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Hello Buzz
I confronted this one several years ago when I realised that if I was a student given a cataloguing exercise to do - I would head for the nearest terminal and check out a quality catalogue and download the requsite record - add one or two minor errors (if required) and task completed! 
 
The way I get round this is to create the title pages and all the appropriate details - plus extra non-essential details for the students to sift throough and select from when cataloguing. This allows me to include appropriate detailing and levels of complexity in say the classification that neatly differntiates the hard core cataloguiers from the tourists.
 
When you construct the examples yourself you can include the detailing you require inthe limited number of examples that form the test pieces. Sadly I also enjoy the playful process of item creation.
 
Best wishes
 
Keith
 
Keith V. Trickey
Senior Lecturer
Liverpool Business School
Liverpool John Moores University

________________________________

From: Discussion List for issues related to cataloging & metadata education & training on behalf of Buzz Haughton
Sent: Wed 4/8/2009 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [eduCAT] Final exam for LS 506



Greetings, all!

I'm a long-time cataloger at UC Davis (since 1980). I was asked by Elizabeth
Aversa, dean of the School of Library and Information Studies at the U of
AL, to teach an online elective class in cataloging and classification for
the spring semester. I began in early January, and the semester will
conclude at the end of this month.

60 percent of the students' grade will come from their performance on the
final exam. I plan to scan a minimum of ten and a maximum of twenty title
pages, covers, containers, etc. of various formats (books, serials, CDs,
videos, DVDs, software) and ask the students to catalog at least ten to the
test account SLIS has in OCLC Connexion.

My problems are these: first, at least eighty percent of the cataloging I do
consists of originals, and at least eight percent of that isn't in English.
When I queried my students about their comfort level working with
non-English-language materials, most said okay so long as it is in standard
western European languages, but a few insisted they would not want to do
non-English.

My second problem is that it's going to be difficult to find materials,
particularly in English, that don't already have copy. I'm not sure if I
should trust my students not to peek. ;-) A cataloger friend thinks I should
comb Connexion for old copy (i.e. pre-AACR2), so that the descriptive
cataloging, at least, would need retrofitting according to what I've taught
them.

I've posed these two questions to Dr. Aversa and Dr. Steven MacCall, a
professor at SLIS. Dr. Aversa hasn't responded yet; Dr. MacCall thinks I
shouldn't hesitate to give my students non-English things to catalog.

Do any of you have opinions you'd like to share with me?

Buzz Haughton
100 N West Quad
Davis CA 95616-5292
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