It's All Coming Back to Me

 

Cataloging is hard. I took descriptive and subject cataloging at Simmons University with the infamous Danny Joudrey who wrote our textbook. His policy was that if you truly took the class seriously and tried your best, he'd give you a B. I got a B+ in both classes. I've done two cataloging internships, but have never worked as a cataloger. Mostly due to there not being a whole lot of cataloging jobs out there. Or if one came up, it wasn't worth leaving my current job as an ILL Librarian for. 

Getting my MS LIS was a blur. I went right after college, so I'm 22... no real life experience with a still developing frontal lobe. I felt pretty lost when I graduated Simmons and like I had learned nothing and still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. And then a series of events fell into place that led me to the Library Media Studies program here at SSU. 

When I saw we would be reading Catalog It! I thought this would finally be my chance to really solidify my cataloging knowledge. After all, I only have B+ wealth of information in my head. I figured this book would help clarify some things and whisk away some of the blurriness from my Simmons days. 

I was surprised to learn that I actually remember way more than I thought! Reading through chapter 4 about subject headings, it all started to come back about how to build those very long LCSH strings. Dr. Joudrey referred to the dewey decimal system as the most interesting way to use numbers. The book didn't bore me either. I found it to be interesting as to how the author chose to simplify cataloging into one (comparatively very short) book. These past two weeks reminded me why I chose cataloging to begin with and also why I'd rather teach! I'd rather teach because I learned I have a knack for it in a way that I will never be an exemplary cataloger. So anyways, while others in the class may have been struggling to learn a new skill, I've been over here having an existential moment.