Rubric-Grading+MARC+Records

=COMMON ERRORS IN ENTERING INFORMATION INTO A MARC RECORD =

RUBRIC: COMMON ERRORS IN ENTERING INFORMATION INTO MARC RECORDS

There is both art and science to cataloging and you will find differences in records in different catalogs – even though we’re all supposed to be using the same AACR2 rules.

My number one rule: more information is more. Add as much information to the MARC record as you can to give your patron a chance to find the material. Keep in mind that students are use to finding information through Google and your catalog database is REALLY small and the chances of the students having the skill or tenacity to keep at it until they find the material they want is not very high. Remember – short attention span. So – you will not be marked down for having MORE information than is necessary but I will comment and possibly subtract points if the record is too brief.

It used to be in the olden days that we had to catalog briefly in order to get as much information on a card (or cards) as we could but now our electronic catalogs can pump as much information out to the user as we have time for.

Below are the common cataloging errors and the point deduction you will receive if they are present in your catalog record. The overriding issue with MARC records is if the error hinders/prevents the patron from finding the information which will result in a full point deduction for the error. Other types of errors will be a .5 deduction.

**AUTHOR DATES (-.5 points if missing**)
 * Take time to look for the author dates for the 100 $d subfield. Easiest way – Wikipedia, for example. There are also authorities sites listed on the class wiki.


 * CAPITALIZATION (-.5 points for each error) **
 * Remember titles are written with the first word capitalized and the rest of the words lower case unless it is a proper noun or adjective:
 * 245 $a Celtic fairy tales
 * 245 $a Desertions during the Civil War
 * Subtitles are continuations of the title statement thus the first word of the subtitle is not capitalized and the only words capitalized are proper nouns or adjectives.
 * 245 $a Harry Potter: page to screen, the complete filmmaking journey
 * 245 $a Teaching Harry Potter: the power of imagination in multicultural classrooms


 * PAGINATION (-.5 points for each error) **
 * This was a little tricky for some of the books because the (a) books were not paginated and you would have had to count each page and enter the information in brackets in the 300 $a subfield to indicated that you supplied the information, e.g. [31] p.
 * Typical errors in copy cataloging come from assuming the record matches the edition of the book you are cataloging. You must, for example, look through the item to make sure the number of pages matches the copy cataloging MARC record.


 * PLACE OF PUBLICATION (-.5 points for each error) **
 * The absolutely correct abbreviation for states is the old post office style of abbreviation, e.g. Calif. instead of CA but I’m seeing more records show up with the new style post office abbreviations, so that is okay with me. States should always be abbreviated rather than written out: e.g. MN rather than Minnesota

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**SUMMARY NOTE** (-1 point for the absence of a summary note and -.5 if the summary note is incomplete or poorly formed.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The 520 field (a must in my class) should be written in a paragraph style. Give me enough information so that I can tell something about the book. Too brief of information is the same thing as not telling me anything. This is particularly true for fiction. There are lots of summaries out there on the Web – take advantage of your searching capability. If you use someone else’s summary, put the information in quotation marks and indicate the original source. The summary is not a recommendation for the item – it should be written in a neutral manner – telling us what the item’s information is about.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS** (-1 automatic point deduction for each typo or spelling error)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Typos will result in an automatic deduction. Why, because if you type it wrong no one will be able to find your record unless they type it exactly wrong the way you mistyped it. Be sure to proofread.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**TITLE STATEMENT** (-.5 if missing or poorly formed) >
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the 245 $c subfield you have the main person(s) responsible for the work. The main person responsible is listed in the 100 $a subfield but the others listed in the 245 $c should show up in a 700 $a subfield. NOTE: name is lastname, firstname in 100 $a and 700 $a and firstname and lastname for the 245 $c subfield.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">100 $a Jacobs, Joseph
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">245 $c collected by Joseph Jacobs ; illustrated by John D. Batten
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">700 $a Batton, John D.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">TITLES IN A FIELD **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AACR2 does not use italics or quote marks to indicate titles – just the first word in the title is capitalized, e.g. From bad to worse, Hard to beat and A terrible Christmas

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Again, this is a new world to you and our job for the rest of this class is to become familiar enough with MARC records so that you can spot a poor record sent to you by a vendor or a poor or incomplete record that you find in another online catalog.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bottom line: No school librarian will have time (or should take time) to do a lot of original cataloging but you need to know what a good record looks like and how to fix it if need be.