Fin?

Well, the class is about over, and Dr. O'Connor had some words of advice in a final posting of his to continue to "play" with new technologies and so forth (you never know what new discoveries could be made while just "playing around"!) but he also warned against addiction to technological phenomena, saying that there's a fine line between experimentation and such...Witness our addiction with the internet and now iphones...!Lucha contra la addiccion!

Dui y Cutr (Dewey probablemente lo habria escrito asi)

I recently learned something interesting about two historical figures in the library world which was news to me...In the late 19th century, Melvil Dewey was apparently found to be messing around with accounting books or something like that when dealing with multiple libraries, thus ending his relationship with Charles Ammi Cutter. Dewey and Cutter had been collaborating together on a classification system using BOTH elements of the Dewey Decimal and LC classification systems we know today before their working relationship terminated. Each man had been developing his respective system before they had decided to work together; it's interesting to think what type of joint system would have been produced by a fusion of Dewey and LC! Of course, Dewey's decimal system became more popular with public libraries for many reasons, not the least of which being that Dewey was better at promoting himself and his ideas than Cutter. The latter spent more time honing and improving his own system which has traditionally been adopted by academic libraries. While both systems have their proponents and opponents, Dewey's system is being looked upon more critically in recent times, with some public libraries even dropping the system altogether (and suffering the wrath of many in the process!)...

cuatrocientos cuarenta--!?Que te pasa?!

I don't know about all you other catalogers out there, but I find this business about OCLC dropping the 440 uncontrolled series title line and using only the 490 controlled series title line (with a first indicator of "0" instead of "1", no less!) sans dovetailing 830 line a bit misunderestimatingly confusing as to its purpose...and now I hear "e-mail talk" of the droppage of the 490 controlled series title line and using instead the (formerly) dovetailing 830 line...I mean, it just seems a little unnecessary to go through all this droppage and indicator changing and so forth when we catalogers (probably) know when to use a 440 or 490, etc. ...!... But I suppose it doesn't really matter, as we continue to do what we want to with our records when we download them from OCLC, anyway...But, there you have it, and I'm sure you agree totally!

dicho interesante--!si se puede!

I was given a sticky tab note at work the other week that had on it an interesting word creation:

"Blamestorming: When making it one person's fault just won't do."

I came up with my compound word joining example, but it's not as good, no doubt:

"Brainsnoring: When anything other than zoned-out, glazed-eyed consciousness won't do."

And I bet that if you make an attempt, you can come up with your own C.W.J. example! Try it; it will be a fun time!

mejor tecnologia para la biblioteca

http://www.aquabrowser.com/

This was a product I was very impressed with when I learned about it at the TLA conference back in April--if only all library "discovery platforms" worked this well!

Fijate!

Check out this new research tool which is freely available to all who use the internet...(It would have been nice to have it around during the ol' college career up to now!) The "ztour" video does a good job of explaining all the perks:

http://www.zotero.org/

Zotero works in conjunction with Firefox and integrates all kinds of disparate research methodologies and technologies. It is probably being used mainly in the academic world at the moment, but can definitely be useful to most anybody doing a significant amount of research...

aconsejo "seguro"

If tendonitis or carpal tunnel is making your job difficult, one option has always been the standard horizontal ergonomic keyboard (bottom photo). However, this traditional type of ergonomic keyboard eliminates only certain harmful typing positions. A vertical ergonomic keyboard, on the other hand, may be more helpful for you (top photo). You can read more at http://www.safetype.com/. I use one at work, and it's been a definite improvement for me. There is a lot less pain in my wrists when I type because of this simple yet effective keyboard.

la palabra es la llave

If most library online catalogs would only yield the accurate results with keyword searching that Google can, there would be a lot more satisfied library patrons out there--as well as librarians! Consider that if you search with these following phrases on Google, you can instantly get access to a great amount of knowledge about each subject, which isn't always the case when searching on a library's catalog...

CERN
Kiersey vs. MBTI
Musical Modes

por causa del perrito

Comprehension of information definitely requires a full understanding of the context of a given situation...if you didn't know there was a little dog bothering this pet deer, you might not really know why she's behaving this way (I personally had never heard a deer make these sounds myself, but then, I haven't been around too many deer in my life)...

Tienes FRBR?

The Fort Worth Library sent me to TLA back in April, which was my first time to go...The pre-conference session I went to was the one on FRBR/RDA given by UNT's own Shawne Miksa. Although the changes in cataloging philosophy discussed are still a ways off as far as practical implementation at my library, it was fairly interesting to see how comprehensively the new system will consider the classification of works(/expressions/manifestations/items)...This is a blog that provides access to some of the resources Dr. Miksa referenced in her presentation:

http://www.frbr.org/categories/rda

algunas de nuestras 'cosas' favoritas

Here are photos of our pets--Riley, our cat (mink ragdoll) and Maggie, our new dog (basset hound)...We just bought her the other day. The two of them are still 'adjusting' to each other...Can you guess which one was taken with my camera phone? That one was taken before we got our digital camera this past Christmas, but it's still one of the best of the beast...

primer mensaje

I thought I'd use my graduate school blog both as a personal blog and as an opportunity to utilize my limited Spanish (my undergradate) in the titles. Dr. O'Connor has certainly made this online class interesting so far with the discussion topics and lack of a traditional syllabus. I, like others in the course, have never created a blog (or a website, for that matter), and look forward to this creative experience. Soon I will post images of our "mascotas," as well as ruminate on the dazzling aspects of my vocation: cataloging (can't wait to be FRBRized!)...

Chau 'til then,
Pepe