Do we know the extent of and which content designation structures are needed to support a usre atsk?
What constitutes a core record?

www.mcdu.unt.edu/wp-content
Amy Eklund
core elements analysis 3 May 2006

The borderless world of cataloging/cataloguing

2009-10-28T19:51:00.002-04:00

Out of the last 20 visitors to my blog, only 6 were from the United States.
Hello and thank you, international people.

MARC21 Record for a Hiccup

2009-10-27T18:06:00.013-04:00

001 0001
003 gatl
005 200910271651
040 ## $agatl
043 ## $an-us-ga
045 0# $ay109 $b2009102716
082 04 $a612.26’02’758’152’05
100 1# $aDeGrasse, Suzanne. $d1970-
130 2# $aA Hiccup[realia] $f2009. $gSingultus.
180 ## $xSingultus
240 12 $aA Hiccup $f2009. $gSingultus.
245 12 $aA Hiccup. $cSuzanne DeGrasse $fOctober 27, 2009, 10:00:01-10:00:03
246 11 $aA Hiccough
300 ## $aOne Second. $b12dB
520 ## $aA single hiccup issued forth suddenly by a haywire electrical impulse directed at the diaphragm of Suzanne DeGrasse at 16:51 on October 27, 2009, in Madison County, Georgia.
650 #0 $aHiccups. $vRealia $zMadison County, Georgia
650 #0 $y2009
656 #7 $aArchivist.$2dot.
680 ## $iA single hiccup issued forth suddenly by a haywire electrical impulse directed at the diaphragm accompanied by a sharp intake of air which creates a glottal sound characterized by the phoneme "hic".

(please notice the use of 656)
(n.b. record may be incorrect, do not quote me unless it is verified)

So, what IS the difference between AACR2, RDA, DDC, LC, FRBR, CCO and MARC? (and we're adding in ICP and CDWA-Lite)

2009-10-26T21:36:00.001-04:00

Guidelines for Cataloging:

with structures such as:

Controlled Vocabulary

Establishment of Authority and subsets

Some form of linking data

Established Relationships between data

Widespread use across borders and fields of study

keywords:

is represented by:

CCO for art, music, museum-housed items

AACR2 for text, recorded materials, and sometimes realia

RDA, which is what AACR3 turned into

Dublin Core (metadata terms, not specific items)

ICP and

maybe

FRBR,(and FRANAR and FRASAD and ...) the rules for RDA

Guidelines for Shelving:

with structures such as:

numerical representation

alphabetical representation

divisions by subject, location, time period, other specifics

keywords:

is represented by:

DDC

LCC

Guidelines for Syncing Bibliographic Data with Electronic Resources:

with structures such as:

Binary or numerical representation of order and placement

Structured syntax

Proscribed punctuation

keywords: metadata, framework, data sets, metadata element set, interoperability

is represented by:

MARC

CDWA-Lite (Categories for the Descriptions of Works of Art)

VRA Core XML

MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)

Futurism

2009-10-22T18:54:00.002-04:00

Soon (or, "soon") we will have computers without keyboards. We will just talk. Except those who cannot speak due to a speech impediment or muteness. or deaf people. Hmmm. Maybe that's good news for carpal tunnel sufferers but not for others.
Soon (ibid) we will have everything imbedded with computerness and so you can touch the wall and it will tell you all about it's wallness.
Someday we will insert nanobots into our brains and speak fluent foreign languages.
Right now, I just want to know if I can catalog a cake pan with RDA, or with FRBR, or MARC or CCO or this new co-operative cataloging wiki.
No one seems to know the answer.
Here's another question: Why can't the Smithsonian, due to financial and technological constraints, catalog many of its realia collections?

The difference between AACR, LOC, DDC, FRBR, CCO, MARC and RDA

2009-10-15T22:03:00.310-04:00

Just in case you were wondering.
Because I was.

AACR

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
Designed for use in the construction of catalogues and other lists in general libraries of all size.
Follow the sequence of cataloguers' operations in most present-day libraries and bibliographic agencies.
Proceed from general to specific details.
Covers rules for books, cartographic materials, manuscripts, music, sound recordings, motion pictures and videorecordings, graphic materials, electronic resources, three-dimensional artifacts and realia, microforms and continuing resources.
Developed for use by libraries in Canada, The United States and The United Kingdom.
Uses structured punctuation; in fact, is very concerned with and focused on punctuation

LOC

Primary Responsibility stems from the CDS, Cataloging Distribution Service
Uses The Cataloger's Destop: "a revolutionary cataloging tool created by the Library of Congress, using Folio software"
A limited list of resources found in the Cataloger's Desktop:

LCRI (Library of Congress Rule Interpretations)
Library of Congress Classifications and Subject Headings
AACR2
MARC 21
OLAC (Authority Tools for Audiovisual and Music Catalogers)
BISAC Subject Headings (Book Industry Study Group)
CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects)
OCLC
CONSER
Cutter-Sanborn Tables
UNIMARC
CSDGM (Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata)
DCMI (DublinCore Metadata Initiative)
Erklärung zu Internationalen Katalogisierungsprinzipien (I just like that word)
IASA (International Association for Sound and Audiovisual Archives)
ISAD (International Standard Archival Description)
ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description)
SEPIADES: Recommendations for Cataloguing Photographic Collections
FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

DDC

Dewey Decimal Classification
Currently we are on the 22nd revision
Is a division of the Library of Congress (!) Ok, so why does the LC not use the DDC?
Is a hierarchical classification system, proceeding from general to specific
Comprised of 10 classes (100-900) plus 000 for generalalities (ufo's and librarians)

Each class is divided into 10 divisions
Each division is divided into 10 sections
the numbers following the decimal point refer to notations regarding more specific aspects of the subject such as location, time period, and language.

FRBR

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
Developed by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) between 1992-1995
Evolved out of the AACR3 revision but ended up as a separate entity rather than an update of terminology only (see RDA)
Is very conceptual and visual rather than concrete like AACR (which is very much an if/then model) and is useful as a system, as well as a method of organizing information for access.
Works well with the Web and web based resources
Has three main 'Entities'

Group One:

'Work', 'Expression', 'Manifestation' and 'Item'.

Group Two (responsible for Group One)

Person' and 'Corporate Body'

Group Three (subjects of Group One and/or Two)

'Concept', 'Object', 'Event' and 'Place'.

Deals with 'Bibliographic Relationships'

Inherant
Content

Equivalent
Derivative
Descriptive

Whole/Part and Part to Part

Sequential
Companion
Aggregation

Assigns User Tasks, which are Cutter's Objects, evolved

Find
Identitfy
Select
Obtain
Navigate

Off shoots are:

FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data
FRSAR (Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records)
FRANAR (Functional Requirements and Numbering for Authority Record

CCO

Cataloging Cultural Objects
Developed by the Visual Resources Association as a guide for describing cultural works (architecture, art, dance, music etc.) and their images (photographs, paintings, etc.)
Contains rules for formatting data, suggestions for required information, controlled vocabulary requirements, and display issues.
Can be a complement to AACR2 or completely separate.
Leaves leeway for the cataloger and the individual institution to adapt the rules so that their particular data set can be retrieved, repurposed and exchanged effectively and efficiently.
Deals with Works and Images

sometimes an image is an image of a work, sometimes the image is a work in itself. They can be both, simultaneously: the difference is found in the particular level of cataloging and access point.

Deals with Specificity and Exhaustivity

allows and encourages catalogers to be as descriptive as possible, within time, space and funding constraints. Less is not more, it is less.

Like FRBR, deals with Relationships between things:

Intrinsic
Whole/Part
Group and Collection
Series
Componants

Extrinsic

like AACR2's "see also"

Like FRBR is also a very visual model with the relationships between entities shown as flow charts, with reciprocity
Has required elements (not required but listed are in 2nd level bullet)

Work Type
Title

language

Creator
Controlled Creator
Role
Measurements
Materials and Techniques

Type
Technique
Color
Extent
Edition
State
Inscription
Facture
Physical Description
Condition
Conservation History
Style
Culture

Date: earliest and latest
Current Location

creation location
discovery location
former location

Subject

extent and subject type
Class
Description

View Description
View Type
View Subject
Personal and Corporate Name
Names
Biography
Birth and Death date
Nationality
Life Roles
Sources

gender
earliest and latest activity
related people
events

Geographic Place
Names
Place Type
Broader Context
Sources

coordinates
dates
related places
relationship type

Concept
Terms
Broader Context
Note
Sources

term qualifier
dates
related concepts
relationship type

Subject
Names
Sources
Broader Context

related keywords
related subjects
related geographic places
related people
related concepts
relationship type

MARC

Machine Readable Cataloging
A standardized way to format bibliographic information so that when entered into a computer it creates an understandable record for the item.
Currently in its 21st revision since being developed by the Library of Congress in the 1960's
Pre-web, pre-a lot of things.
Has both variable and fixed fields
200 Fields numbered from 001 to 880
001 to 099 are fixed fields containing standard numbers, classification numbers, codes, and other data elements relating to the record.
800 subfields
999 tags (according to these folks)
subfields convey certain information about the field and are expressed as $a, $c, each delimiter expressing the kind of information found in the following subfield
uses letters and symbols to indicate additional information such as format or additional part of a record
Only 4% of fields account for 80% of all records
In a study done by OCLC, out of 56 MILLION records, only one used the 656 856 field. (

so terribly sorry.

Roy Tennant, Senior Program Manager for OCLC, said "MARC must die"
No entities other than libraries use it
"Lossy Output Format" William Moen said this.
Originally intended as a transfer format (!!!) but ended up as a metadata scheme.

"Of course the importance of using internationally accepted standards is beyond doubt, but there clearly exists widespread misunderstanding of the functions of certain standards, like for instance MARC. MARCis NOT a data storage format. In my opinion MARC is not even an exchange format, but merely a presentation format"

from http://commonplace.net/2009/05/who-needs-marc/.

RDA

Resource Description and Access
created concurrently but separately with ICP, the new IFLA cataloging principles
Utilizes FRBR and FRAD
grew out of AACR3, which was never really created
Web-based
Is not a display standard like MARC but does show visually how data is connected
Includes a broader, expanded view of the bibliographic universe
Two parts: Recording Attributes and Recording Relationships
Shows more connections, relationships and pathways
Change in technology, focus and view
Metadata can be used beyond the library and catalogs will no longer be isolated because they will be online, where there is global access to the data
Has 4 groups

FRBR #1

Work
Expression
Manifestation
Item

FRBR #2

Person
Family
Corporate Body

FRBR #3

Concept
Object
Event
Place

FRAD

Name

Sources and References
I would recommend looking at my previous blog entry titled The Recipe of Alphabet Soup which gives direct links to every site I accessed to write this entry. All texts used are cited below.

Mortimer, Mary. Learn Descriptive Cataloging. 2nd ed. Friendswood, TX: Total Recall, 2007. Print.
Mortimer, Mary. Learn Dewey Decimal Classification. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000.
JSC for revision of AACR. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. 2002 Revision, 2005 update. Chicago: American Library Association, 2005
Taylor, Arlene. Understanding FRBR: what it is an how it will affect our retrieval tools. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.
Baca, Murtha, Patricia Harpring, Elisa Lanzi, Linda McRae, and Ann Whiteside on behalf of the Visual Resources Association. Cataloging Cultural Objects: a Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006
Tillett, Barbara. "What is FRBR?." Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service. (2004): online pamphlet available at http://www.loc.gov/cds/FRBR.html
RDA core elements and description from the American Library Association, updated 06/01/09.

Bibliographic Control Alphabet Soup:AACR to RDA and Evolution of MARC webinar attended live Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 1 PM to 2:30 PM
Slides with correct information that has not been filtered through my thinking processes available at: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2009/bibcontrol09/
lectures given by:
Tillett, Barbara
Hillmann, Diane L.
Moen, William E.

Dr. Moen is the one who gave the Roy Tennant quote.

The Recipe of Alphabet Soup

2009-10-15T22:01:00.005-04:00

The Chefs

NISO: National Information Standards Organization
IFLA: International Federation of Library Associations
DCMI: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
PCC: Program for Co-operative Cataloging
NSDL: National Science Digital Library

The Ingredients

AACR: Anglo-American Cataloging Rules
MARC: Machine Readable Cataloging
ISBD: International Standard Book Description
RDA: Resource Description and Access
FRBR: Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records
FRAD: Functional Requirements for Authority Records
ONIX: Online Information Exchange. A framework used by publishers
XML and RDF: Extensible Markup Language and Resource Description Framework. Two kinds of computer languages, essentially.
SKOS: Simple Knowledge Organization Schema
VIAF: Virtual International Authority File. A mashup of data from 15 international institutions. The semantic web in action.

The Kitchen

The Semantic Web: A place where all data is shared. Freed from application constraints. Kind of like an international metadata Show and Tell and yes, everyone brought enough candy to share with the class.

The chefs

took the ingredients

in the kitchen

and made...

Well, what did they come up with? Not FRBR, those were first published in 1998. (!) Not RDA, that was what the AACR3 turned into, around 2002.

It seems that the ultimate product was a lovely multiligual cake named (the most unfortunate of all the acronyms) ICP.

IFLA published the ICP in February of 2009 ~~and no one has challenged it or made any moves to try any funny stuff since then. I think we can rest a bit, for the cake, she is ready.~~
I stand corrected. There is at least one co-operative cataloging group that seeks to provide a "serious alternative to RDA". They have a wiki up and I've just recently seen several references to it: so it's gaining in popularity, or at least visibility. I'll have to read more before I make my statement of philosophy but right now I don't understand. http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/

Someone left the cake out in the rain.

Bibliographic Control Alphabet Soup: AACR to RDA and Evolution of MARC

2009-10-15T21:25:00.002-04:00

I virtually attended this webinar using my phone and my laptop, in the comfort of my own home, with my dogs all present. What a wonderful thing.
Initially I felt a little overwhelmed and my brain was telling me to sleep, but I perked up and became very absorbed after the first 10 minutes. I took 7 pages of notes which I will turn into a paper of sorts, but I wanted to share some distillation with anyone who happens to stumble upon this blog. Since they light-heartedly named the webinar an alphabet soup, I will keep with that theme.
One warning, though.
This whole THING is based on a "cloud computing" kind of principle. There is a lot of stuff. All stuff is attached to other stuff, and a lot of stuff is attached to other stuff, but not all stuff, and it can get really, really big and it can also get really, really small.
Unless you are familiar with clouds and this kind of world-ordering, nothing is going to make sense. I'm sorry. I struggled to get here.
The further I went and the more detail-oriented I got, the more laden and spaghettied it seemed. I realized just tonight that yes, while there are hundreds of layers to all this, I DON'T HAVE TO BE IN ALL OF THEM.
Essentially I am trying to get a good grasp on RDA and FRBR and how it/they are going to affect the cataloging of ephemera. Better? Worse? Neither? Completely Unrelated?

On to the next blog entry...

Archivist's Toolkit

2009-10-07T22:36:00.004-04:00

Apparently I do not have time right now to be sick. So I have downloaded the opensource software for The Archivist's Toolkit, which, according to the website, is

the first open source archival data management system to provide broad, integrated support for the management of archives. It is intended for a wide range of archival repositories. The main goals of the AT are to support archival processing and production of access instruments, promote data standardization, promote efficiency, and lower training costs.

I also excavated this fact today: that RDA and FRBR will be replacing AACR2 in 2010. FRBR I am learning about, but great, now I have to look up RDA (Resource Description and Access) and totally forget everything I know about AACR2, which I was just getting used to.

616...

2009-10-05T21:09:00.001-04:00

But it's 616.2, not 616.9.
I'm using 612.821 and 641.87 and thank goodness for 391.4!

(I am ill, but it is a cold, not a communicable influenza/H1N1 disease. I'm using sleep and non-alcoholic beverages, and thank goodness for handkerchiefs!))

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBRBRBBBBBRRR)

2009-10-01T17:28:00.001-04:00

Does this look complicated? Does it look a wee bit overwhelming? Am I required to know this? Is FRBR great? Or is it just another way of retrieving information that will have to do until we figure out the ultimate information retrieval tool? Will we ever? Can it just be that there are some ways of sorting and retrieving that work better for some things but not all? Why is my Pug so itchy? Why can't I find very much online about CCO? I like the DDC! I think it's good! I don't know about LC yet because I'm looking more at cataloging and that's more MARC stuff. Am I missing something? Can anyone answer my questions?

Subject Headings that RAWK

2009-09-28T21:06:00.011-04:00

Limited and boring subject headings means your desired item will show up in a sea of boring, unrelated, equally poorly cataloged items. But if you use sparkly subject headings like these, and if more librarians KNOW about them, your delightful and fantastic item will show up with its equally delightful and fantastic peers.

Vade-mecums
or
Handbooks, Vade-mecums, etc.
(the etc. just slays me...it could be anything...Toadstools, Ink Pens, Large Orange Pants)
These are items intended to be carried with you at all times, an indispensible tool/font of knowledge.

Some examples:

What? what? what? astounding, weird, wonderful and just plain unbelievable facts
Author Thomas, Lyn
ISBN 1894379519 Publication Date c2003 Publisher Maple Tree Press
Physical Description print 128 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Life's big instruction book : the almanac of indispensable information
Author Madigan, Carol Orsag.
ISBN 0446517577
Publication Date c1994 Publisher Warner Books
Physical Description print xxv, 881 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

Eccentrics and Eccentricities
(self-defining)

True Brits : a tour of Great Britain in all its bog-snorkelling, shin-kicking, and cheese-rolling glory
Author Daeschner, J. R.
ISBN 158567656X
Publication Date 2005 Publisher Overlook Press Physical Description print 338 p. : ill., 1 map ; 21 cm.
I'd agree that those sound like eccentric activities. We have a Redneck Games here in Dublin, Georgia, where there is a bit of mud puddle jumping.

Bachelor brothers' bed & breakfast pillow book
Author Richardson, Bill
ISBN 155054439X
Publication Date c1995 Publisher Douglas & McIntyre Physical Description print 194 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
The records in PINES (our statewide catalog) doesn't say much but this is a non-fiction title, has had many editions and pressings and shows up in multiple records. So I assume it is quite eccentric.

Essence, Genius, Nature

I got this one from a book I'm using for this study called Magic Search: Getting the Best Results from Your Catalog and Beyond by Kornegay, Rebecca, Heidi E. Buchanan and Hildegard B. Morgan. Published by the ALA in 2009.

It sounds very cool and if you are a religious person you can use it to narrow down what you are looking for in terms of spiritual writings, such as

God is a verb : Kabbalah and the practice of mystical Judaism
Author Cooper, David A.
ISBN 1573226947 Publication Date 1998, c1997 Publisher Riverhead Books

But I'm not religious and this term is limited to such, it seems.

Bildungsroman
These are coming-of-age stories and I generally like them. Just a personal choice, plus it's a cool word.

This is a catalog record for a hiccup

2009-09-26T18:24:00.005-04:00

150 $a Hiccups
450 $a Hiccoughing
450 $a Hiccoughs
450 $a Hiccuping
450 $a Hiccupping
450 $a Singultus
550 $w g $a Spasms
550 $w g $a Symptoms
670 $a Web. 3 $b(hiccup or hiccough; hiccuping also hiccupping, hiccoughing)

I found this in the Library of Congress Subject Headings search, and felt a little deflated. It's been done, well of course it's been done.

BUT what hasn't been done, it seems, is the cataloging of an INDIVIDUAL hiccup.

I spent about an hour going through the fields and subfields and delimiters trying to decipher it all. It isn't available in one place. To find out what the 670 field was I went to The United Nations website (because I googled "MARC tag 670") which told me what it was (the source of the information on this particular item we are speaking of in field 100) but then I had to go to Library of Congress via the UN site because when I searched the LOC in a general kind if manner I got this response about the 670 field:

659 - 679 unassigned (you'd think the LOC wouldn't contradict itself. Or maybe I am missing something. I hope it is that, that i am simply dumb and/or impaired because if the LOC is confused then we're all going to hell in a handbasket)

So eventually I was able to figure out what 670 is.

Now there was the questions of what the two 550 fields were (550 being the "issuing body note", that is, a note from the person who cataloged it. I think.) and what did the subfield $wg mean? For that I went to this part of the LOC which WOW! Had nothing to say about the $w subfield. Surprise!

Somehow I found LOC Tracings which finally told me that $w means a control subfield (which you don't really have to understand) and that $wg means that the word following it is a Broader Term. Which makes sense, spasms are a broader term for hiccups. If there was a narrower term it would be shown as $wh. And then the next subfield within that 550 field, immediately following the $wg is $a The Broader Term itself.

You can also use $wd to show the acronym (I don't think there is one for hiccups), $wa for an earlier heading, maybe $aHonkHonk, and then $wb for a later term like, $aHOoOOoOoo.
You would use these subfields if in the past we refered to and cataloged hiccups as HonkHonks and in the future (I guess you would have to add this to the record later) they are known as HOoOOoOoos. That's in the future, when we mix capital and lowercase letters to indicate an entire additonal 26 character alphabet with perhaps currently unpronounceable sounds.
If you have read this far then you are either a cataloger or you are truly my friend.

Vegetable Garden, cataloged, a start

2009-09-25T19:24:00.003-04:00

082    $a635.13
245    carrot $h [realia] = Daucus Carota var. sativus
300    $aSpecimen: scarlet nantes :
          $bOrganic compounds; orange ;
          $c20 cm. x 25 mm. at top tapering to 5 mm. at base
500    title supplied by seed package
500    Grown from Park's Seed by Suzie DeGrasse
520    Common edible root vegetable grown in gardens and farms for human and animal consumption.
650    $aVegetables; garden crops ; horticulture
651    $aGeorgia $y2009 $zPocataligo

082    $a635.13
245    Zucchini $h[realia] = Curcubita pepo
300    $aSpecimen, Dark Green :
          $bOrganic compounds ; green
          $c27 cm. x 8 cm.
500    Title supplied by seed package
500    Grown from Plantation Seed by Suzie DeGrasse
520    Edible fruit of the squash family grown in gardens and farms for primarily human consumption.
650    $aVegetables ; garden crops ; horticulture
651    $aGeorgia $y2009 $zPocataligo

MARC 21 makes me want to pass out

2009-09-20T12:30:00.001-04:00

I haven't cataloged for about a year. I'm using Unlocking the Mysteries of Cataloging: a Workbook of Examples by Elizabeth Haynes and Joanna F. Fountain to get started cataloging ephemera and things like toys, realia, artifacts, etc. I'm about to fall asleep as I write this. Not necessarily because it's a quiet, rainy Sunday, but because my brain is overwhelmed and wants me to stop right now and just rest. I did exercise 107 in the book and followed the AACR2 rules they said would be needed, but didn't do it in MARC. The records I have seen for ephemera aren't in MARC, and apparently there are so many MARC wizards (programs, not magical people in hats with wands) out there it's a possibility that catalogers don't have to have MARC memorized. I'm in the process of downloading a trial version of MARC Magician from Mitinet to see how that works, and I printed out 10 copies of a MARC template.
So my first record, for Choo-Choo Charlie the Train, was kind of a disaster. Didn't do it in MARC, misunderstood some of the AACR2 rules, the pencil is ugly, and now I am about to keel over and pass out.
I'm going to have to allow my brain this because I'm wasting it's time trying to force it to learn.

Rust, Joseph Cornell and Zines

2009-09-18T00:06:00.026-04:00

I was looking at the CLIR site on Cataloging Hidden Collections and found this cycles grant applicants: none of whom have been awarded anything yet. It looks exciting!

Purdue University Arthur Herbarium
More to come, but this is a library of plant rusts!
I emailed them today (9/18/09) to find the contact for cataloging questions.

Wonderland: The Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection.
This is a library at the Smithsonian of Joseph Cornell's source materials and private library: he's one of my favorite artists.
No url, but I'm going to email the curator tomorrow and see how she does it.
Note to self: always save the url of places you stumble upon because you may never find them again, even after searching for an hour.
Additional note to self: re-read your blog before getting lost looking for something. I looked up and saw CLIR and Cataloging Hidden Collections and said, DUH...because that is where I found the Joseph Cornell Wonderland.
Emailed Caroline Hennessey 9/18/09 while canning tomatoes from the garden, which yes, I have yet to catalog.

Richard Hugo House Zine Archive and Publishing Project (ZAPP)

Oberlin College's Mail Art Collection

Cataloged Soap and Gum

2009-09-17T23:59:00.000-04:00

Description 1 picture album in case ; 12 x 16 cm. + 6 bars of soap

Note Title from case

Edition of 200 copies

Typeface for silkscreen and lithograph in Stone Sans and Stone Serif. Cover embossing and lithograph printing by Stamperia Valdonega of Verona. Linen from Gori Tessuti of Prato, soap from Saponificio A. Gori of Arezzo

Both case and soap are wrapped and tied as indicated in the summary note

Summary "This artists's book tells the story of a young woman in Calabria, Italy during the 1950's, whose real life reads like a fairy tale, or a soap opera, in six installments. In order to give lasting form to this oral history, the reader must release the text, silk-screened on linen pages, from six tiny bars of soap, with numbers imprinted with lead type. After hanging to dry, ironing optional, the rags slot into six acid-free pages with oval die-cuts, through which the text remains visible. The pages are bound with a linen rag into a handmade, cloth-covered album, with the title embossed into a raised oval on the front cover. The book is housed in a matching cloth-covered box, lined with rags and sealed with a color-lithographed soap label."--From the soap bars wrapper

Note Library has two copies, no. 184 of 200 and letter "P" of 200, both signed by the artist

Copy 1 is an intact, pre-performance set, the linen pages still encased in 6 bars of soap and not yet inserted into cloth-covered album. Copy 2 is a performance set, used by the artist to demonstrate how to assemble the book. Copy 2 includes fragments of soap used in demonstration at Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, Nov. 2, 2006

Includes explanatory 5-page "Soap story recap," written by the artist

Angela Lorenz was a visitor to CC as part of the show "Book as object: an international survey of sculptural bookworks," November 2006

Subject Artists' books -- Italy

Link to: Soap Record

Description 4 sticks of gum ; 2 x 8 cm

Note Cover title

Four sticks of chewing gum, each in inner and outer wrappers, the whole in printed wrapper with pull string (dental floss)

A "performance book," with aphorisms from Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, and the I Ching printed on both sides of sticks of gum, to be read, chewed, and reflected upon

Includes gum chewed by the artist at Coburn Gallery opening, November 2, 2006

Includes author's explanatory statement, and text of words that appear on chewing gum

"First edition of 50 copies"--Laid-in description

Angela Lorenz was a visitor to CC as part of the show "Book as object: an international survey of sculptural bookworks," November 2006

Subject Artists' books -- Italy

Link to Chewing Gum Book Record

Tim Berners-Lee

2009-09-15T22:44:00.002-04:00

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. I thought it wasn't something inventable. Alternately, I though Al Gore invented it. (No, I know he didn't. He invented the Internet.)

From 025.431: The Dewey Decimal Blog

2009-09-15T22:33:00.001-04:00

This is a very neat blog which is RESPLENDENT with question-beggers. T1s and hierarchical force and sentences that make sense to them like "you are taken out of that by the reference at...". Thank goodness there's a glossary. I had to look this one up:

Scatter note
A class-elsewhere, see-reference or relocation note that leads to multiple locations in the DDC. See also Class-elsewhere note; Relocation; See reference.

I guess it's a see-also. And I "see-also" that I made a typo in my comment on the blog! Arrgh! How embarrassing!
I'm at the point where I haven't received any feedback or emails from my professor who is grading me on this independent study and so have no reference other than a self-referential sort of feeling as to whether I am doing enough or not enough while teaching myself this. I have hits from all over the country: but most of them friends that are politely viewing it (and saying "whaaa...huh?") and my librarian friends. I haven't cataloged the carrot yet, I'm not procrastinating, I'm amassing. One exciting thing is that if you google the phrase, without quotes, how to catalog ephemera, this blog shows up on the first page of hits! Maybe I will find someone else who is attempting the same thing. I am sure I am not unique in this endeavor and it has been done before, I just can't find them. Maybe they're in Bolivia and they have cataloged those little purple potatoes.
Now I'm going to have to read the entire glossary.

Classification by attraction

The classification of a specific aspect of a subject in an inappropriate discipline, usually because the subject is named in the inappropriate discipline but not mentioned explicitly in the appropriate discipline.

what?

Some articles and websites to check out

2009-09-14T17:44:00.001-04:00

Cataloging Hidden and Special Collections

The Emergence of Ephemera

Controlled Vocabulary Is Often Quite Helpful

How to Catalog Your Masonic Library

Do You Have a Restless Urge to Catalog???

How to Catalog Zines

How to Catalog Props and Consumeables

The California Ephemera Project Blog

Someone's Paper on Ephemera

Cataloging of audiovisual materials and other special materials a manual based on AACR2 and MARC 21

2009-09-11T21:43:00.001-04:00

The only useful chapter for me was 10, p. 265-281, Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia. It was essentially a restating of the AACR2 rules, but in a different verbiage and more detail, although that wasn't necessary. It's very helpful from a MARC cataloging standpoint and I will be saving my notes for future reference, when I do MARC cataloging of carrots and hiccups and such. Here is one paragraph that demystifies an AACR2 phrase I wondered about:

"Artefacts not intended primarily for communication." This phrase is used in 10.4C2 through 10.4F2. The intent of the phrase is unclear. For example, a Civil War-era cannonball is an artifact, and definitely communicates something about the horrors of war. Ben Tucker explains: "I remember rather clearly the discussion that went into the formulation of the rule. The words 'not intended for communication' mean nothing more than 'not published,' or 'not issued in an edition.' Another term that might have serves is 'not commercially available in multiple copies.' (Ben R. Tucker, LC, letter to Nancy Olson, Dec.17, 1984)

Unlocking the mysteries of cataloging: a workbook of examples

2009-09-11T21:39:00.000-04:00

Oooooooooooooooooh this loooooooooooooooookssssssssssssss wonderful!!!!!
I found a bunch of exercises directly related to ephemera!!!!
I'll be doing exercises 107 through 116, 119, 122, 129 and 130. I'll post the results and a few here.

The future of cataloging : insights from the Lubetzky symposium : April 18, 1998, University of California, Los Angeles

2009-09-11T21:35:00.009-04:00

'Modeling Relevance in Art History', Sara Shatford Lane, p. 33

The first task, then, was to figure out what art historians are studying; the second, to figure out what the attributes of art works are; the third, to figure out how to match up the two; and the fourth and final, to analyze the data.

'Creating Efficient and Systematic Catalogs', Allyson Carlyle, p. 42

Tillett's Taxonomy of Bibliographic Relationships as a Scheme for Display

Equivalence Relationships, including:

equivalent texts, which share identical content and authority
near equivalents, which in addition to identical content and authorship, share other characteristics as well honestly, I can't understand this pair of sentences. Why are 'near equivalents' more alike than equivalents? Do I not understand the word 'equivalent'? I always thought 'equi' was relating to equal, or the same. Or it's related to horses.

Derivative Relationships, including:

revisions
adaptations
translations
extractions
amplifications

Whole-Part Relationships
Sequential relationships
Descriptive Relationships
Shared Characteristic Relationships

The standard catalog entry and how it can be applied to a carrot

2009-09-01T22:06:00.010-04:00

Some explanatory notes:

Black Ink text comes from my notes on the AACR2 Standard Rules ~~striken-through~~ means I realized it was not used for carrots.
Green Ink text comes from my notes on how it can be applied to a carrot
Red Ink text denotes further reading from the AACR2 chapter on Artefacts and Realia. (yes, artEfacts, it means an object made or modifies by one or more persons) (no, artEfacts is just the British way of spelling artIfacts, it isn't a different thing)
Important: spelling the word carrot too many times makes it never looked spelled correctly.

Title and Statement of Responsibility what would the title of a vegetable be? AACR2 says if it is Realia, a brief descriptive title is ok, but to [bracket a devised title] For example: Carrot [realia]? I don't know yet. There is NO statement of responsibility for a carrot and AACR2 says do not make one up. In Realia, the chief source of information is the object itself with any accompanying container. [carrot] Statement of Responsibility could contain first farmer to hybridize, first discoverer, but this would be in the Notes section. Which is now looking to be the main part of a Realia entry.

title proper = parallell title (other languages only if well known) : other title information Title Proper versus Collective Title versus Uniform Title. Peppers. For separate iteations of this species, see Jalapeno. For separate iterations of this genus see Vegetables.

Edition none for a carrot unless it is a second planting, I guess
Publication and Distribution no place of publication because it is a naturally occurring object.

~~place and name of publisher~~
~~name of distributor~~
~~place and name of manufacturer~~
dates maybe could be date of planting and date of harvest? In Realia, date of publication becomes date of manufacture. I could put the time from germination to harvest.

Physical Description

extent of item : other physical details ; dimensions. Carrot : orange; 17 x 6 cm. Or, Pecan; in shell 5 x 7 x 8 cm (world's largest) (not really, I'm just making numbers up) MARC record format is object : material, color ; dimensions.

Series (current iteration or all issues and parts) see my notes in the notes
Notes (all iterations and any other sources)

nature, scope or artistic form nature of the item...edible part of Carrotus Americanus.
language generally english but garbanzo beans might not be english
source of title like Rodale's Guide maybe
variations commonly known as 'tater.
edition and history could be: grown in the United States since 1845.
physical decsiption ovoid object made of carbon, hydrogen, etc. ?
series If I am describing a crop as opposed to a single iteration, would it be a series? Carrot, no. 17. If I do two plantings could I say, Carrot; v.2, no.17?
audience for all mammals with scondary molars
other formats maybe issued also in sizes from 2x2 cm to 17x18 cm.
summary
contents If there is more than one usaeble part- contents: edible seeds - flesh - root
numbers associated maybe for apples 3 would be associated because of some Trinity thing
copy being described specific details about that carrot that may be different than the usual: has extra root so it looks like a little man.
library's holdings garden conatins 75 carrots.
restrictions on use for humans only, not intended for rodent or lupine (rabbit) visitors.
~~Standard number~~ and Terms of Availabilty Accessible after 23 days of growth. Inaccessible after October 15 (first frost date)
references The See and the See Alsos. For a tomato could be See: Love apple. For the collective species you could say, See Also, root vegetables. And then in the Root Vegetable entry you'd have to put See Also, Carrot, Parsnip, etc. ' See' leads one way, See Also has to be two-way.

AACR2 and the hidden frustrations of blogging as a tool for school

2009-09-01T21:05:00.009-04:00

it ate it all. twice.

Knowledge Structures

2009-08-25T13:54:00.001-04:00

While talking with a colleague (that sounds funny) about my topic of cataloging ephemera, she told me about a class she took through the University of Arizona on Knowledge Structures, taught by a philosophy professor. One of her assignments was to catalog something/somethings that were not found in a library. She chose a vegetable stand, and catalogued and catergorized and cross referenced all the vegetables. She also visited a grocery store and talked to the manager about the reason and logic behind product placement: that that was indeed a way of cataloging and organizing information, in this case, nutritional information that your body uses. This got me all excited and I decided that the very first thing I'm going to catalog is:

MY GARDEN!!!!!

I'll assign accession numbers and locations and heading and subheadings and cross references and all that fine stuff. I am so excited!

Cataloging Bookbag

2009-08-24T12:09:00.018-04:00

Cataloging non-print and Internet resources
Mary Beth Weber 2002

The future of cataloging : insights from the Lubetzky symposium : April 18, 1998, University of California, Los Angeles

Moving image cataloging : how to create and how to use a moving image catalog
Martha Yee, 2007

Cataloging of audiovisual materials and other special materials a manual based on AACR2 and MARC 21

Nancy Olson, 2008

Organizing audiovisual and electronic resources for access a cataloging guide
Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, 2006

Radical cataloging : essays at the front
K.R. Roberto, 2008

Differences between, changes within : guidelines on when to create a new record
Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, 2007

Understanding FRBR what it is and how it will affect our retrieval tools
Arlene Taylor, 2007

Unlocking the mysteries of cataloging a workbook of examples
Elizabeth Haynes, 2005

Electronic cataloging AACR2 and metadata for serials and monographs
Sheila Intner, 2003
She's a professor at University of South Carolina, Columbia, in the Library and Information Science program

Cataloging with AACR2 & MARC21 : for books, electronic resources, sound recordings, videorecordings, and serials
Deborah Fritz, 2007

Introduction to serials work for library technicians
Scott Millard, 2004

Collection development policies new directions for changing collections
Daniel Mack, 2003

Magic search : getting the best results from your catalog and beyond
Rebecca Kornegay, 2009

What is Ephemera?

2009-08-22T10:40:00.005-04:00

The Ephemera Society defines it as such:
advertisements air transport labels bank checks baseball cards billheads bonds bookmarks bookplates broadsides brochures business cards calendars cameo stamps
chromos cigar box labels bands clipper ship cards die-cuts greeting cards
indentures invitations labels letters magazines maps newspapers packaging pamphlets paper dolls passes photographs postcards postage stamps posters programs rewards of merit seed company ads Shakers sheet music songsters stocks tickets timetables trade cards trade catalogs valentines watch papers

Now, that isn't a definition as much as a list to help you define it for yourself.
I argue that anything that is temporary or of a very short life span can be considered ephemera. When we first started using the Evergreen open source software for our library's circulation system, the icon for uncataloged magazine and paperbacks was a ghost. I think that has unwittingly influenced me.
I italicized the things I like. Maybe I'll link them to actual examples of items I've cataloged. later. I bolded the things that mystify me. I'd also like to know if the Shakers they refer to, being the only proper-noun-looking-because-it's-capitalized-word, are the religious sect, the celibate ones, that don't actually exist anymore. WOW. Collecting souls. Had no idea. Creepy.

If they meant SALT and PEPPER shakers, why did they pronoun-icize it?
If you click on the photo it will take you to the Ephemera Societies website where you can then explore their links to specific collections/collectors.

Note 09/18/09: I found definitions and examples of the bolded items that aroused my curiosity. The watch papers is, to me, a perfect example of a collectible, catalogeable piece of ephemera. Rare, strange and small. Like me.

The Aristocrats!

2009-08-22T10:25:00.008-04:00

If you know the joke, and you know what I've been through to get to this point, then you'll get it. Otherwise, nevermind!
I am now officially beginning my last 3 credits in my library and information science master's degree. I will be teaching myself how to catalog a hiccup.

The ~~two~~ three things I have been searching for in looking for background material are:
extreme cataloging
cataloging ephemera
extreme ephemera

Extreme cataloging already exists as a term and it is NOT what I want it to mean. What a pain. There are two types of cataloging: catastrophic and extreme. Catastrophic seems to be the bare necessities, the raw data. Extreme is every single little detail you can say about a particular material that is beign cataloged.

I am noticing a trend in the language of cataloging which attracts me even more.
Authority Control
Catastrophic
Extreme
Seeing as how I love disasters, these terms please me greatly.

I attempted to join the Ephemera Society this morning but their PayPal link rejected me. They did sign me up and send me a big packet of cool stuff anyways so I guess I will send them a check.