If teacher librarians don’t normally create metadata, such as catalogue records, why do you need to have an understanding of information resource description?

I found it interesting that the module noted that if the most noticeable feature about the catalogue is the number of users who bypass it, then something has gone wrong. It seems like hardly any of our users utilise the catalogue and instead either ask the front desk for resources or browse the shelves hoping for the best. While I’d like to attribute this to either laziness or a preference for personal interaction, clearly this is something I’ll have to rectify! It was good that the module reinforced that the one of the roles of the TL is to teach users how to effectively use the catalogue independently. It’s also an important skill for them to transfer this knowledge to other catalogues, such as public or university libraries.

As a NSW DoE school, we use SCIS as our supplier of catalogue records. I’m very fortunate to have a full-time library assistant who handles most of the cataloguing when we accession new resources but her position is not guaranteed and it’s important for me to know how the system works so that I can maintain our collection and ensure efficient access to our available resources.

I’ve noticed that while the records from SCIS certainly do save time, they aren’t necessarily describing or classifying our resources in a way which suits our students’ needs. For instance, many of our manga series are catalogued under their individual titles rather than the series title + number, which makes it difficult for people like me who are unfamiliar with the series to find whether we’ve got a requested book on our shelves. Series which have multiple authors also face this issue, as SCIS classifies them under each individual author instead of together which means that the books are scattered amongst our fiction shelves. The Australia’s Great War and the Twisted Tales series are the best examples I can think of with this issue. Last year I also undertook a stocktake and discovered a pile of never-borrowed verse novels which had been classified as non-fiction, the land that our students forgot. I’m in the process of reclassifying them as fiction texts, which will hopefully allow them to be found and used more regularly. If I have an understanding of information resource description I can hopefully combine this with knowledge of my users’ needs and preferences to create a more efficient collection.