Activity 3

I feel so relieved that I have submitted my work for Activity 3. I learned a lot from my trials and tribulations. I have a better understanding of the Main Classes and Subclasses. I completed the activity thoroughly, going into more detail then was required. It proved to be a good exercise for me.

Here is my post:
As you would have discerned from my reflection post on this activity, I experienced anxiety in regards to this activity. Robyn said it nicely, “I learned a lot about what I need in terms of direction, in order to be a successful learner. This activity required self-led exploration of the DDC and LCC.”

I was extremely hard on myself because I was not really familiar with the classification systems, so I madly went about trying to learn everything about the DDC system and attempted some examples from our text. Some of them I failed badly. I was quite discouraged, but you see I started at Step 6, rather than progressing slowly from Step 1 and so forth. I would never do that to my students, but here I was doing it to myself.

Sandra and John stated in our course outline that cataloguing couldn’t be learned in a day! I can see it will take awhile and should have heeded their advice.

My problem was I was getting bogged down in the decimals rather than beginning from the big picture – Main Classes and then Subdivisions.

After much research and readings, and with the assistance of my colleagues, I was able to complete the activity quite well.

Like everyone I found the Amicus site (I am now a registered user), and the Library of Congress site invaluable. I don’t know if everyone is aware of this or not, but the site also has a very good breakdown of LC. See: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/; this was very useful. I also found my own library operating system extremely helpful, since I could read the MARC records and discern the various classifications.

I actually liked the DDC system better because it made more sense to me. The LC, although had many detailed subclasses, it was random. One really has to be using the system for quite awhile before getting to know all the letters and subclasses off by heart!

So it is with great pleasure that I attach Activity 3!

Bev Hines expressed the same feelings as myself under my "Reflection" post for this activity and I quickly replied with some good advice:

Bev, read my post for Activity 3. The assignment is actually easier than first thought. Take everyone's advice and find the text you are doing on the LCC site. It gives you both the DDC and of course the LCC number. From there, study your main classes and subclasses and the subject headings come from the full record on the resource. One gets good practice and gradually you get the swing of it. (Well, for this activity...now for the $ / # computer markings, well that is another matter! Hopefully, we will continue to support each other.