I failed Dewey!!!!

I failed Dewey....Actually I just failed the final assignment by half a mark. Only half a mark. I was sure it would be by much more than that.
Well anyway the good news is I was carrying a few extra marks in previous assignments so I can safely say that I have passed the subject....Yay!
Not with flying colours, only by about 2 or 3 marks, but who cares it is a pass and I no longer have to look at cataloging.
Besides my school pays good money to get SCIS to do our cataloging and who am I to argue with the way they catalog. It's all brilliant in my eyes.
So now tomorrow I will be starting serious work on ETL503 now that this horrible subject is behind me.

Module 6 is doing my head in this week!!!!

Here I am finally sitting down to work through the exercises for module 6 after much procrastination.
This morning I even cleaned the house!!! That is a bad sign when I should be doing uni work.

Well anyway, I am up to exercise 2 and I am already finding it hit or miss whether I get the answers correct. I am finding the whole webdewey thing incredibly confusing.

Maybe tomorrow I will just head to the local library and pay the cataloger HEAPS of money to do my assignment for me............now there's a thought. Unfortunately I don't think that she would be too agreeable to do it for me no matter how much I paid her. However, it's worth looking into.....

If she won't do it, then I think I will just park myself at the library and use their print copies of DDC22.
Sure will beat having to figure out web dewey and all of his mates!

finished and submitted

Well I have finished my 2nd assignment and handed it in today.
It was about subject headings and I actually quite enjoyed doing this assignment once I got the hang of it.
I just hope that I understood and presented everything that was required because I will be really disappointed if I don't pass this one.

Tomorrow my TOM team is presenting their challenge solution at the State Final at the Uni of NSW. I hope they do well, but I know they will be up against some tough competition. They have worked really hard and have done well to get this far.
The ironic thing is, I am the compere for the day and I never ever use the microphone at school to control large groups. I went 7 years at my previous school without ever addressing the whole school on the microphone. They will all certainly get a kick out of me being pushed out of my comfort zone to do this job.

Yay I passed!!!

Just got my first assignment back for ETL505 and I am so pleased to say that I passed.........just. 1 mark over half way is a good pass I think considering I was really floundering with this subject.
Hopefully I will pass the second assignment with a bit more room to spare.

module 5 is doing my head in......

Well here I sit today realizing that I should probably have worked my way through this a bit sooner than I have.
I am only up to exercise 8 which is on page 16 out of 37 pages in my module print out.

Who would have thought that it would take this long?

Probably when I was going out to lunch last week and the week before I really should have been here in front of the computer.
As it is, I should be working on my assignment but unfortunately I haven't done the required exercises that will enable me to complete the assignment to a satisfactory standard.
Oh well, it's not due until the 13th so I guess I will keep chipping away at it bit by bit until I finish.
Unfortunately at the moment I still don't really grasp it, and when I think I do get it I read the forum and realize that I have no clue at all and I am on a totally different page to everyone else who has been working on module 5.
Help!! Who really cares about access points, genre headings, theme headings and any other type of heading????

One thing I have managed to learn while doing this subject is that I don't think that I will ever become a cataloger, it just does your head in!

Module 5

I am starting module 5 today, although I noticed they have given us a few weeks to complete it, and no wonder it isn't making a whole lot of sense to me at the moment. I guess the more I read the more it will fall into place.

Vocabularies, whether controlled or uncontrolled, are also known as indexing languages.

Derived indexing takes words from the document.
Assigned indexing takes words from somewhere else and assigns them to the document.

Subject approaches
The controlled vocabulary approach is where a specific word or phrase is selected to denote a certain subject.

500 words to go!!!

I think I am actually getting this bibliographic description stuff.

I have spent the morning editing the work I did yesterday and adding more information to my assignment and now I only have 500 words left to go. I haven't added any examples to part B yet so I should use up those words quickly.
If only I could think of some examples...................hence the procrastination and writing this blog.

I cannot praise the lecturing staff at CSU highly enough. Once I got over my fear that I knew nothing I phoned Ashley my lecturer for this subject and spoke to him emphasizing that I knew nothing.
Well turns out I did know what I was talking about. Go figure.
With some well placed questions from Ashley I was able to figure out some other stuff with the assignment. He actually didn't have to tell me the answers I was able to work through the process with him guiding me.
How great is that?

Every time I have phoned or skyped any of the lecturers they have been really generous with their time and knowledge and sent me happily on my way.
Thankyou CSU. Hopefully now I will complete this assignment to the satisfaction of the markers to ensure that I pass.

HELP!!!

Today I have a sick son so I am at home with him and he is asleep!!!

Unfortunately we had planned an afternoon at the footy watching the roosters play. I was quite looking forward to it as it is ages since we have done anything as a family. It was also going to provide another excuse for me to avoid my 505 assignment.
Oh well it was not to be.

Hopefully Roosters will win. If they do an AP at school has to wear a rooster jumper to the athletics carnival. If the dragons win I have to make him a mars bar slice.....I really do love being back in the state system.

I have been sitting here for most of the day reading my course notes/textbook/websites and I still have no clue what to do.
I have written 200 words out of 2000 and I think I have said everything that I know, and most of that is from the text book. Hopefully I won't get done for plagiarism.

I have also been emailing the gorgeous Fiona who has tried to help me. She says she is just as confused as I am but I think she has a better grip on it all than me. Thanks Fiona.

Oh well enough procrastinating and back to the assignment.

Dublin Core

After looking up the Dublin Core website and in particular the frequently asked questions I have discovered that the Dublin Core metadata is used to supplement existing methods for searching and indexing Web-based metadata, regardless of whether the corresponding resource is an electronic document or a "real" physical object.

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) was the first metadata standard deliverable out of the DCMI was an IETF RFC 2413.
DCMES provides a semantic vocabulary for describing the "core" information properties, such as "Description" and "Creator" and "Date".

Dublin Core metadata provides card catalog-like definitions for defining the properties of objects for Web-based resource discovery systems.

According to my notes the Dublin Core meta data is based on 4 principles.

1. simplicity
2. semantic interoperability
3. international consensus
4. extensibility
   

Unfortunately even though I have browsed this site and read the required information I still have not experienced any clarity as to what I should be beginning to understand. Oh well I will keep plodding on.

Going crazy already

This morning I looked up module 2 in ETL505 on the CSU website and discovered that it was different from the one that I had printed out and had been reading over the weekend. Oh well, I just printed out the new one and started working through that.
Now when I went back online to look up the readings that had been linked to the notes I have discovered that the original notes are back.....
What is happening at the uni???or is it me???
Oh well I am finally learning all about DEWEY...Who would have thought that it would take 12months into a library course before I would learn this stuff..
I had to watch this Youtube video introducing DEWEY so I thought that I would include the link in case anyone was inspired to watch it. WARNING: It's not terribly exciting!

Charles Cutter's Objectives

We were asked to look up Charles Cutter's objectives and rewrite them so that they are more suitable for libraries today.

Vanessa Small added the following information to the forum. I think she has done an excellent job rewriting them so I have published them exactly as she wrote them. (Thanks Vanessa) I have also included the link to the webpage that has the objectives listed.

Charles Cutter made the first explicit statement regarding the objectives of a bibliographic system in his Rules for a Printed Dictionary Catalog in 1876. According to Cutter, those objectives were:

1. to enable a person to find a book of which either (Identifying objective)

* the author
* the title
* the subject
* the category

is known.

2. to show what the library has (Collocating objective)

* by a given author
* on a given subject
* in a given kind of literature

3. to assist in the choice of a book (Evaluating objective)

* as to its edition (bibliographically)
* as to its character (literary or topical)

In today's library these would be greatly different. Although they could be kept in the same format I would reword them to be:

1. to enable a person to find information of which either (Identifying objective)

* the author
* the title
* the subject
* the category

is known.

2. to show what the library has online or in hardcopy (Collocating objective)

* by a given author
* on a given subject
* in a given kind of format

3. to assist in the choice of information (Evaluating objective)

* as to its format
* as to its character (literary or topical)

Other objectives in today's society would also be appropriate in terms of making specific objectives for online resources and specific objectives for hardcopy resources.

Alice Ferguson librarian extraordinaire

To day as part of this subject I was asked to listen to Alice Ferguson who is the librarian at Charles Sturt University talk about the importance of effective tools for organising and retrieving information.
She spoke about the four main information resources used to find information. They are:

1. library on the desktop
2. hard copy collection
3. libraries online data base collection
4. Internet.

1 & 2 are available by CSU catalog.
3 is commercially produced.
4 needs to use search engines to find the information.

1 & 2 the information is sound and easy to find.
4- the information is added at random and is less reliable. It is not well organised.

When finding call numbers the information is reliable and accurate and has been carefully chosen for accuracy by trained librarians.

The Internet dominates information retrieval although it is less reliable and not well organised.

In summary well organised information is essential to enable libraries to work well.

Module 1- The need for information resource description

Well here it is day 1 of the start of the new semester and my new subject ETL505.
Thanks to my in laws who have taken my children to Luna Park for the day I have been able to start the first module of this subject. That has been after the phone calls I just HAD to make, after doing 2 loads of washing and BEFORE I go out to lunch with the Attorney General of Australia's wife. Yep I do mix it with the big time...LOL

Anyway the big question to be answered in the first module is.......Why is it necessary for information agencies such as libraries to organise information effectively?

The simple answer is to be able to retrieve the information on demand.

Unfortunately according to my course notes there is more to it...............well duh, of course there is otherwise there would be no subject ETL505.

Main points Hider (2008) is making in his book pp21-23

• To make information retrieval systems work effectively there are three issues that are really important. (1) standards for organising information (2) participation in an agreement for exchanging metadata (3) participation in co-operatives to gain maximum benefit from exchanging metadata.
• Systems will become ineffective and not very cost effective if they don't address the above three issues.

Some input requirements for effective information retrieval systems.

• data input needs to adhere to widely understood standards.
• data input must require minimal effort.
• data input must meet the minimum requirements of the system.
• data input must maintain a high level of accuracy and consistency.

Some output requirements in relation to data output for effective information retrieval systems.

• data output must be readily understandable to the user
• data output must match users' requests as closely as possible.
• system must be user friendly.
• system should respond to users' requests as rapidly as possible.
• output must not be restricted to a limited number of terminals, but should be capable of being used simultaneously by all users who require it.
  

The start of a new semester

Well it is the weekend before the start of the new semester.
I am busy finishing off a patchwork quilt because once Uni starts there will be no time for anything else in my life.
I was quite happy on Friday when I got my results for last semester. A credit...yay.
Now bring on this semester.
I am doing one and a half subjects.
ETL507 complete with a study visit next holidays. I am really looking forward to that as I will be able to put faces to names. I really do miss the face to face contact.
ETL505 doesn't look as promising, just reading the assignments I am already terrified. Oh well I will just do it like everything else, one step at a time.