D. Today I worked from home on my practicum. First I checked my FSN email and found that Tami had commented on my subject headings list. A lot of her comments were saying that we needed to keep both terms that I had asked her to pick one of. So I emailed Dr. Bird asking if it was better to tag a resource with a lot of similar tags (ex. with both aspergers and aspergers syndrome) or just tag a resource with one tag and then create an index for how to find things in the future (ex. tag with aspergers syndrome and then in the index write aspergers-- see asperger syndrome). Dr. Bird then suggested I look into how LibraryThing did its searching, when I did I discovered that they do tag cominbinations to create synonyms for common tags so that even if the search term is similar to the tag it will still find the tagged term. Additionally I did some other email correspondance back and forth related to my practicum and then searched around in LibraryThing more so I am fully aware of my cataloging game plan.
E. I feel like I have my game plan all set now, my terms have been vetted, the tag combination feature should allow me to choose just one term and have the other terms be found as well. I have ideas on how to seperate out collections, but I am still waiting on my supervisors to choose a name for the library. To them this is very important so that they can brand the library with the Family Support Network name. So I guess I feel a little held up at the moment, but hopefully the name will be done by tomorrow so that when I go into FSN I can set up their catalog in LibraryThing and get started. Overall I guess I feel very confident about this part of the project and excited to get started on the actual cataloging.
AL. I learned some great new terms from Tami in her email when she commented about my subject heading suggestions. Additionally I learned about the tag combining feature of LibraryThing that I had not looking to before.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Creating Subject Headings
D. At FSN today I first checked-in with Kelly and we had a brief discussion on what the next steps in the project would be. She said that she and Sandra would decide on a library name by next week so that we can set up our library's account in LibraryThing. I told her about my visit to the Levine Children’s Hospital's Family Resource Center and shared with her my idea about using general subject areas as shelf labels. Kelly agreed that it was a good idea. I spent the rest of the time creating a list of key words that I want to use to tag the resources in the collection. LibraryThing will only let you search the title, author, ISBN, and tags. Therefore the tags in the catalog must function as our subject headings. I want to try to standardize my tags so that they will be the topics that FSN, the CDSA, and their families are most likely to use. So today I looked over the list of resources that the FSN has and I went to the closet where the CDSA stores their books and tried to pull out the topics and key words that I would most likely be using. I then emailed the list to my supervisors to review.
E. Even though I feel like in some ways I am "recreating the wheel" because LC already has subject headings I feel that this list I made today and standardizing these terms are going to really help make this collection easily searchable. It was a lot of fun to start going through some of these resources. To be completely honest it went slower then I could have because I started reading some of these books. Some of their resources are children's fiction books about kids with disabilities or handicaps. They were really interesting. My favorites were the one about the ADHD turtle and the epileptic duck. It was cute. By the end of the day I felt very accomplished. I really hope that my supervisors get on board with this key word concept though. I have explained to them a couple of times why it is important, but I am not sure they exactly understand why. I feel that they won't get it until they start searching and can't find something because it isn't labeled under that term.
I was also stumped by a couple of different terms that I hope my supervisors will help me out with. There were a lot of books talking about children with disabilities and explaining that concept to other children. What would you label those? "Diversity" "Handicapped Children" Also one book was titled mental retardation. Is that an ok term to use anymore? I hope my supervisors will help out on those questions.
AL. I learned that there are a ton of resources available to parents who have children with special needs or disorders. I wonder how many parents know about them. But there are so many resources available. I also learned how hard it is sometimes to describe why something is so important to others who don't understand the system that it works in. (It was difficult to emphasize why this key words thing is so important).
I hope that next week I will get to start cataloging!
E. Even though I feel like in some ways I am "recreating the wheel" because LC already has subject headings I feel that this list I made today and standardizing these terms are going to really help make this collection easily searchable. It was a lot of fun to start going through some of these resources. To be completely honest it went slower then I could have because I started reading some of these books. Some of their resources are children's fiction books about kids with disabilities or handicaps. They were really interesting. My favorites were the one about the ADHD turtle and the epileptic duck. It was cute. By the end of the day I felt very accomplished. I really hope that my supervisors get on board with this key word concept though. I have explained to them a couple of times why it is important, but I am not sure they exactly understand why. I feel that they won't get it until they start searching and can't find something because it isn't labeled under that term.
I was also stumped by a couple of different terms that I hope my supervisors will help me out with. There were a lot of books talking about children with disabilities and explaining that concept to other children. What would you label those? "Diversity" "Handicapped Children" Also one book was titled mental retardation. Is that an ok term to use anymore? I hope my supervisors will help out on those questions.
AL. I learned that there are a ton of resources available to parents who have children with special needs or disorders. I wonder how many parents know about them. But there are so many resources available. I also learned how hard it is sometimes to describe why something is so important to others who don't understand the system that it works in. (It was difficult to emphasize why this key words thing is so important).
I hope that next week I will get to start cataloging!
Visiting the Levine Children's Hospital's Family Resource Center
D. Yesterday I went to visit the Levine Children's Hospital's Family Resource Center and talked with their librarian Angela for about an hour. The purpose of this visit was to see how she set up her library because her library is a Consumer Health Library for families with Children, which is very similar to what the library will be for the Family Support Network. The Levine Family Resource Center uses the National Library of Medicine system to organize their collection in the catalog, however on the shelves it is arranged by general topics such as Autism, Allergies, Cancer, Pregnancy, etc. The topics are then in order alphabetically. Angela and I discussed how she put books into categories and how she dealt with books that didn't fit neatly into one category. She also suggested that Planetree was another classification system that I could look into using. We also discussed how to catalog brochures. She doesn't include them in her catalog, she just has to recommend them to visitors or a visitor has to randomly discover them themselves.
E. Overall this was a very good visit. Angela gave me a lot of advice and insight into how to organize a consumer health library. She mentioned that when families are in crisis they don't want to figure out an organizational system, they just want information and fast. So easy to use subject headings seems the best way to go. I wrote down all of her shelf titles as a reference/starting guide. As I thought about my visit later on last night I came up with a plan of action. I want to catalog all of the items in the library first and then see my most popular tags. By knowing the most popular topics I think that that will make it easier to create shelf labels.
Angela was very helpful, she even sent me links to more information that I could look at. I am enjoying this practicum experience because it is truly making me feel like a professional. I feel more professional because I am having these conversations with other professionals and I feel like I am being treated like an equal. Maybe I am weird in this feeling, but in my past/current jobs I have always been a teacher/educator and therefore around kids all the time and spending most of my time talking to kids. So I guess I feel grown-up now that I get to talk to adults. :)
AL. Today I learned that there were many classification systems, not just Dewey and LC. I learned a little about the National Library of Medicine system and that there was another system called Planetree. I also learned that many small libraries just make up their own system, especially if they do not coordinate with other libraries that much. Furthermore I learned the reasoning and rational behind why a subject heading /shelf labeled system works well in Consumer health libraries. Overall a good learning experience
E. Overall this was a very good visit. Angela gave me a lot of advice and insight into how to organize a consumer health library. She mentioned that when families are in crisis they don't want to figure out an organizational system, they just want information and fast. So easy to use subject headings seems the best way to go. I wrote down all of her shelf titles as a reference/starting guide. As I thought about my visit later on last night I came up with a plan of action. I want to catalog all of the items in the library first and then see my most popular tags. By knowing the most popular topics I think that that will make it easier to create shelf labels.
Angela was very helpful, she even sent me links to more information that I could look at. I am enjoying this practicum experience because it is truly making me feel like a professional. I feel more professional because I am having these conversations with other professionals and I feel like I am being treated like an equal. Maybe I am weird in this feeling, but in my past/current jobs I have always been a teacher/educator and therefore around kids all the time and spending most of my time talking to kids. So I guess I feel grown-up now that I get to talk to adults. :)
AL. Today I learned that there were many classification systems, not just Dewey and LC. I learned a little about the National Library of Medicine system and that there was another system called Planetree. I also learned that many small libraries just make up their own system, especially if they do not coordinate with other libraries that much. Furthermore I learned the reasoning and rational behind why a subject heading /shelf labeled system works well in Consumer health libraries. Overall a good learning experience
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Thoughts about the future of this FSN cataloging project
We chose LibraryThing as our cataloging program so the next steps should be....
In cataloging we learned that when organizing a collection there are essentially three steps: 1.Describing the object so as to separate it from every other object, 2. Creating access points for the object so that others can find what that object is about, and 3. organizing that object in relation to others that are similar to it (aka a classification system like LC or Dewey).
1.Step 1: I see as easy enough on LibraryThing, mostly pulling the record from somewhere else or cataloging the other objects (pamphlets and websites) by hand.
2. Step 2: In terms of access points, LibraryThing does not let you search the LC subject heading section of the record even though it has that section and you can import the subject headings from other catalogs if they have them. However the search function on LibraryThing does search the tag fields, therefore I want to tag the resources to provide an access point. The word document that Sandra sent me already put the books into categories and I hope to use those as the basis and foundation of the tags. I also want to tag the language and maybe pull some other tags from the LC subject headings if there are any that correspond with that item. I plan to read over that word document listing the resources and create a list of probable tags for Kelly and Sandra to review. I want them to look over the tags because I know that librarything will only look up what you type in, not variations so we need to choose if dyslexia or dyslexic would be the best terms to search for.
3. Step 3 is determining an organization system so that they can find their books. Since this is going to be a very small resource center I was thinking that we would not be large enough to use LC or Dewey classification system, that would also necessitate putting labels on all of the books. Also an alphabetical system by author or title I didn't think would be very useful either. I was thinking some sort of general subject system where resources are first put under their main subject and then within each subject maybe alphabetical by author. I was thinking about going to visit some bookstores and then the Levine Children's hospital resource center to get some other ideas about organization.
Some other process thoughts about how to set up the resource center:
Circulation. Since Librarything does not have any formal circulation functions I read about using the comments fields to conduct circulation. There are both private and public comments fields. In the public comments would either say "Checked out" or "Available" and also the Location Info/classification scheme. The Private comments would only be filed when a resource was checked out, and would say the family's name and date of checkout.
Collections - LibraryThing lets you have different collections and also lets one resource be part of more than one collection. I wanted to use the collections feature to keep the FSN and CDSA collections separate. I also wanted to use the collections feature to start separate out the Spanish language collection, or any other collections that FSN wanted to create. Perhaps even use that to create a separate Wishlist collection.
As I go along I am also thinking about what I will need to train Kelly, Sandra, Tami and maybe some others about. So far the "manual" I plan to write has three parts:
1. How to find a resource
2. How to checkout a resource
3. How to add a new resource
In cataloging we learned that when organizing a collection there are essentially three steps: 1.Describing the object so as to separate it from every other object, 2. Creating access points for the object so that others can find what that object is about, and 3. organizing that object in relation to others that are similar to it (aka a classification system like LC or Dewey).
1.Step 1: I see as easy enough on LibraryThing, mostly pulling the record from somewhere else or cataloging the other objects (pamphlets and websites) by hand.
2. Step 2: In terms of access points, LibraryThing does not let you search the LC subject heading section of the record even though it has that section and you can import the subject headings from other catalogs if they have them. However the search function on LibraryThing does search the tag fields, therefore I want to tag the resources to provide an access point. The word document that Sandra sent me already put the books into categories and I hope to use those as the basis and foundation of the tags. I also want to tag the language and maybe pull some other tags from the LC subject headings if there are any that correspond with that item. I plan to read over that word document listing the resources and create a list of probable tags for Kelly and Sandra to review. I want them to look over the tags because I know that librarything will only look up what you type in, not variations so we need to choose if dyslexia or dyslexic would be the best terms to search for.
3. Step 3 is determining an organization system so that they can find their books. Since this is going to be a very small resource center I was thinking that we would not be large enough to use LC or Dewey classification system, that would also necessitate putting labels on all of the books. Also an alphabetical system by author or title I didn't think would be very useful either. I was thinking some sort of general subject system where resources are first put under their main subject and then within each subject maybe alphabetical by author. I was thinking about going to visit some bookstores and then the Levine Children's hospital resource center to get some other ideas about organization.
Some other process thoughts about how to set up the resource center:
Circulation. Since Librarything does not have any formal circulation functions I read about using the comments fields to conduct circulation. There are both private and public comments fields. In the public comments would either say "Checked out" or "Available" and also the Location Info/classification scheme. The Private comments would only be filed when a resource was checked out, and would say the family's name and date of checkout.
Collections - LibraryThing lets you have different collections and also lets one resource be part of more than one collection. I wanted to use the collections feature to keep the FSN and CDSA collections separate. I also wanted to use the collections feature to start separate out the Spanish language collection, or any other collections that FSN wanted to create. Perhaps even use that to create a separate Wishlist collection.
As I go along I am also thinking about what I will need to train Kelly, Sandra, Tami and maybe some others about. So far the "manual" I plan to write has three parts:
1. How to find a resource
2. How to checkout a resource
3. How to add a new resource
A Formal Presentation and Could I Be a Consultant?
D. Today I went to FSN and after checking in with Kelly, went to my cubicle to work. I first went over my presentation and then shared it as a GoogleDoc with Kelly, Sandra, and Dr. Bird. After reviewing and preparing my presentation I send out a long email to Dr. Bird about where to go from here, after FSN selects a cataloging system. (I will do a second post that presents those thoughts). Then I emailed the librarian at the Levine Children's hospital Family Resource Center about going over to tour her library and see how she organizes her collection to hopefully get some ideas for how to organize the FSN collection. She emailed me back almost immediately, so I have a tentative date to met with her next Wednesday afternoon.
After that I started reading up about LibraryThing and found a manual online that another company had made for teaching their employees how to use LibraryThing. It would be a similar manual to what I would be creating in the future for FSN. At 11:30 I met with Tami and Kelly to start the presentation. Sandra was working from home so she joined us on a conference call. Since my presentation was a GoogleDoc she was able to view it at the same time we were on her computer at home. I gave my presentation answering questions from all three women as I went and trying to explain some of our library terms to them. By the end the women agreed with my presentation and agreed to use LibraryThing as our cataloging system. They want to get started quickly so that they can see something actually happen. At the end of my presentation/ our conversation there was some debate about what to call this resource center. The debate stemmed from the fact that both FSN and CDSA were going to be using it and if those two groups split up what would happen to the name. My suggestion was to "brand" the library with the FSN name, and if FSN leaves the CDSA building we can separate out the two resource sets and create a new account for CDSA under their name.
E. This morning was at first a very slow morning. I just wanted to get the presentation over with so that we could have the official ok to go ahead and get started with LibraryThing. I am so happy/relieved that FSN agreed with my/our recommendation of LibraryThing. I was afraid that LibraryThing would not seem professional enough for the CDSA (which is part of the mecklenburg county government). But after the presentation I think even more that LibraryThing was the right choice, because the CDSA plans to use this mostly in house inside their building. Therefore it does not have to have that "professionally/governmental" feel. I am really excited to get started. I was also really pleased on the reception that my presentation got today. Kelly said that it was very professional and an excellent presentation. I think I explained myself really well and helped them understand the differences involved between creating a whole ILS on a server that would be housed in a building versus a web-based model that can be maintained anywhere. There are still some things to show them about how circulation would work and such, but I think that it will work out in the end.
AL. I am trying to think if this was my first professional presentation today. I know it was my first librarian professional presentation. I am fairly sure that I have done formal presentations before, I have taught other teachers professional developments before and I have done presentations in front of students 100s of 100s of times. But I guess perhaps what I "learned" today was more introspective. I felt really good presenting and being able to explain these library terms and applying library concepts to really world situations. For example, I explained about how we would need to "tag" the resources with key words that people could search for because we needed to create more access points to the resources (more than just the title and author). So I guess I "learned" that I enjoy presentations and explaining things and perhaps I learned that I am good at those things.
Overall I am really enjoying my practicum, it is making me think more about library consulting, I think I could be good at it, although I am not sure I would be able to market myself to do it
After that I started reading up about LibraryThing and found a manual online that another company had made for teaching their employees how to use LibraryThing. It would be a similar manual to what I would be creating in the future for FSN. At 11:30 I met with Tami and Kelly to start the presentation. Sandra was working from home so she joined us on a conference call. Since my presentation was a GoogleDoc she was able to view it at the same time we were on her computer at home. I gave my presentation answering questions from all three women as I went and trying to explain some of our library terms to them. By the end the women agreed with my presentation and agreed to use LibraryThing as our cataloging system. They want to get started quickly so that they can see something actually happen. At the end of my presentation/ our conversation there was some debate about what to call this resource center. The debate stemmed from the fact that both FSN and CDSA were going to be using it and if those two groups split up what would happen to the name. My suggestion was to "brand" the library with the FSN name, and if FSN leaves the CDSA building we can separate out the two resource sets and create a new account for CDSA under their name.
E. This morning was at first a very slow morning. I just wanted to get the presentation over with so that we could have the official ok to go ahead and get started with LibraryThing. I am so happy/relieved that FSN agreed with my/our recommendation of LibraryThing. I was afraid that LibraryThing would not seem professional enough for the CDSA (which is part of the mecklenburg county government). But after the presentation I think even more that LibraryThing was the right choice, because the CDSA plans to use this mostly in house inside their building. Therefore it does not have to have that "professionally/governmental" feel. I am really excited to get started. I was also really pleased on the reception that my presentation got today. Kelly said that it was very professional and an excellent presentation. I think I explained myself really well and helped them understand the differences involved between creating a whole ILS on a server that would be housed in a building versus a web-based model that can be maintained anywhere. There are still some things to show them about how circulation would work and such, but I think that it will work out in the end.
AL. I am trying to think if this was my first professional presentation today. I know it was my first librarian professional presentation. I am fairly sure that I have done formal presentations before, I have taught other teachers professional developments before and I have done presentations in front of students 100s of 100s of times. But I guess perhaps what I "learned" today was more introspective. I felt really good presenting and being able to explain these library terms and applying library concepts to really world situations. For example, I explained about how we would need to "tag" the resources with key words that people could search for because we needed to create more access points to the resources (more than just the title and author). So I guess I "learned" that I enjoy presentations and explaining things and perhaps I learned that I am good at those things.
Overall I am really enjoying my practicum, it is making me think more about library consulting, I think I could be good at it, although I am not sure I would be able to market myself to do it
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)