[DCRM-L] Advice requested for Rare Book Cataloging preparation

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Thanks all for the good ideas so far. Keep them coming.

One of the nuts I'm trying to crack is that of the experienced copy cataloger. My experience as a teacher has shown that it's usually too big of a leap from (what I'll call for lack of a better word) "passive" competence in cataloging to comfort in creating a record from scratch.

Of course, opportunities for totally original cataloging nowadays are pretty slim, even for original catalogers. What I guess I'm looking for is evidence of the ability to create solid descriptions based on knowledgeable application of a cataloging code. Perhaps I can re-word requirements for cataloging samples to make that clearer, so that applicants without job-related cataloging to offer can do what they need to do to prepare, and aren't necessarily at a disadvantage during the application process.

Deborah J. Leslie, MA, MLS | Senior Cataloger, Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. | Washington, DC 20003 | 202.675-0369 | orcid.org 0000-0001-5848-5467

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Stewart, Duncan R
Sent: Tuesday, 09 May, 2017 10:41
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Advice requested for Rare Book Cataloging preparation

Along those lines, you might ask student to try and arrange a short job shadow/internship/mentorship with a working cataloger. One of my students who attended your class recently, came into cataloging through the extracurricular mentorship that our library offers to SLIS students. Librarians volunteer to mentor students, who come in on their own time and without credit or payment, to give them a hands on look at academic librarianship. My student did a semester long mentorship, then a semester long practicum/individual study in special collections cataloging with me, then was hired as a student cataloger to create original RDA records for a collection of 18th century French pamphlets. She was hired as metadata/rare materials cataloger by our unit when she graduated from library school. I know that this is a special case, but I think that a motivated student or a working cataloger with interest could arrange some basic cataloging practice.
Maybe even more of a stretch-email library schools, or find another way, to find students interested in cataloging and match them with volunteer librarians to work together online. My experience with the students who have done mentorships or worked with me in special collections is that they would all be able to take advantage of your class based on what they have picked up here.
There are several good books that serve as a crash intro to RDA cataloging. Cataloguing and Classification / by Fotis Lazarinis, Practical cataloging / Anne Welsh and Sue Batley, and Crash course in basic cataloging with RDA / Heather Lea Moulaison and Raegan Wiechert all give an introduction both to theory (FRBR, RDA) and practical cataloging instruction. I used the Moulaison book last year in my beginning cataloging class at UIowa SLIS, but switched to the more complete Introduction to cataloging and classification, 11th edition because it was more useful in a semester long class.


"Dico Tibi Verum, Libertas Optima Rerum: Nunquam Servili Sub Nexu Vivito, Fili [My Son, Freedom is best, I tell thee true, of all things to be won. Then never live within the Bond of Slavery]"
-William Wallace




From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Deborah J. Leslie
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2017 9:13 PM
To: 'DCRM Users' Group' <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>>
Cc: Amanda Nelsen <an2b at eservices.virginia.edu<mailto:an2b at eservices.virginia.edu>> <an2b at eservices.virginia.edu<mailto:an2b at eservices.virginia.edu>>
Subject: [DCRM-L] Advice requested for Rare Book Cataloging preparation

Dear colleagues,

I'd like to brainstorm ideas for preparing potential students to take my Rare Book School class<http://rarebookschool.org/courses/library/l30/> who don't have original cataloging experience. I've always considered it essential that students walk into the class with enough active mastery of general cataloging rules that they can competently populate a blank MARC workform, and that experience doing original cataloging is what provides necessary active competence.

What can I tell people whose jobs involve cataloging rare books, whose institutions are willing to invest in their training, but are not in a position to give them background experience with original cataloging? What about people whose ambition is to be a rare book cataloger, but again, are not in a position to develop experience in original cataloging of general materials? It seems neither fair nor ultimately beneficial to shut these people out.

When pressed in the past, I've recommended that individuals sit down with the rules and practice original cataloging of older books (published before 1970 or so) at hand, advising against looking them up in OCLC or the LC catalog; older books don't have CIP and are unlikely to have AACR2 or RDA cataloging.

Are there more effective ways to get adequate practice in original cataloging? Better ways to gain the necessary competence so they can hit the ground running on Day 1 of class?

All thoughts and suggestions welcome, even half-baked ones.


Deborah J. Leslie, MA, MLS | Senior Cataloger, Folger Shakespeare Library | djleslie at folger.edu<mailto:djleslie at folger.edu> | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. | Washington, DC 20003 | 202.675-0369 | orcid.org 0000-0001-5848-5467

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20170509/9ad91f8f/attachment.html>