15 interesting facts about Wikipedia

I'm a fan myself, within reason. If it's important, it always a good idea to have multiple sources - that goes for any starting resource. Also, I think it's an amazing goal, and they/we have come an amazing distance towards attaining it.


[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/15-interesting-facts-about-wikipedia/

Parts of a bibliographic record

Activity:
To identify which elements of three catalogue records describe the item (1), and which describe its content (2). Completed using SCIS OPAC.

Record 1:
1:
Title: Llamas / Aaron Frisch.
Series: Let’s investigate wildlife
Publisher: Mankato, Minn. : Creative Education, 2003.
Edition: 1st ed.
Description: 31 p. : col. ill.
Main Author: Frisch, Aaron.
2:
Subject Headings: Llamas. scisshl
Call Nos: 599.63 FRI a14
599.6367 FRI 22
Summary: Presents information on llamas, including their physical characteristics and behavior, as well as how people in South America have utilized them throughout history.

Record 2:
1:
Title: The tale of Despereaux : being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread / Kate DiCamillo ; illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering.
ISBN: 0744598699
Publisher: London : Walker, 2004.
Description: 270 p. : ill.
Main Author: DiCamillo, Kate.
Contributors: Ering, Timothy Basil.
2:
Subject Headings: Mice - Fiction. scisshl
Newbery Medal. scisshl
Call Nos: F DIC a13
Summary
DiCamillo's cherished Newbery Medal winner receives a stunning new treatment in a slipcased edition featuring 24 new full-color illustrations specially created for this collectible gift edition.
Tags
adventure animals children children's children's fiction children's literature fairy tales fantasy juvenile mice Newbery Newbery Medal princess rats young adult

Record 3:
1:
Title: The teaching of handwriting, revised edition [electronic resource] : training resource.
Other Titles: Handwriting
Publisher: Melbourne : Dept. of Education & Training, 2002.
Description: 1 CD-ROM : col.
Contributors: Victoria. Department of Education & Training.
Notes: System requirements: IBM compatible PC ; CD-ROM drive.
Contents Note: Contents: Slide presentation
PowerPoint resource files
Speaker notes
Handouts.
2:
Subject Headings: Handwriting - Study and teaching. scisshl
Teachers - In-service education. scisshl
Call Nos: 652 TEA a13
652.107 TEA 21

Time

Section 1.8 of the readings discusses the fact that as teacher librarians we need to balance what we do. We have important roles supporting teachers and students, teaching information literacy, and cooperative planning; the organisation of our resources, and effective cataloguing are important to make these things as effective as possible and to save time whilst doing them, but we need to make sure that we are saving time overall - so spending more time cataloguing than we are saving elsewhere is not sensible use of time. It is better to not have a perfect library with perfectly catalogued resources, as long as it is still an effective one and the important roles of the teacher librarian can be carried out effectively as well.

This resonates heavily with the perfectionist within me, and I suspect that I will need to remind myself of this important detail in the future.

Libraries, museums and archives

I now need to think/talk about the difference between these three information outlets, using the following prompts:

What information is each dealing with?
Libraries predominantly print texts, though other things too; Museums predominantly 3D objects, though they "theoretically have no limit"; Archives predominantly records. There are objects which could be found in all three, but usually the purpose of your search would take you to one in particular.

How different is it?
These types of information are different in that the metatdata they have varies - they cannot necessarily be entered into the system the same way. Where print resources generally have things such as an author, title and year of publication to describe them, items in a museum or archive generally have less concrete descriptors.

How does it change what information we might want to organise and retrieve?
As stated above, there is some crossover between objects found in each institution, but usually you would go to the one which will primarily deal with the type of information you are after, for example if you are looking for family history, you are more likely to go to an archive than a library. Whilst libraries can still have information on family history, they are likely to allow archives to concentrate on organising records. This makes it easier for the cataloguers/archivers, as well as for the consumers.

The final subject: Bibliographic Standards in Education

And back into the reflections on learning I go. Now, other than working on my portfolio, I will only have one subject to reflect upon. I am immediately getting the impression however that this subject will involve quite a heavy workload. Mix that with my current teaching load, and the planning that is coming with that... I had better get stuck into it!

With time restrictions in mind, I am going to attempt to keep my reflections brief.

Why is it necessary for information agencies such as libraries to organise information effectively?

My thoughts on the matter:
- In order to be able to easily access resources
- In order for customers to be able to easily access resources
- For ease of stocktake
- So that finding one resource can lead to finding others on the same topic/by the same author
- So the space is attractive

Those were my instant thoughts, without too much effort. Let's see if I get any more ideas from my further reading.