Subject access to fiction

Another article we were supposed to read prior to our trip to Mexico was Subject Access to Fiction: a case study based on the works of Pat Mora.  This article was published in the Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage.

I found this article to be a much more of a difficult read.  I feel this is mostly due to the fact that it dove into a much more detailed look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings and about the cataloging of materials in other languages. 

I have very little practical experience with subject headings, especially to the specifics that the article discussed.  Even though I found the article to be harder to read I also thought that this particular article served the class in a more realistic way.  From what has been explained to us about the tasks we will be completing in San Miguel this article dealt with those topics and explained in detail about the standards that are currently in place to deal with discrepancies and issues related to different languages.

Spanish Spoken here…comments

Here is another post over an article we were asked to read in preparation to our service learning trip to San Miguel de Allende.  The article was titled Spanish Spoken Here: Eliminating Spanish-language fiction undermines the validity of public libraries.  This article was written by Todd Douglas Quesada and was published in American Libraries. 

The article talks about the controversy surrounding the Spanish-speaking community and whether libraries should provide materials to the Spanish-speaking users in their native languages. Quesada references the state of Georgia and the difficulties they have been faced with because of the increase in the number of illegal, Spanish-speaking immigrants.  The debate deals with whether it is the public libraries’ responsibility to provide illegal immigrants with materials.  Obviously there are legal residents that have Spanish as their native language and would benefit from the Spanish materials.

The majority of the debate surrounds the idea that tax payers do not feel that it is appropriate for libraries to utilize their tax dollars to purchase materials that will be accessed by illegal, non-tax paying immigrants.  While this is a very valid point, I find this to be a little ridiculous.  I was very surprised by Quesada’s remark “I advocate open information accessibility for the millions of Latino citizens who work; pay taxes, and are library users entitled to the same rights as any other American citizen.”  I just wonder whether or not Quesada has ever been to another country and used the library.  He would not be a tax paying citizens of that country and I don’t suppose he would be prohibited from using the resources of that library.  Why should we prohibit in our own country?

While I understand the difficulties that the library faces when dealing with this issue, I also think that eliminating Spanish language materials all together in a library is not the best way to handle this situation.

My thoughts…’Why authority control is good for your library’

I was very surprised by this article.  I did not realize that authority control personnel was going the way of the dinosaurs!  To me authority control should be a standard in any library.  I was not aware of what all authority control was until I read this article. I guess the article was correct in saying “Authority control operates mostly behind the scenes”  I didn’t realize that something so small as having cross-referencing between Cookbooks and Cookery could possibly cause a barrier for the user.

I do understand that because of fiscal constraints it is difficult for libraries to have a specific job position for just authority control.  But surely there are other options. 

For example, I worked at a small academic library as a student worker.  This library had one full-time library director and one full-time para-professional.  Obviously the work required in an academic library exceeds what the two staff members can provide.  That is why they hired close to a dozen student workers.  The student workers were given a wide variety of duties from sitting at the circulation/reference desk, processing new books, shelving materials, ordering materials, and cleaning up records on the OPAC.

Part of my job was to clean up the MARC records.  I would use the browse feature on our catalog and check each record to make sure there were no typos or erroneous information on the record.  While this is mostly just the ‘clean-up’ job, it is still an important part of authority control.  If there happens to be a typo it can cause that particular record to not be found when a patron does a keyword search.

My library utilized student workers to check all the records.  This seems like a reasonable way around having to pay a full-time salary position.  Obviously it would be a little bit more difficult for a public or a special library to find away around this, but the type of work I was doing could easily be done by a member of the community as volunteer work.

Yikes…it’s been awhile

It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been busy with my travel arrangements and other projects that I’m working on.  Part of the difficulties I faced with making my arrangements was because of my job.  My job is requiring me to be at a conference in Denver from October 8-12.  Since we leave for Mexico on the 12th I was trying to determine when I could excuse myself from the conference and begin the journey to San Miguel.

As part of the requirements for the class we are suppose to read a few articles/text and post our thoughts here on the blog.  Within the next few days I hope to have my comments posted.  🙂 At least that’s the plan.

Hola!

Hello all,

My name is Katie Hill.  I am a Graduate Student at the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University.  This fall I, along with several other students, will travel to Mexico for a service learning project.  Our class will take us to San Miguel de Allende.  While in San Miguel, we will be assisting the Biblioteca Publica in a variety of ways including collection development, cataloging, and database maintenance for the library’s OPAC. 

Not only will this trip give us library experience of a more global nature, but it will also provide us with a unique cultural experience by submersing ourselves in the Mexican culture of San Miguel de Allende.

As our departure date approaches I will make continuous updates to fill you all in on the trip!

Katie

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