Author Archives: jenperritt120

So. After class during week three of our second project, the world basically fell apart. I left to go spend spring break at home in Chicago with my family and at this point have not yet returned to Austin. Unfortunately, my embroidery supplies are still in the lab anyway, because I was not anticipating everythingContinue reading “Project 2, Week 4: A KNOT-so-happy ending”

This week I was so excited to work exclusively on flowers. This required learning a knew stitch, however, which was a frustrating but rewarding process. I learned to do the french knot stitch, but not without having to cut my thread and restart several times. The instructions that came with my embroidery kit were notContinue reading “Project 2, Week 3: French Knot Frustration”

Things got rough this week…as they usually do whenever I try to learn a new creative hobby or skill. I’ve tried crocheting, painting, playing piano, sewing, you name it. Usually I get frustrated and bored and inevitably give up shortly after beginning. This time, however, I am being forced to stick with it. No matterContinue reading “Project 2, Week 2: Stitchin’…but mostly bitchin’.”

For my second project I decided to have a little bit of fun…and learn to embroider! Here’s why I’m taking on this project: I am notoriously horrible at learning any kind of crafting skills. I’ve tried so many hobbies like this and given up out of frustration. Not this time! This is actually a skillContinue reading “Project 2, Week 1: Stitchin’ and Bitchin’”

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 expectedContinue reading “Project 1: Final Reflection”

So…I definitely feel like I did all of this backwards, but you live and you learn. Now that I can grasp the basics of MARC, LCSH, and MeSH, I decided to dive deep into RDA, Resource Description and Access. RDA replaced AACR2 as the standard for cataloging description. RDA uses terminology like “access point” insteadContinue reading “Cataloging, Week 4: RDA”

This morning I had a meeting with my capstone supervisor at the Dell Medical School library, and she informed me that I will have to use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) rather than Library of Congress when creating records for the library’s materials. This slightly terrified me because I have no knowledge of medical jargon…so todayContinue reading “Cataloging, Week 3: Medical Libraries”

This week I took my cataloging journey to the next level by learning to create my own (simple) MARC records. Yay! Here was my process… I read through one of the Library of Congress MARC reference materials, “A Summary of Commonly Used MARC 21 Fields.” This thing is life-saving. It gives clearly outlined examples ofContinue reading “Cataloging, Week 2: MARC, continued”

This week I started my adventure in library cataloging by pulling together some resources on the basics of MARC and RDA. Today I… Completed a MARC introductory tutorial: ABLE Introduction to MARC Cataloging (The Idaho Commission for Libraries) This tutorial was a good refresher on the basics of cataloging and the contents of a MARCContinue reading “Cataloging, Week 1: X MARCs the Spot”

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 archivesContinue reading “Project 1: Library Cataloging”