MARC Records (and other various cataloguing tidbits)

Learning about MARC records has been a bit of a slow, uphill battle. It would seem that several of my classmates agree on this. Machine Readable Cataloguing Records (MARC records) provide relevant and interesting information for a teacher librarian. While standard catalogue information likely contains the "basics" - title, author, ISBN, etc., MARC records can provide information such as summaries, grade/subject level, content warnings and so forth.
My colleague Shannon (TL at Frank Ney) and I had an interesting experience creating our own MARC records whilst creating a inquiry based website on Ancient Rome (Grade 7 IRP). Here we had to create our own MARC records for the resources on our topic. This was a time consuming though clearly necessary task. We used a variety of useful resources from our local library as well at the Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada. Although in our class discussions several TL mentioned that MARC creation is not really a part of their day to day job, the information is important to know and serves as a good foundation for understanding the cataloguing process.

Cataloging!

Apparently cataloguing is the activity of creating a catalogue! Well, that much I knew, but I didn't know how complex it all was! Clearly organization of resources is a key issue in a school library. There are a TON of new terms that I am learning from the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_A.aspx which contains all sorts of interesting definitions, many of which are applicaible in several fields and walks of life. I was certainly surprised by the array of terms from "half-time" (part-time employee) to the definition of "URL" to "The Dead Sea Scrolls" to "microfilm" (people still use microfilm?!). I am just beginning to understand the significance of all this information.

My course this week explained that "cataloguing is a subset of a larger function: Bibliographic control, the organization of bibliographic information. Elaine Svenonius defines this as: "the skill or art of organizing knowledge (information) for retrieval." Well, that makes sense to me but I suppose it will make a whole lot more sense once I'm working as a TL and figuring the organization system for my library. I understand that there should be a standard set of rules for cataloging within a library, but how much flexibility do I get within those rules? How could I collocate the resources in my library to work effectively?

Obviously cataloguing goes hand in hand with access. Patrons of the library, be they students or teachers, use the catalogue to access resources. Therefore the catalogue should be fast, efficient and easy to use. My understanding is that library cataloguing systems are evolving at a very fast rate as we rely more and more on the digital world.  It's one thing to organize books, but more and more students are turning to on-line resources, and new help in understanding the catalogue as a learning tool.