Reflections on MARC records

The overview of cataloguing from Saskatchewan[1] was very helpful for me to understand why our District librarian finds it difficult to recatalogue a book that is classified as Fiction to non-fiction.  I have been frustrated that the book “Tale of a great white fish: A Sturgeon Story” which is written as a mix of a story with non-fiction dialogue boxes of facts is classified as fiction.  Students doing research on Sturgeon don’t choose this book since it is classified as fiction.  I had wanted the District Librarian to change one copy to non-fiction.   From this article I can see that the District Librarian is limited by the rules set up during the annual MARC Committee meetings.  This book would just be a tiny blip in the overall meeting and for my District librarian to get the system changed would require me to submit a rationale to support two different entries for the same book, which defeats a system that is intended to create only one entry per item. 

This lesson also clarified why I will not get a quick resolution to my frustration with some of the school library materials that should be adjacent on a shelf but are separated (eg frogs) since some have a basic dewey decimal system number and some have extended ones which separates them from the basic books on the shelf due to other amphibian books.  From my reading (1, 2) I understand that this is due to a number of things including:

·         who you bought the record from,

·         the quality of the record and

·         consistency in use of call numbers,

·         the focus of the book on the topic if it is a general introduction or a primary level book or a more detailed look at the subject or a more intermediate level book. But due to the fact that different MARC record creaters deal with these levels differently they could be assigned basic or extended MARC records.

·         authors who are blending genres as a creative process but are ahead of database rules creation.

This has given me more sympathy for the District librarians who do our cataloguing as I understand they are restricted by the system.  I can see that I will have to find other creative ways within my library to help overcome this issue, including book displays, creating cards with lists of where to find books on topics, pulling books on topics to help students/classes with identifying resources to match their research topics.  I will also work on learning of other ways from my colleagues.

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[1] Accessing Information:Cataloguing Guidelines for Manitoba and Saskatchewan School Library Personnel,   Retrieved Oct. 8, 2012 from http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/Accessing-Information

[2] Library of Congress.  Understanding MARC . Retrieved Oct 8, 2012 from http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um01to06.html