A couple of weeks ago, I gave my LIS415 students a homework assignment that involved searching the Library of Congress catalog. The completed assignment was due the following week. A couple of days later, I began receiving frantic emails from students that they could not get into the catalog. The government had shut down and so had the Library of Congress!
I gave the students an alternate site to search. I wanted them to look at MARC bibliographic records and they could do that at almost any library's catalog, but I also want them to use as many different catalogs as possible to see the differences among them.
Then I began to worry about an upcoming workshop that I'll be giving for the Massachusetts Library System on free sites for Technical Services Librarians. Of course, many of the sites I want to talk about involve the Library of Congress as there is a wealth of information for catalogers there. I began to wonder how much would be available and whether or not it was worth even giving this workshop.
Lo and Behold! Today, as I began reviewing my material for the workshop, I discovered that LC's catalog is up and running! And so is their Authority File site. That won't mean much, if anything, to a non-cataloger, but let me tell you it is a site I use ALL THE TIME when I'm working.
Is the government no longer shut down? I know there have been negotiations going on, but I haven't listened to the news today.
Whatever happened, I'm glad I can get to the sites I need. I just hope it's not some sort of mistake. I hope the sites stay up. Next Saturday I'll be covering authorized forms of names with the students in LIS415 and I'll need LC's Authority File.
Showing posts with label Authority Control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authority Control. Show all posts
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
What's in a Name?
This week in LIS415 we're tackling Authority Control - specifically Name Authority Control.
The topic is rather auspicious since the Pope stepped down on Thursday and there has been a flurry of email messages on the AUTOCAT discussion list about what's going to happen to the Pope's authority record at the Library of Congress.
Overall the class is going very well. This is the most vocal group of students I have had to date. They ask lots of thoughtful questions and have lots of thoughtful comments.
When I teach this section on Authority Control, I often think about names in general and how they ebb and flow. I sometimes compare the names of the people in the senior exercise class in Hatfield where everyone is older than 55 (and most are older than 65) with the names of the people in LIS415 where most are under 35. In the former, there are two Carols and two Virginias along with a Helen, an Edith, a Frances, an Irene, a Sandy and a Bernice. There are no Susans or Lindas although they were very popular names for the time period.
In the latter there's a Jenn, a Jackie, a Beth and a Leah. This semester there are no Saras or Sarahs, but there often are. Interestingly there's an Amanda in both Senior Exercise and LIS415. Also in LIS415 is an Emma which is another old-fashioned name making a comeback.
So now it's time for me to get ready to travel to So. Hadley and demonstrate LC's Name Authority File to my eager students. I'll leave the final disposition of Benedict XVI's authority record to LC.
The topic is rather auspicious since the Pope stepped down on Thursday and there has been a flurry of email messages on the AUTOCAT discussion list about what's going to happen to the Pope's authority record at the Library of Congress.
Overall the class is going very well. This is the most vocal group of students I have had to date. They ask lots of thoughtful questions and have lots of thoughtful comments.
When I teach this section on Authority Control, I often think about names in general and how they ebb and flow. I sometimes compare the names of the people in the senior exercise class in Hatfield where everyone is older than 55 (and most are older than 65) with the names of the people in LIS415 where most are under 35. In the former, there are two Carols and two Virginias along with a Helen, an Edith, a Frances, an Irene, a Sandy and a Bernice. There are no Susans or Lindas although they were very popular names for the time period.
In the latter there's a Jenn, a Jackie, a Beth and a Leah. This semester there are no Saras or Sarahs, but there often are. Interestingly there's an Amanda in both Senior Exercise and LIS415. Also in LIS415 is an Emma which is another old-fashioned name making a comeback.
So now it's time for me to get ready to travel to So. Hadley and demonstrate LC's Name Authority File to my eager students. I'll leave the final disposition of Benedict XVI's authority record to LC.
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