Sheila S. Intner

Do we need extensive cataloging skills any more? Is that crossing a sacrosanct line? In today’s world where OPACs are the rule and most everything has been cataloged so that it becomes a matter of drag and drop, cataloging, in my opinion, is now optional for teacher librarians. That may not be so for credentialing, but we need not learn cataloging to the depth that it has been taught for many years. A cataloging course no days may be a part of a larger tagging, cataloging, searching, and show more retrieval course and this book is a slim and fairly easy read to understand the basics of organizing physical items. As more and more information goes digital, cataloging in the traditional sense becomes less important but subject and tagging and searching becomes more and more important. In this slim volume, we get chapters on copy cataloging, Dewey, Sears, LC children’s subject headings, cataloging books and nonbook materials, CIP, cataloging for non-English speakers and preliterate children, automation, and vendors of cataloging information. Used in an academic setting, this volume can be one of several texts used or it can be used as a beginner’s guide or a brush up volume that won’t take that much time to read and study. The three authors here are pros. You can’t go wrong. show less

This guide keeps getting better and better as a consice guide to the entire process of cataloging from description to classification to subject headings of both print and multimedia materials. It is useful both as a text for beginning cataloging classes and also for personal study. Coupled with a guide to MARC such as Pieppenburg’s Easy Marc, plus a current copy of abridged Dewey and a Sears List of Subject Headings should constitute everything needed for those who need to do original show more cataloging. For the rest of us downloaders, we can usually find cataloging copy from our automated systems software. Recommended for the purists of the field. show less

In the case of most school libraries (and some small public libraries) cataloging isn't the priority it was in years past. This type of book offers some interesting explanations for why certain practices are done the way they are done. This is helpful in understanding and facilitating information with students and teachers. More of a true cataloger's tool, this book does offer some concepts about how to categorize elements of information that are helpful regardless of role in the library. show more Good resource for library science students and anyone who wishes to review how cataloging happens. One of its helpful features has to do with management of a collection. Questions about an interactive/collaborative concept regarding information need to be carefully addressed given current theories of curriculum and learning practices. show less

Cataloging Correctly for Kids is a compilation of essays (works?) that discuss how to take the tools already in place for larger libraries, such as the Library of Congress and public university libraries, and apply them to children's literature. It is invaluable knowledge for the children's librarian, although some of the knowledge is invariably muddled in the details.