I never thought that cataloguing was so in depth. This module explains the history of cataloguing and how it has developed over the years. Not having further experience in the last few years, I feel completely out of my depth. There appears to be so much and even understanding the process that a user goes through when searching for a particular resource. It didn’t occur that this could be something that was measured and then the library catalogue systems were based around it.
FRBR – Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
The five elements based around FRBR as described by Hilder (2018):
- Find
- Identify
- Select
- Obtain
- Explore
I find these elements tricky to understand. When searching for a resource, these elements just naturally come into play. So when having to justify or explain an example of which of these elements is in play, for me is difficult.
FRAD – Functional Requirements for Authority Data.
Both of these are based around analysing bibliographic and authority data (Oliver, 2010).
RDA – which is Resource Description and Analysis. When cataloguing, the format is different and it is designed to provide some general rules and options and exceptions (Welsh and Batey, 2012).
All of these metadata standards have their own differing set of qualities. It would be essential to see which works best in your own library. From memory, a lot of the work was already done and the process appeared to be quite easy. I don’t remember having to go into this much detail when cataloguing.
And then there is MARC – Machine Readable Cataloguing. It is used to encode records to make it easier for computers to read them. I wonder whether MARC creates more work or is the information readily available?
I feel that this topic is quite overwhelming for me at this stage. I wonder how often I will need to use these systems, though I do understand the importance of having this knowledge. It will be interesting to see what is used and what is already automated.
Hider, P. (2018). Information resource description: Creating and managing metadata (2nd ed.). Facet.
Oliver, C. (2010). FRBR and FRAD in RDA. In Introducing RDA: a guide to the basics (pp.13-36). ALA Editions.
Welsh, A., & Batley, S. (2012). Bibliographic elements. In Practical cataloguing: AACR, RDA and MARC 21 (pp.17-48). Facet Publishing.