This is a pin given to me at Beginning Workshop by a librarian with A LOT more social media followers than me! Anglo-American Cataloging Rules 2 Revision 2002 21.26: Spirit Communications! Enter a communication presented as having been received from a spirit under the name of the spirit. Enter the name of the medium orContinueContinue reading “11: Cataloging fact #4: Spirit communications”
Category Archives: Library School 2003-2006
10: Cataloging fact #3: Job security
Almost all public libraries use the Dewey Decimal system to shelve their non-fiction books. And almost all academic libraries use the Library of Congress (LC) system. Do you want to know how academic libraries saved their staff during the Great Depression? They convinced academic administrators that the new Library of Congress system was not onlyContinueContinue reading “10: Cataloging fact #3: Job security”
9: The Polar Bear Book
Secretly, I wanted something very specific from my degree: skills to manage library websites. At the Library of Michigan, I’d been the web site administrator since the early 2000’s, mainly because I was conversant with the software. I was still full-time in the Braille and Talking Book Library, where I had also created an IntranetContinueContinue reading “9: The Polar Bear Book”
8: Cataloging fact #2: Mohammedanism
Peace Be Upon You In 1988, I went into my local public library (in a progressive, university town), looking for information on Islam. I was very proud of my facility with the card catalog and I went straight for the “I’s.” Nothing. I went to a librarian who cheerfully led me back to the wallContinueContinue reading “8: Cataloging fact #2: Mohammedanism”
7: Admission
Yup, it’s true, I’ve never shelved a book. I also did not understand the difference between the Dewey Decimal System and the Library of Congress Classification System until cataloging. Chapter 8 of my cataloging textbook provided me with that answer, including philosophical differences between the two systems dating back to Aristotle and involving the likesContinueContinue reading “7: Admission”
6: Cataloging fact #1
Librarians measure books in centimeters because Melville Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system and a New Yorker, was a francophile. We measure VHS, CD, and DVD containers in inches because Dewey was dead when they were invented Unless you’re in this profession there’s no reason to know this, but Dewey was a long, strangeContinueContinue reading “6: Cataloging fact #1”
5: Reference: The Chase Calendar, Pyramids of Sandwiches, and the Fear of Public Speaking
My reference class was a morality tale on adult education. I had one general reference class and it was taught by a local library director. She was so dedicated, so knowledgeable, so wise, so hardworking, and so kind, that I feel affection for her to this day. She brought tome after tome after tome ofContinueContinue reading “5: Reference: The Chase Calendar, Pyramids of Sandwiches, and the Fear of Public Speaking”
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