ILS 506 Information Analysis and Organization

Dr. Eino Sierpe

Fall 2009

Catalog Description

Principles of developing, evaluating, and organizing collections of all types of materials.

Descriptive and subject analysis of materials. Commonly used guides, codes, and source
materials. This course is a core requirement of the M.L.S. program.

Required and recommended textbooks and online resources

Anglo-American cataloguing rules. (2nd ed.). (2002 Rev.). Chicago: American Library
Association. ISBN: 083893529X.

Saye, Jerry (2000). Manheimer’s cataloging and classification. 4th ed., Rev. and
expanded. New York: Basel. ISBN: 0824794761 (alk. paper). Including CD-ROM

Dewey Decimal classification and relative index (2007) (Edition 22)

Scott, Mona L. (2005). Dewey Decimal Classification: a study manual and number
building guide: 22nd ed. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN: 1591582105.

Taylor, Arlene G. (2005). The organization of information. 2nd ed. Westport, Conn.:
Libraries unlimited. ISBN: 1563089696 (Paperback).

Taylor, Arlene G. (2000). Wynar’s introduction to cataloging and classification. 9th ed.
Englewood, Col.: Libraries Unlimited.

Online resources: The following URL links will be useful throughout the course:

Library of Congress. Understanding MARC bibliographic: machine-readable cataloging.

Available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb/

Library of Congress. Understanding MARC authority records: machine-readable

cataloging. Available at: http://www.loc.gov/marc/uma/index.html

Library of Congress. MARC 21 concise format for bibliographic data.

Available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbdhome.html

Library of Congress. MARC 21 concise format for authority data.

Available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/authority/ecadhome.html
Library of Congress. Catalog. Available at: http://catalog.loc.gov

Library of Congress. Authorities. Available at: http://authorities.loc.gov

 Introduction to Dewey Decimal Classification. Available at:
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/ddc22print/intro.pdf

Dewey Decimal Classification: Glossary. Available at:

http://www.oclc.org/dewey/versions/ddc22print/glossary.pdf

Mann, Thomas (2006). What is going on at the Library of Congress? Available at:
http://lisnews.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/22/1520208

Milstead, Jessica; Feldman, Susan. (1999). Metadata: cataloging by any other name--.

http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/thesis/cguetl_diss/literatur/Kapitel06/References/Milstead_et_a
l._1999/metadata.html

Learning Goals and Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the fundamental principles of descriptive cataloging and the importance of

description in the creation of institutional information infrastructures;

2. Understand the fundamental principles of descriptive cataloging and the importance of

description in the provision of information services;

3. Understand the importance of subject analysis and classification in information retrieval,

in both manual and electronic environments;

4. Apply international standards to create and modify bibliographic records; and

5. Undertake entry-level cataloging work assignments in a variety of institutional settings.

Highlights of the Course and Samples of Work

ILS 506, provides a systematic and thorough introduction to the fundamental concepts
underlying information description, analysis, and organization, as well as the practical
applications of these concepts in libraries and information centers.

This course included 12 units introduced us to the Information Analysis and Organization.
These units contained the basic concepts of

1- Descriptive cataloging
Special emphasis is given to the description of standard library materials using the
International Standard for Bibliographic Description (ISBD) as embodied in the latest
edition of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR), the creation of bibliographic
records for manual and electronic environments, classification, subject access, and catalog
construction.
In this course students were introduced to Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) in its
latest standard (http://www.loc.gov/marc/). MARC constitutes the structure that underlies
the construction and support of bibliographic online public access catalogs (OPACs).
Students will also be given opportunities to understand and use MARC support
documentation.
Using the (AACR), we learnt how to create MARC records with Access points: Main and
Added Entries, Headers for access points. We did lots of exercises and this link to my First
graded assignment which I practiced creating MARC records to some books.
2- Classification Systems(Library Of Congress, DDC)
With the Library of Congress shelflisting rules we were able to do the Second assignment
in shelflisting 40 titles of individual Author (Isabel Allende).

We have been introduced to Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and in the Third
assignment I chose that option of using DDC to check its abilities to classify web URLs
in different subject.

3- Subject analysis( Library of Congress Subject Headings)

This was the last part of the analysis of information; we were introduced to rules of
subject heading using the Library of Congress Subject Headings list.
By the fourth and Final Assignment we were able to use all these concepts (cataloging both
descriptive, and subjective), and also LC classification shelflisting rules to give the Call
number of the book that we had to analyze.