UCM, LIS 5700 : Introducing myself

For LIS 5700, University of Central Missouri, in Spring 2024: I created this video to introduce myself to classmates in LIS 5700, “Organization of Information;” to share some of my thoughts about library cataloging, and to share some of my classification schemes for books, blog posts, Gmail messages, and Pokémon.

I live and work in Santa Rosa, California, and my background with cataloging includes work as a Library Technician at a TK-to-eighth-grade school.

The schools have an online catalog through a vendor, Follett Destiny, and so a lot of times “cataloging” consists of looking in that online database for a title record, saving the title record to the local catalog if someone has not already done so, and then adding a “copy” for my site.

When I add a copy, often-times a lot of the fields will already be filled in: things like the title, of course, the author, subject headings, and the Dewey Decimal Classification that was assigned to that book.

Occasionally, the title record won’t have a Dewey Decimal number, and I might have to look it up.

A lot of what I’ve learned about cataloging, I’ve learned through reading, through experimenting, and through various webinars and tutorials.

Among cataloging-related subjects that interest me, I’m interested in the language people use. That is, the search terms they use, when they search the catalog. Do they use colloquial, natural terms, or do they use the more formal, controlled language that might match a subject heading? And do they get the results they need? If not, how do we make sure that our catalogs connect people with the resources they are looking for?

I organize the books in our home by their Dewey Decimal numbers. You can see from the video that the books that I keep close by me when I am at my study desk, I have given all of them Dewey Decimal numbers.

I also tag the entries in my blog and the messages that I save in gmail by Dewey Decimal Classification and subject headings.

I’ve also tried out various classification schemes with my Pokémon in Pokémon GO.

Prior to COVID-19, when people were regularly getting together for tournaments, I would try to use to classify my Pokémon through the names that I assigned to them. I might do GL for “Great League” and then might abbreviate the Pokémon’s elemental type and list its ranking as an effective counter in the Battle League.
https://youtu.be/pawPs0buWLo