Friday in San Miguel

Friday we wrapped up our cataloging. We were told we had fixed or created over 600 records. It was wonderful to feel like we had actually helped. It really felt like it had been a great experience for both sides. We learned a great deal about Mexican culture and got real-life cataloging experience. They not only had a bunch of records cleaned up, but Dalene was able to teach them and help them. Service learning needs to beneficial to both the host organization and the students. This week was a huge success!

Authority Control

I just finished reading "Got Authorities? Why Authority Control is Good for Your Library" by Kathleen Wells. She makes a good case on the importance of creating complete records and supports her arguments with specific examples. In cataloging last summer we discussed the value of the MARC records, and also the difficulty in finding public support or funding. Cataloging is one of those activities that people don't even realize exists until they don't have it or it doesn't work well.

Kathleen Wells presents information on a variety of fields that can help the search process. It will be interesting to see if any of the fields she mentions can be used to help create access to a bilingual collection. Since this was my first exposure to many of the MARC fields she mentions, I'm hoping that I will gain a better understanding of the applications while volunteering at the Biblioteca Publica.

Thoughts on the assigned reading by Elaine Yontz

I decided to take a break from reading the How-To-Do-It Manual and read some of the other assignments. In "Subject Access to Fiction: A Case Study Based on the Works of Pat Mora" author Elaine Yontz discusses the importance of improving catalog and MARC records to improve access. In this case study incomplete MARC records resulted in poor search results and many items would not have been retrieved in a normal search.

The finding that library records fail to provide access to a major demographic is troubling, but not surprising. Although there are many reasons for the lack of access points, two main causes stand out. The first is the English and western-Caucasian history of libraries and the library catalog. It is only a fairly recent development for librarians to consider other (non-western, non-white) viewpoints.

The other main culprit for poor MARC records (and the one addressed in this article) is the lack of local control with the development of copy cataloging. Consistency is vital to providing access, and this consistency can often only be accomplished on a local level. The article makes the suggestion that the local cataloger needs to determine which access points will be used, which MARC fields will be created, and what terminology will be utilized. Then using these local standards they need to ensure that ALL records are created and updated to reflect these standards.

An easy read, this article makes a convincing argument for local cataloging. "...Having a consistent access point... will insure that... patrons can locate these items quickly" (p. 134). After all, isn't this one of the primary goals of library science: to provide access to all patrons in the quickest way possible.

This article is a great support of the importance of improving not just programming, but access for Latino patrons. Looking at the list of items the Biblioteca Publica wants help with, it looks like they are hoping to really improve their local catalog to better meet the needs of their patrons. This class and service learning experience will be a great opportunity to put what we are learning into practice.

Going to Mexico

As a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science at Emporia State University I have the great opportunity to do a service learning project. I am one of eight students going to work in the Biblioteca Publica in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico. Although we don't know the specifics yet; we will be working with the library helping with (and learning about!) their collection development, cataloging and database maintenance.

The week before we leave I'm attending a conference, Connecting Communities: Reaching out to Latino Youth and Families, in Corvallis, OR. The timing seems ideal and the conference should be a valuable compliment to the class.

This course was particularly appealing to me since my children attend a Spanish dual-language immersion school. Many of their classmates are Latino and I have watched their struggle for services and community support. My hope is that this class and the conference will help teach me how the library profession can improve services to this unique community.

This blog will provide me the chance to reflect about the course readings, course activities, the trip to Mexico, and the role of librarians in providing services to Latino patrons.