Library Information Science 531
Catalogs, Cataloging, and Classification

Introduction

The Introduction to this course provides:

• course objectives and overview;
• a list and description of the textbooks and other resources you will need for the course;
• an overview of the lessons and general instructions and criteria for course work, including assignments and the course project;
• guidelines for participating in audioconferences and Discussion Forums;
• an explanation of how your work in this course will be evaluated;
• guidelines and suggestions for successful online learning; and
• instructions for providing information about yourself to the instructor.

Library Media Specialists in the Electronic Age

If you ask the "Person in the Street" to describe a library and her/his reactions to it, you will probably hear about books organized on shelves in a building where people silently browse or sit at tables to read. Some people cherish this image; others find it dull.

In contrast to this traditional image of a library, the contemporary school library media center (LMC) is just a starting place for finding information; it's a hub of activity—much of which is oriented toward accessing information beyond the walls of the library or of the school itself. Even the materials housed within those walls are accessed through noisy, beeping computers rather than the soft shuffle of cards in drawers.

The school library media specialist (LMS) is a member of the professional teaching staff of the school. At any given time, we may find him/her

• teaching the portion of an instructional unit that enables students to bring a world of information to bear on the topic they are studying;
• meeting with a group of other teachers to design a resource-based unit of instruction in a specific content area;
• helping individual students access information inside or outside the school library media center; or
• engaging in administrative activities as program administrator for the school library media center.

Although the LMS has many organizational and administrative tasks, he/she needs to minimize these and to put student learning first.

In this course, you will learn how to provide access to information in minimal time, thus freeing you to devote most of your working time to your people-oriented roles.

Course Objectives

Your work in LIS 531 will enable you to

• provide students and staff with effective access to learning resources inside and outside the school library media center;
• teach students and teachers how to access information;
• maintain a logical and physical organization of the resources of the school library media center to facilitate access by students and staff; and
• evaluate, obtain, and maintain bibliographic data structures adequate to facilitate access to learning resources inside and outside the school library media center.

This Course in the Context of the Certificate Program

Library media specialists are—above all else—teachers. They also take a tutorial role as information specialists, teach indirectly as instructional partners with other teachers, and serve as the program administrator for the school library media center program. The four courses you have taken so far have given you tools and skills that you can use in working with groups of students, individual students, and teachers.

This course will enable you to provide a structure for both guided access and growing lifelong self-access to information by groups of students, individual students, and teachers. It will also help you free up time from technical chores so you can devote more of your time to working directly with people.

The first objective of the course (providing access to information) reinforces the skills in information access you have already gained in your courses on "Instructional Technology" and "Information Literacy."

The third objective of the course (maintaining logical and physical organization of information resources) will be reinforced by the course "Leadership and Management," which you will take next summer.

The Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the discussion forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the discussion forum. I will reply to all discussion forum questions on the forum, and to e-mail questions via e-mail.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility andreliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Course Overview

This course comprises ten lessons with weekly activities that include audioconference and non-graded exercises, three graded assignments, and a final course project. The course also includes required participation in online Discussion Forums.

Each lesson will look at a new aspect of cataloging and searching, followed by a variety of activities, including audioconferences that reinforce the specific aspect. Besides my commentary for the specific topic, each lesson includes:

Lesson One: The MARC Record

Lesson One introduces you to the foreign language we call "the MARC record". You will learn where it came from and why it is important to the way information is accessed today. You will also learn how to read MARC records so that they make sense.

Lessons Two and Three: Author/Title Access

In these two lessons, you will learn about two of the three major sets of access points (standardized words or phrases used to search for information). You'll learn how to use them to find resources and how to assign access points so that others can access those resources.

Lessons Four and Five: Dewey Classification and Physical Organization

In these two lessons, you'll learn about both the logical/intellectual organization of knowledge and information and the physical organization of resources within the library media center. You'll study systems of organization developed by the library profession over the last hundred years.

Lessons Six and Seven: Subject Access

In these two lessons, you will learn about the other major access points. You'll learn how to assign Subject Headings so that others can access the library resources.

Lessons Eight and Nine: Bibliographic Description

In these two lessons, you will learn how to add the bibliographic details that help with identification of resources and that, with the help of the Library Automation System, help students and teachers access the library resources.

Lesson Ten: The Bibliographic Database/Library Catalog

In the last lesson, you will examine the end product: the online public access catalog, or OPAC.

Required Texts

The Sherman-Peterson Text

• Sherman-Peterson, Ron. The Accessible School Library Media Center: What the School Library Media Specialist Needs to Know about Library Cataloging. 5th preliminary draft edition. 2002 (photocopied).

  Appendices include formats, examples, glossary, and bibliographies.

  The original developer of this course wrote the Sherman-Peterson text. It has been used in a university classroom setting for four summers, in successive preliminary draft editions, and has been revised and tailored to the ten lesson topics adopted by the advisory board for this course. Ron Sherman-Peterson wrote it to fill a need for a text on organizing information for library media specialists who are not career catalogers.

  The second volume of the Sherman-Peterson text incorporates much of the information you will need from AACR2R. It does not, however, contain the AACR2R rules that guide our author and title choices. It is also important to access the MARC Standards Web site often, because not only are there periodic changes and updates to MARC cataloging, but excellent usage examples are given. This volume, for example, does not include the newest changes to the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) or the formatting for the Study Program Information Note which is now used for Accelerated Reader and other programs.

Intner and Weihs

• Intner, Sheila S., and Jean Weihs. Standard Cataloging for School and Public Libraries, 4th ed. Englewood, Col.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59158-378-3. LCCN 2007009009.

  The Intner and Weihs text is the most current of the three standard published texts that present cataloging in less technical terms. The Sherman-Peterson text refers to the 3rd edition of Intner and Weihs and two other standard texts (Curley and Varlejs, Akers' Simple Library Cataloging, 7th ed., and Miller and Terwillegar, Commonsense Cataloging: a Cataloger's Manual, 4th ed.).

Furrie

• Furrie, Betty. Understanding MARC Bibliographic, 6th ed. Washington, D.C.: Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Follett Software Co., 2000. c2003.

  The Furrie text is a pamphlet that has been distributed by the Follett Company and is now online at the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/; it gives a very good, concise overview of MARC tagging.

  Reviewed and edited by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office: http://www.loc.gov/marc/.

B&T MARC

• B&T MARC: An Easy Reference Guide to Cataloging & Processing Book Orders. Charlotte, N.C.: Baker & Taylor Company, 2001.

  Available free from Baker & Taylor Company.

  B&T MARC is a specification form in the format of a booklet. It is typical of the specification forms used by preprocessing vendors, except that it is more detailed. It's therefore a good tool for us to use to learn how to fill out specification forms.

Essential References

The following are essential reference tools for the course, but they are too expensive for me to ask you to buy them. Call a library in your area to arrange to use these resources, either in the library or via checkout. Do this as soon as possible—even before the course begins—because some libraries may be relying on older editions or may not have these resources at all.

You will need to arrange for access to one resource in each of the two Essential References groups. The most preferred resource in each group is marked with an asterisk (*). The non-asterisked items in each group are allowable substitutions for the asterisked resource.

Classification Resources

You must have access to one of the following by the beginning of the fifth week of the course.

• *Dewey, Melvil. Abridged Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index, 14th ed. Albany, N. Y.: Forest Press/OCLC,12004.

  You may substitute the 13th abridged edition (earlier editions that lack the "Manual" section are not recommended).

• Dewey, Melvil. Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index, 22nd ed., 4 vols. Albany, N. Y.: Forest Press/OCLC, 2003..

  You may substitute the 21st edition (earlier editions lacking the "Manual" section are not recommended).

• WebDewey: your instructor will send you the password.

Subject Authority Resources

You must have access to one of the following by the beginning of the fifth week of the course.

• * Sears List of Subject Headings, 19th ed/ Joseph Miller, ed. Barbara A. Bristow, associate editor. New York: H. W. Wilson, 2007. ISBN: 978-0-8242-1076-2.
  You may substitute the 18th edition (earlier editions are not recommended, as there have been too many changes).
• Library of Congress. Subject Cataloging Division. (1997) Library of Congress Subject Headings, 1998 2006, 21st 29th ed., 5 vols. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. ISSN 1048-9711. Use recent editions or online catalog only.
  
  To search the online Library of Congress catalog, go to http://catalog.loc.gov. Note that you will access a list of titles which have a particular Subject, not a list of subject headings.
  Older Library of Congress Subject Headings may be available in libraries near you on microfiche or as part of the Classification Plus CD-ROM.

Recommended Resources

Access to one resource in each of the following three groups is highly desirable, if you can find them in the library where you work or in a nearby library. Some are available online. You will also need access to a library catalog, in person, or on the web.

Cataloging Rules

• Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second ed, 2005 Chicago: American Library Association, 1998. If you are going to be responsible for your own cataloging, this is a must, but seldom purchased by school libraries
  
  

MARC Tagging Resources

• MARC Standards Web site at http://www.loc.gov/marc/

  Click on "Bibliographic" under MARC Concise Format in the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Name Authority Resources

• When you look for name authorities, I recommend that you search the online Library of Congress catalog, at http://catalog.loc.gov. Note that you will access a list of titles which have a particular Author, not a list of Author Authorities.

Course Activities

Activities for each week include an audioconference, an exercise or assignment, and course project work.

Audioconferences

We will use audioconferences in LIS 531: the audioconferences (or teleconferences) with which you are already familiar from the Information Literacy course. You are expected to participate in the initial audioconference and at least seven of the subsequent weekly audioconferences.

It is essential to meet with one or more other students in the course, both for the conferences and for collaborative study. This will give you a sense of being part of a community of learning, a proven factor in success in distance learning courses. You may find the subject to be very dry and remote if you study it completely in isolation—especially during winter quarter!

I will send you a letter before the course begins, asking you to choose among the possible meeting times on Tuesday or Thursday evenings for the required audioconferences. This will take place prior to the first week of class.

Exercises

Each week you will do some exercises from your Sherman-Peterson and Intner texts. Note carefully the distinction between an exercise and an assignment.

Exercises are practice activities designed to prepare you for the written assignments and to provide reinforcement following the written assignments. Exercises are not turned in nor are they formally assessed. They will be explained during the audioconferences, and the instructor will provide keys prior to your weekly audioconference.

Assignments

Please submit your assignments per the instructions on the "About Your Instructor" page.

The weekly exercises are preparation for your assignments.You should not wait until the week the assignment is due to review the relevant material.

Assignment 1: Select author and title access points, and ISBN and LCCN.	Does not require any reference works to complete.	Submit after Lesson Five.
Assignment 2: Construct complete call numbers.	Use Dewey to construct the complete call numbers for the works represented in the exercises.	Submit after Lesson Seven.
Assignment 3: Finish creating complete MARC bibliographic records.	Use Sears or Library of Congress Subject Headings to complete this assignment.	Submit after Lesson Ten.

Your answers in Assignment 3 will contain all the elements for students to

• access the works represented by the records;
• identify them from their bibliographic descriptions; and
• find them on the shelves of the school library media center

Course Project

During this course, you will work progressively toward completing your Course Project (which is based on an exercise by Cheryl Boettcher Tarsala).

Objectives

The purpose of the Course Project paper is to

• help you learn how to do all available searches on your OPAC and predict the results;
• help you learn about the limits and breadth of your Library Automation System and how it affects the ability of your students to search; and
• reinforce your knowledge and understanding of how the information put into the MARC record is used by your Library Automation System.

Your Course Project is a paper that will include all the information you collect about the OPAC (online public access catalog) you are studying during this quarter (for a summation of the OPAC, see Lessons One and Ten in your course syllabus). Each week, you will complete part of the Course Project and post your work to the class Discussion Forum. We will then discuss the week's work in our audioconference. At the end of the class, you will turn in your completed Course Project.

The "Activities" page for each week includes questions that will guide your work on your project. Please be sure to answer these questions, but do so in normal paragraph form, not as numbered questions and answers. Also, be sure to consider the comments from your colleagues when you are revising your final paper.

Since your paper should be no more than 4–8 pages long, you will need to be succinct. Please remember: spelling and grammatical errors are not acceptable! So check your spelling and grammar, but don't count on your computer to catch everything. Proofread your paper and, if possible, have it proofread by someone else.

General Instructions

Use the information you develop weekly to write your Course Project paper. As you complete each week's portion, you will share your work with the other students by posting it to that week's Discussion Forum in order to get their feedback. You are expected to read what others have written and to respond to at least two postings every week (except the first week, where the Library and Catalog are being introduced). Your responses each week should point out errors, ask questions, or express agreement. During the first week, read what others have written so that you know which participants' Automation Systems will be of the most interest to you and to whom you will be able to offer the most helpful comments.

The Course Project Outline in your online syllabus lists the instructions for all of the weekly postings in one place. Also see the Course Project section on the Lesson Activities page for specific instructions.

Some notes about creating your Course Project:

• You may want to use illustrations (for example, screen printouts) to convey technical information quickly and briefly, but don't simply include printouts for their own sake. If you include them, write a note on them stating why you have included them and what they are illustrating. Think about including screen printouts only if they show a particular strength or weakness.
• Some of the points in the outline may not apply to your catalog. If so, don't mention those points unless they represent a perceived weakness in the Automation System.
• Unless you are already an expert on the catalog you are evaluating, you will need to ask library employees about it. If you have too much trouble finding out something, just say so in the paper. No need to press these people too hard—we want them to think well of the University of Washington!
• Support your evaluative comments with evidence from the catalog.
• Remember that the subject of your paper is the patron access mode, not the staff, circulation, or technical services access modes.
• If you feel unable to cover everything in 4–8 pages, remember that selection is an essential skill for the LMS. Select only the points that you think are most important and that you can cover in 4–8 pages, and leave the rest out. Do cover something from each section, however.
• If a catalog is available to you in several versions, evaluate only the one used in the library.

Course Project Rubric

Your project will be evaluated according to the following rubric.

4	Project was turned in on time and followed general instructions. All appropriate questions were answered succinctly and as fully as the space limitations allowed. Correct spelling and grammar were used throughout. Project displays a thorough understanding of how the automation system helps or hinders student learning.
3	Project was turned in on time and followed general instructions. All appropriate questions were answered succinctly, though not as fully as the space allowed. Correct spelling and grammar were used throughout. Project displays some understanding of how the automation system helps or hinders student learning.
2	Project was turned in on time, but may not have followed general instructions. All appropriate questions were answered, though not as fully as necessary. There may be some problems with spelling and grammar. Project may not display an understanding of how the automation system helps or hinders student learning.
1	Project was not turned in on time and/or did not follow general instructions. Not all appropriate questions were answered. Those answered may not have been answered fully. There may be some problems with spelling and grammar. Project does not display an understanding of how the automation system helps or hinders student learning.

Discussion Forums

You will join a Discussion Forum to post your weekly Course Project work and respond to the weekly postings of others. Be sure you go to the Discussion Forum for the appropriate week (Project Week 1, Project Week 2, and so on). Click on the Discussion Forum link from the "Course Syllabus" to access.

You will be using the Discussion Forum primarily as a peer review, a way to get feedback from others in the course about your Course Project. You will be expected to respond to two postings every week, but you should read several more. Your Discussion Forum responses account for part of your grade, so be sure you respond each week.

For you and others to receive the most benefit from the Discussion Forum, you will need to keep up with the time schedule of the course. You will be exchanging information with other students that will help you all with the development of your Course Projects on the OPAC and searching, and with your understanding and focus on the instructional implications of each step in the organization of information. So please post weekly project and responses on time. (See the Schedule in the online syllabus.)

Your grade for your Discussion Forum work will be evaluated and reflected in your final grade according to the following rubric:

4	Responded to at least 2 postings every week it was appropriate. Responses were positive and helpful.
3	Responded to at least 2 postings every week it was appropriate. Most responses were positive and helpful.
2	Responded to at least 1 posting every week it was appropriate. Most responses were positive and helpful.
1	Responded to fewer than 2 postings every week it was appropriate. Many responses were not helpful.

Grading Criteria

This course is graded numerically as described in the School Library Media Specialist Student Handbook, pages 45–47. The same four-point rubric used in the previous Information Literacy course will be used to assess your work for this course. During the course, strive to grow in understanding, and consider any less than perfect assessments, not as a warning of potential failure, but as an opportunity for revision and growth."

General Base Rubric

The values by which I will assess your assignments are shown in the following table.

4+	Exceptional work beyond expectations for students in this course.
4	All of the criteria (objectives, expected outcomes) of the assignment were met.
3	The most essential criteria were met; some revision is needed but is not required in order to obtain credit.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2	Some essential criteria were met; however the work fails to fulfill requirements of one or more essential criteria.
1	Most of the essential criteria were not met.
0	None of the essential criteria were met.

Assessments of "3," "4," or "4+" indicate that the assignment is complete.

Assessments of "0," "1," or "2" indicate that the assignment is not complete and requires revision. You must arrange to confer with your instructor by telephone and then resubmit revisions so the assignment can be recorded as complete and you can receive credit for the course.

Assignment-Specific Rubrics

Your instructor will explain each assignment in detail in the lesson for the week to which it applies. At that point your instructor will also spell out the rubric for that assignment and list specific criteria or qualities unique to that assignment.

Your Grade for the Course

This course will be graded as shown in the following table:

Assignment 1	10%
Assignment 2	10%
Assignment 3	30%
Responses in the Discussion Forum	20%
Course Project in final form	30%

My reason for grading the assignments this way is that, while all three assignments incorporate new information, Assignment 3 actually includes everything from Assignment 1 and 2, as well as your new knowledge. It offers you a chance to correct any mistakes from the first two assignments and to show your growth.

You are expected to complete the weekly exercises and correct them from the answer keys, either during the audioconferences or afterwards. Although you are not actually graded on your weekly exercises, the work you do in those areas will be reflected in the grades you receive on the three assignments.

The grading weight for the Course Project and your responses in the Discussion Forum conveys how important it is for you to share and interact with each other. Reading what others have found out about their Library Automation Systems will help you with your own project, but it will also help you in the future when you have to choose a new system yourself. I also expect that the comments of others will help you complete your Project. Although the process is important (the 20% on the Discussion Forum ), the completed Course Project that you turn in is even more important.

Tips for a Successful Course

Projects and Assignments

• Be prompt. It's better to post an imperfect project on time than a perfect project too late to get feedback from the group. You will be able to make revisions before turning in the final Course Project.
• The same is true of the written assignments, although you will not share these with the group. The instructor will provide individual feedback on the written assignments via e-mail.
• Stress quality, not quantity. The MARC record does not need to be lengthy as long as it provides adequate access to resources. Explanations and commentary on the class Discussion Forum and in conferences are welcome, but your colleagues will appreciate brevity.
• Take responsibility for demonstrating the knowledge that you are acquiring in this course. The systems we are learning are like a new language—probably unlike anything you have ever studied before. Your instructor will not know what you are learning unless you communicate it.
• Do not feel that you have failed if you receive a less than perfect assessment on a written assignment. This simply shows that you have an opportunity to learn something that you did not know before you took this course.
• Do not become discouraged if you do not immediately and intuitively grasp the subject matter of this course. You're learning a new way of thinking, and no one expects you to know everything from the outset. This experience will help you empathize with your students, and your eventual success will allow you to communicate confidence to your students. You can go from not-knowing to knowing, from unfamiliarity to familiarity—and so can they.

Partnering

Because students sometimes experience difficulty in studying the subject matter of this course in isolation, you are encouraged to select one other person in the course to form a "study group." You can form a study group of three persons if an odd number of people are enrolled in the course.

You may want to select someone in your geographical area so you can get together to study. If this is not possible, or not important to you, however, your study partner(s) can be a virtual group that meets by e-mail (or by telephone if that is feasible for you).

If you have not had library experience, you may want to find a study partner who has worked as a school librarian.

Discuss with your study partner any questions or problems that come up during your reading and study of the materials for the course. This will enable you to resolve some questions and clarify others before contacting the instructor. It will also help you to realize that you are not alone—that at least one other person has the same questions or difficulties.

When working on the weekly exercises, do not simply divide or parcel out the responsibility between you and your study partner. These exercises will not be graded, as such, but are important for the understanding you must have of the process before you complete the three assignments. Make sure that each of you agrees on and understands the rationale behind your response to each part of the activity.

As you compare your work to that of your partner or to "keys" or models provided by the instructor, remember: there are a number of different "right" answers. Library cataloging is not an exact science. The purpose of this course is not to train you to get the same results as the instructor (or anyone else), but to help you to understand the underlying principles of information access and organization. Share your reasoning behind your results; how you get there is as important as the particular answer you end up with.

Study Hints

• Look for the big ideas. Read a chapter all the way through and then briefly jot down the important ideas you found, as well as questions raised by the material.
• Be responsive to ideas that "ring a bell"—things that correspond to your experiences, but that you may never have verbalized.
• Watch for ideas that go against what you thought you knew or against conventional wisdom and practice. These represent important new pieces of information that will cause you to change your conceptual frameworks about how students and teachers search for information. They will also change how you teach. Give them special attention and a chance to prove themselves to you.

• The subject matter of this course will probably be unlike anything you have encountered in your academic career. In part, this is because you will be asked to think about how people search for and find information. In larger part, however, it is because you are learning a foreign language—one that is understood by computers. It may initially seem strange and confusing, but within a few weeks the newness of the language will wear off. As you come to understand the conventions of library cataloging, the rationale for them will begin to make sense. It will help you to have another person to talk with as you go through this process.

About You

Please send the following information as soon as possible via e-mail to your instructor. See the About Your Instructor page on your online course syllabus.

• Name: Indicate what you'd like to be called (and how to pronounce it for the audioconference and on the telephone), especially if you prefer a nickname or a name different from your "official" registered name.
• Experience in education and/or in libraries: How many years? Doing what? What grade level?
• Current job, if any: If you are a library media specialist, let me know if your library is automated, what system you use, and what your cataloging source is.
• Experience, if any, in library cataloging or organization of information: "None" is certainly okay. I just would like to know if you've done this before and what kind of experience you have had.
• What would you like to get out of the course?

Send the following information either in the same message as the above or in separate messages as the information becomes available:

• Which edition of Sears (or LCSH) and Dewey will you be using for this course?
• Who will be your study partner (strongly suggested) for the course?
• The audioconference times are 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays, both PST. Which are your first and second choices of audioconference times?

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