Wow. So overall, learning the basics of cataloging was an interesting experience. I successfully figured out how to:
- Put together a basic MARC bibliographic record
- Use MARC, MeSH, LCSH, RDA
- Copy catalog
Interestingly enough, I ended up learning a lot of things other than how to catalog, including:
- Cataloging is actually easier than I expected it to be. There are soooo many online resources to help you, such as RDA ToolKit, and it’s not super challenging to get a grasp on MARC and copy cataloging.
- In hindsight, I think I kind of approached the learning progress backwards. I started with MARC and then I moved towards subject headings and then looked at RDA. I think it might have been better to understand RDA before jumping into MARC…but also, maybe I’m weird and that’s just how I learn.
- Also…cataloging can be kind of fun, but I don’t think I would like it to be the main aspect of my job. This is good to know because I’m still pretty uncertain about what jobs I want to be applying for, and anything that helps me narrow this down is great.
The biggest challenge I faced was figuring out how to absorb the crazy amount of information I was ingesting all at once. Like seriously. So much information, so many rules. Since I already have metadata experience some of the things I was learning were concepts I’m already pretty familiar with, but it was still a lot.
I am glad I decided to take this on though, because it’s been a useful foundation of knowledge as I work on my medical library cataloging capstone project. And I feel like I’m better equipped now to have cataloging conversations with my capstone project supervisor, which is great!
Time for my next project…I haven’t decided what to do yet, but I’d like to do something fun and more hands-on, I’m thinking some kind of crafting skill. I am a pretty big traveler so I’ve thought about learning to create scrapbooks for all of the travel tickets, brochures, documents, etc. that I’ve collected. We’ll see!
Technology Learning Studio 