 |
 |
Educatters A couple of questions about class practice items for cataloging and metadata assignments: In-class practice work can be fun and effective in getting across the theory. Brief standards like Dublin Core are fine for this purpose, but with AACR2, LSCH, MARC, LCC, DDC, etc. being so cumbersome, it is no longer practical for students to work with these tools in a classroom environment, especially with large size classes. Has anyone from the group been successful in finding workarounds for this? In discussing practice homework assignments, I am noticing that many students seem eager for intellectual stimulation in addition to practical and professional relevance. Students who plan to be catalogers or who see some other direct practical application to the material will have a built-in interest, but others will be looking for content which is intellectually engaging in its own right. Work involving subject analysis is easy to make interesting on both a theoretical and practical level, but topics like descriptive cataloging present more of a challenge. Can anyone recommend ways of structuring practice work that are particularly effective in generating lively discussion on both a practical but a theoretical level? C. Olivia Frost Associate Dean and Professor School of Information University of Michigan