-It seems that today can be added to the nice weather streak. Some seem to even be hoping that such weather will make it all the way to the weekend.
Actually, I might go so far as to say that the weather is a little too warm. I know that I was really sweating by the time I made it to work this morning.
-The more I encounter them the more I realize that I am not a particularly big fan of the special Canadian subclasses that have been made to work like LCC subclasses. I can't say that my complaint is a fuller treatment of Canadian subjects, as this is something that is definitely needed in the LCC system. It must be my unrelenting attempt to stay within the lines (or rules) as they have been set out by some governing authority, in this case the Library of Congress. It may also because I haven't obtained copies of the Canadian subclasses so I don't ever know what is going on when I see them. I think it also may have to do with the concept of maintaining a pure LCC system, something that seems strangely attractive.
-Yesterday I was able to pick up my diploma from the post office. Fortunately McGill didn't make any spelling or capitalization mistakes in my name. I guess I now have to figure out what I want to do with it, which will probably be not much of anything.
-Last night at my house-sitting gig the cat and dog were antagonizing each other all night long, or, actually, only the portion of the night during which I was trying sleep. I would guess that their bickering cost me several hours of sleep, which was a bit of a blow and has certainly affected how I am feeling today.
On my walk with the dog today I learned that its stamina isn't quite what I would have expected for a greyhound. On really needs to take it slow otherwise the dog will overheat.
-It seems that my father and I may be taking our spraying show on the road. That friend that was helping us a few days ago is interested in having us spray his trees tonight. Hopefully we get going soon otherwise it will be dark before we finish.
Showing posts with label Cataloguing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cataloguing. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Amicus, where did you go?
Soon after I arrived at work today I logged into Amicus, the Canadian National Catalogue, as is my practice. All seemed to be going as normal until about an hour or so into the day. All of a sudden I seemed not to be able to complete my searches, and then eventually I became unable to even access the splash page.
Assuming that this was a brief glitch I decided that I would leave it alone and come back in a few days. As I checked back during the problems were clearly still persisting.
Eventually I thought that maybe there would be an update or explanation somewhere online. Unfortunately, as the entire Library and Archives Canada site was inaccessible the most obvious location for such a notice was unavailable. In the end I tried to look in a few place, all of which turned up nothing. As I am pretty sure that there must be a message board with comments related to this occurrence I may have to continue my searching tomorrow (even though the problem has now been resolved).
Not surprisingly, with Amicus down, I decided to head over to the Library of Congress catalogue, assuming that their classifications of particular items would be pretty authoritative. Once in the catalog I learned that they too were having service problems. In this case the message I received indicated that they had reached their maximum user capacity.
While it is quite possible that this is what happened, I wonder if they were operating at diminished capacity as I have a very hard time believing that it is such a popular site that it would max out its capacity. Who knows, maybe I hit prime East coast cataloging time. As I don't use the service as much as I use Amicus I am not really in a position to say that this doesn't happen every day at that time.
Hopefully everything will be back on track tomorrow and their to serve my classification related needs.
Assuming that this was a brief glitch I decided that I would leave it alone and come back in a few days. As I checked back during the problems were clearly still persisting.
Eventually I thought that maybe there would be an update or explanation somewhere online. Unfortunately, as the entire Library and Archives Canada site was inaccessible the most obvious location for such a notice was unavailable. In the end I tried to look in a few place, all of which turned up nothing. As I am pretty sure that there must be a message board with comments related to this occurrence I may have to continue my searching tomorrow (even though the problem has now been resolved).
Not surprisingly, with Amicus down, I decided to head over to the Library of Congress catalogue, assuming that their classifications of particular items would be pretty authoritative. Once in the catalog I learned that they too were having service problems. In this case the message I received indicated that they had reached their maximum user capacity.
While it is quite possible that this is what happened, I wonder if they were operating at diminished capacity as I have a very hard time believing that it is such a popular site that it would max out its capacity. Who knows, maybe I hit prime East coast cataloging time. As I don't use the service as much as I use Amicus I am not really in a position to say that this doesn't happen every day at that time.
Hopefully everything will be back on track tomorrow and their to serve my classification related needs.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 174
-Today, like the past few days, has been remarkably pleasant. The temperatures, which are in the teens, are great for walking and other semi-active outdoor activities. This are made even better by the fact that the sun is shining and that the skies are clear. Shockingly, the wind isn't even over powering.
The only remaining evidence of how bad thing were in May is general condition of the plant-life in the city. Some of the tulips are just now starting to bloom. And in the past few days a few of the trees have started to show signs upcoming leaf growth. Hopefully within a week or two we will be close to back on track (which is certainly a slower track, even at the best of times, than most of North America).
-Yesterday I was able to put my newly acquired cataloging skills to good use. For the first time in my working life I was able to use the LC classification schedules while cataloging for money. While I am pleased to say that I have now used them in a work environment, I must say it was a bit anticlimactic.
The positive side of this addition to my repertoire is that I can now start moving through a broader range of library materials. I am no longer restricted to only government documents. Things are starting to look up.
-Obviously, I am back at work, or at least that is the information that I would hope most would get from the above note.
For the most part I am basically doing the same things that I did in the past, but that I am now expected to do at a higher level. It seems that as I now have a library degree I can't shirk too many of the things that come my way (not that I was doing that in the past).
The only disappointment of the job is that I was reclassified from 'summer student' to 'Library technician IV.' Not surprisingly, I had really hoped that I would have been able to get a post that have more accurately reflected the fact that I now have a library degree.
-Early this morning Kirsten and I made our way over to Georgetown Bakery on our weekly bagel pilgrimage. Fortunately, as was the case last week, they weren't sold out when I placed the order. While their we ran into our former neighbour and were able to get a description of his new dog.
-On Thursday night a friend and I went to a recently opened bar just off George street for a beer. The main justification for choosing the particular bar was that his ladyfriend was working her first shift there.
As it is a relatively new bar it wasn't all that surprising to find that there weren't that many customers there when we arrived. Actually, most of the people there seemed to either be friends with the owner or in some way associated with the bar staff.
After the newly minted bartender had received her orientation she was able to come by and serve us some beer. Within about two minutes of having received these beers a guy down at the other end of the bar purchased everyone at the bar a round with some recent VLT winnings.
We eventually started talking to the younger sister of a former classmate of ours (who was to start as a bartender the next night). While talking to her the VLT winner purchased another round for the bar, this time shots of Goldschlager.
While I appreciate it when someone buys round for the bar I wonder why it can't be that I have such luck on a night when I don't have to be at work at 9:00 AM the next day.
-On Thursday I prepared 'coq au vin' for dinner. As some of you might know, this is a dish that is based on wine marinated chicken. Not surprisingly, a few additional components are thrown in during the cooking process. While the three recipes that I examined vary slightly, they are remarkably similar, with only a few side ingredients changing.
While this was a pretty flavourful dish I did have two problems. The first problem was of my own making and was related to the timing of things. Instead of preparing the coq au vin as soon as I returned from work, I instead prepared the gingerbread and didn't start work on the main dish until the dessert was in the oven. Secondly, the dish was a little bit greasier than I might have like. The next time I make it I will be sure to remove some of the bacon grease before I continue adding other ingredients.
The only remaining evidence of how bad thing were in May is general condition of the plant-life in the city. Some of the tulips are just now starting to bloom. And in the past few days a few of the trees have started to show signs upcoming leaf growth. Hopefully within a week or two we will be close to back on track (which is certainly a slower track, even at the best of times, than most of North America).
-Yesterday I was able to put my newly acquired cataloging skills to good use. For the first time in my working life I was able to use the LC classification schedules while cataloging for money. While I am pleased to say that I have now used them in a work environment, I must say it was a bit anticlimactic.
The positive side of this addition to my repertoire is that I can now start moving through a broader range of library materials. I am no longer restricted to only government documents. Things are starting to look up.
-Obviously, I am back at work, or at least that is the information that I would hope most would get from the above note.
For the most part I am basically doing the same things that I did in the past, but that I am now expected to do at a higher level. It seems that as I now have a library degree I can't shirk too many of the things that come my way (not that I was doing that in the past).
The only disappointment of the job is that I was reclassified from 'summer student' to 'Library technician IV.' Not surprisingly, I had really hoped that I would have been able to get a post that have more accurately reflected the fact that I now have a library degree.
-Early this morning Kirsten and I made our way over to Georgetown Bakery on our weekly bagel pilgrimage. Fortunately, as was the case last week, they weren't sold out when I placed the order. While their we ran into our former neighbour and were able to get a description of his new dog.
-On Thursday night a friend and I went to a recently opened bar just off George street for a beer. The main justification for choosing the particular bar was that his ladyfriend was working her first shift there.
As it is a relatively new bar it wasn't all that surprising to find that there weren't that many customers there when we arrived. Actually, most of the people there seemed to either be friends with the owner or in some way associated with the bar staff.
After the newly minted bartender had received her orientation she was able to come by and serve us some beer. Within about two minutes of having received these beers a guy down at the other end of the bar purchased everyone at the bar a round with some recent VLT winnings.
We eventually started talking to the younger sister of a former classmate of ours (who was to start as a bartender the next night). While talking to her the VLT winner purchased another round for the bar, this time shots of Goldschlager.
While I appreciate it when someone buys round for the bar I wonder why it can't be that I have such luck on a night when I don't have to be at work at 9:00 AM the next day.
-On Thursday I prepared 'coq au vin' for dinner. As some of you might know, this is a dish that is based on wine marinated chicken. Not surprisingly, a few additional components are thrown in during the cooking process. While the three recipes that I examined vary slightly, they are remarkably similar, with only a few side ingredients changing.
While this was a pretty flavourful dish I did have two problems. The first problem was of my own making and was related to the timing of things. Instead of preparing the coq au vin as soon as I returned from work, I instead prepared the gingerbread and didn't start work on the main dish until the dessert was in the oven. Secondly, the dish was a little bit greasier than I might have like. The next time I make it I will be sure to remove some of the bacon grease before I continue adding other ingredients.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 108
[Written on Monday July 23, 2007]
-From yesterday’s rain and wind we have returned to the realm of beautiful weather. Fortunately, today managed to be beautiful without being oppressively hot and humid. High levels of humidity have been particularly problematic these past few days.
-As I was eating breakfast this morning I started to think about what I might want for lunch. Aside from the normal, and somewhat mundane, options, I thought that I might like a piece of the coffee cake that I baked on Sunday. As I was the only one in the kitchen I didn’t have a chance to make these sentiments known to anyone else. I continued along my way and tried my best to keep up with my typical morning routine.
After showering and dressing, I descended to the kitchen to finish my lunch preparations. Almost as soon as I walked in I noticed that my mother, father, and sister were sitting at the dining room table, each with a plate of scrambled eggs and cake in front of them. To add insult to injury, they left half a corner piece in the pan.
- While cataloguing a 1971 report on the population characteristics of unincorporated communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, I was struck by the first sentence of the report. The report opens by stating that it "provides basic detailed information…." While one can read it differently, it seemed a little odd to me that information could be considered basic and detailed at the same time. As I flipped through the report, this veracity of the statement became obvious. None of the information was complex, but certainly was detailed with age and gender breakdowns provided for very particular geographic locations.
-From yesterday’s rain and wind we have returned to the realm of beautiful weather. Fortunately, today managed to be beautiful without being oppressively hot and humid. High levels of humidity have been particularly problematic these past few days.
-As I was eating breakfast this morning I started to think about what I might want for lunch. Aside from the normal, and somewhat mundane, options, I thought that I might like a piece of the coffee cake that I baked on Sunday. As I was the only one in the kitchen I didn’t have a chance to make these sentiments known to anyone else. I continued along my way and tried my best to keep up with my typical morning routine.
After showering and dressing, I descended to the kitchen to finish my lunch preparations. Almost as soon as I walked in I noticed that my mother, father, and sister were sitting at the dining room table, each with a plate of scrambled eggs and cake in front of them. To add insult to injury, they left half a corner piece in the pan.
- While cataloguing a 1971 report on the population characteristics of unincorporated communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, I was struck by the first sentence of the report. The report opens by stating that it "provides basic detailed information…." While one can read it differently, it seemed a little odd to me that information could be considered basic and detailed at the same time. As I flipped through the report, this veracity of the statement became obvious. None of the information was complex, but certainly was detailed with age and gender breakdowns provided for very particular geographic locations.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Bad cataloging
On Thursday I was looking for an item, in which form I would find the item I wasn't quite sure. Fortunately, I had what appeared to be a largely complete citation. My first step was to look in our catalogue, which unfortunately yielded no positive results. From there, I went to the uncatalogued section of the library and quickly, with the assistance of a co-worker, located the related series of documents. After a quick skimming of the titles I came to the conclusion that we did not have what I was looking for. It seemed as though my next option would be to find the item in an electronic form, the odds of which seemed pretty good as it was a government document.
In just a few moments I was able to find something that appeared to be the document in an online location, though I was not sure if it was the same version of the document that had been cited, as the citation did not include a description or page number. I was quickly becoming aware that the citation with which I started wasn't as complete as I would have liked, something that is frequently quite an inconvenience and cause for much time wasting.
From the vast open plains of the untamed Internet I turned to the more restricted confines of Amicus, the catalogue of Library and Archives Canada. Again, within just a few moments I was able to find something that resembled the item I was looking for, though my skepticism was rising with each new approach.
Unfortunately, there were major differences between several of the records in the union catalogue (which is what Amicus is) that I was searching. The physical descriptions of the items varied drastically from record to record. In two or three cases the item was supposedly 18 pages long, in others it was 89, and some just indicated that it appeared on pages 72-89 of some other document (without saying which document).
Eventually, once I turned back the to those fruitful unfenced plains that we call the Internet, I was able to find a reference to the original form of the item indicating that it had been a paper published as part of a collection of papers with a collective title. From there I was able to recall seeing the title on the shelf and then use the pages numbers indicated in some of the Amicus records to locate the item.
This experienced has caused me to reaffirm my belief that the use of proper citation formats is critical, if not for the average reader than for the future researcher or librarian (or library worker). Additionally, analytics, or the practice of creating separate catalogue records for discrete intellectual entities found within larger bodies of work, needs to be undertaken with great care because it otherwise runs the risk of making the task of identifying a particular item more difficult. It also seems that certain institutions supplying catalogue records to Amicus need to improve their quality control, otherwise the usefulness of Amicus might become greatly diminished.
On the other hand, without such mistakes I would be able to have the satisfying experience of finding something that was marginally more difficult to find than it should have been. To modify and reverse an opinion jokingly expressed by my cataloging professor, bad cataloging keeps reference librarians employed.
In just a few moments I was able to find something that appeared to be the document in an online location, though I was not sure if it was the same version of the document that had been cited, as the citation did not include a description or page number. I was quickly becoming aware that the citation with which I started wasn't as complete as I would have liked, something that is frequently quite an inconvenience and cause for much time wasting.
From the vast open plains of the untamed Internet I turned to the more restricted confines of Amicus, the catalogue of Library and Archives Canada. Again, within just a few moments I was able to find something that resembled the item I was looking for, though my skepticism was rising with each new approach.
Unfortunately, there were major differences between several of the records in the union catalogue (which is what Amicus is) that I was searching. The physical descriptions of the items varied drastically from record to record. In two or three cases the item was supposedly 18 pages long, in others it was 89, and some just indicated that it appeared on pages 72-89 of some other document (without saying which document).
Eventually, once I turned back the to those fruitful unfenced plains that we call the Internet, I was able to find a reference to the original form of the item indicating that it had been a paper published as part of a collection of papers with a collective title. From there I was able to recall seeing the title on the shelf and then use the pages numbers indicated in some of the Amicus records to locate the item.
This experienced has caused me to reaffirm my belief that the use of proper citation formats is critical, if not for the average reader than for the future researcher or librarian (or library worker). Additionally, analytics, or the practice of creating separate catalogue records for discrete intellectual entities found within larger bodies of work, needs to be undertaken with great care because it otherwise runs the risk of making the task of identifying a particular item more difficult. It also seems that certain institutions supplying catalogue records to Amicus need to improve their quality control, otherwise the usefulness of Amicus might become greatly diminished.
On the other hand, without such mistakes I would be able to have the satisfying experience of finding something that was marginally more difficult to find than it should have been. To modify and reverse an opinion jokingly expressed by my cataloging professor, bad cataloging keeps reference librarians employed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)