Creating a MARC record: Journal reflection Activity #1

For our first LIBE 465 assignment, I decided to create a MARC record for the book Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Allegiant is volume 3 in the very popular Divergent series and I had just purchased it for my library. The following is the result of me trying my hand at being a library catologuer. My reflections on this extremely time-consuming and often perplexing activity will follow.

When comparing my neophyte MARC record with the Library of Congress version, I realize that, ultimately, I was able to negotiate my way through most of the cataloging steps fairly well. The process, however, required nothing short of learning a new language! Initially, I found the jargon to be completely overwhelming. Terms such as "indicator", "non-filing character", and "subfield", to name just a few, have such specific meanings and their use is governed by a set of seemingly endless cataloguing rules and procedures. After my initial panic, it seemed the only way to achieve success was to take it "one field at a time". The concept of "indicators" tripped me up for a bit until I realized that an indicator's meaning changes depending on the field in which it is used. I also spent considerable time deciphering the counting of nonfiling characters. While my title Allegiant is very straight forward in this regard, counting nonfiling characters is critical when cataloguing many French titles, such as "L'Ile Noire" for example. The Physical Description field, while seemingly straightforward, also necessitated additional investigation. I wasn't absolutely sure whether to measure the height or the width of my book. After googling "how to measure dimension for a MARC record", the Southern Methodist University confirmed my suspicion that height was the critical element. Because Allegiant is part of a series, the 490 tag needed to be part of my MARC record. It was difficult to determine how a cataloguer would know if a title was part of a series, as such information does not appear on the copyright page. Does the cataloguer need to sleuth through the book jacket synopsis for this information or do they research outside sources? While each of these issues presented challenges, I found the 650 tag to be the most perplexing. Luckily, I was not alone in my confusion and was able to "compare notes" with Emily using the Q & A page. Eventually, I found my way to several very helpful documents on the Library of Congress website. I'm including the link here for those who may find it useful: http://www.loc.gov/aba/publications/FreeLCSH/freelcsh.html#Introduction I found both the introductions to Subject Headings and to Children's Subject Headings on this site very helpful. In addition, PDF lists for both are provided. I was absolutely shocked to discover just how many subject headings there are! The challenge was, of course, to determine which headings to choose. While I have not read Allegiant, I have read the first book in this series, Divergent. For this reason, I had some idea which subject headings might be most appropriate. Cataloguers cannot possibly read all the books they catalogue. The question therefore becomes, how to they know which headings to select? Do they determine subject headings using the book jacket synopsis, as this does not describe all the elements? Do they read reviews? Is there another source for such information? For my MARC record, I would have preferred to use the Children's Subject Headings list but I could not find reference to subjects such as Dystopias, Social Classes or Science Fiction. This is where my record falls short of the Library of Congress version, as I used regular Subject Headings exclusively. As far as I can determine, a cataloguer would need to have certain subject headings in mind and simply use the lists for formatting reference. To illustrate, each letter of the alphabet has a Subject Heading list. The subject heading Dystopias is found on page 293 of the 295 page D list. "Browsing" for subject headings is simply not an option! Upon completing this assignment, I feel I have merely brushed the surface of the complexities of creating a MARC record. Much more research and practice would be needed to fully grasp the plethora of rules and procedures required to become a competent cataloguer. This said, I feel that being at least conversant with record creation will be of great benefit to me in my role as teacher-librarian. Such understanding is becoming increasingly critical in light of the seemingly continuous erosion of district cataloguing support.