Launching my first project, aka my crash-course in cataloging.
I am in my final semester, which means I am starting the scary and emotionally taxing process of finding a job and figuring out what my next steps in life are in general (Hello, quarter-life crisis!).
The positions I am most interested in are in archives and libraries. They all require knowledge of basic cataloging skills and standards, some of which (particularly on the library side of things) I don’t feel I have a full grasp of, including MARC and RDA. I have brief exposure to these through a couple of the classes I’ve taken at the iSchool, but I don’t feel my knowledge is adequate enough to actually put it into practice.
I am also doing a cataloging project for my capstone, and I plan to use that project as a good way to put what I learn through this tech learning studio course into practice over the course of the semester.
I plan to get a grasp of basic cataloging principles by stringing together a few different resources I’ve found, including:
- American Library Association : RDA in 10 Easy Steps
- American Library Association: Introduction to RDA Toolkit
- American Library Association: Using RDA with DACS
- Library of Congress: Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Cataloging
- Sage Library System: MARC Training
I love that all these free resources exist, because I am BROKE right now!
I’m pretty excited to get started on my cataloging journey, and I’m hoping by the end of this project I will be fully qualified for the jobs I want.
Technology Learning Studio 