025.431 D519

Oh my gosh, it’s a miracle! Okay, maybe not quite a miracle, I can definitely explain it. But, I got 94% on my last cataloging assignment, which was 3 whole points higher than the class average.

You see, last week’s assignment was our first one on subject classification—assigning Dewey Decimal numbers. This is what I wanted from the class in the first place. Something to bring order, logic and reason to a chaotic world. I definitely had no interest in the first 10 weeks of making machine readable records. I don’t care if there’s a colon, period, slash or whatever. I don’t care how to capitalize correctly. And mostly I don’t understand why most of the process hasn’t been taken over by computer. Or at least why they don’t have a program that formats it for you after you put in the data. You know how much it sucks to compile a long bibliography, with the punctuation and wondering if something should be input as a straight web page, or some kind of weird hybrid. Multiply your worst experience with that by like a gazillion, and that’s what making machine-readable records is like. The worst part is that it’s so arbitrary. There’s no logic. It’s all decided by a multi-national committee. And for the privilege of their lack of cohesion you have to pay $80 for a 3.5” thick shrink wrapped set of loose-leaf pages ($24 extra if you want the binder and pre-printed chapter tabs). Americans gave up the right to call a period a period, in cataloging it’s called a full stop, so the Brits gave up the spelling cataloging with a U. Compromises = sucky.

But, back to my happiness, and actually following a logical progression to give an abstract concept a number. Yes, it was a little tough, but it felt satisfying, and much less arbitrary than previous assignments. I think it helped that there were fewer rules.

So, I have hope for my next assignment—assigning Library of Congress numbers. It’s looking to be a bit tougher than Dewey, but I have hope for that logic too. Actually, if I don’t believe in LoC, then there’s no way I’ll ever make it as a librarian. They have a black list. Speak out against them and you’ll never work in this country again. So, cross your fingers for me.