Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice - Hardcover

Hoffman Associate Professor School Of Library And Information Studies Texas Women, Gretchen L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 153810850X ISBN 13: 9781538108505

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019

Synopsis

Libraries organize their collections to help library users find what they need. Organizing library collections may seem like a straightforward and streamlined process, but it can be quite complex, and there is a large body of theory and practice that shape and support this work. Learning about the organization of library collections can be challenging. Libraries have a long history of organizing their collections, there are many principles, models, standards, and tools used to organize collections, and theory and practice are changing constantly.
Written for beginning library science students, Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice introduces the theory and practice of organizing library collections in a clear, straightforward, and understandable way. It explains why and how libraries organize their collections, and how theory and practice work together to help library users. It introduces basic cataloging and metadata theory, describes and evaluates the major cataloging and metadata standards and tools used to organize library collections, and explains, in general, how all libraries organize their collections in practice. Yet, this book not only introduces theory and practice in general, it introduces students to a wide range of topics involved in organizing library collections. This book explores how academic, public, school, and special libraries typically organize their collections and why. It also discusses standardization and explains how cataloging and metadata standards and policies are developed. Ethical issues also are explored and ethical decision-making is addressed. In addition, several discussion questions and class activities reinforce concepts introduced in each chapter. Students should walk away from this book understanding why and how libraries organize their collections.

About this title

About the Author

Gretchen Hoffman is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University. She has been teaching there since 2007. Her teaching and research agenda centers on the organization of information, specifically library cataloging. Courses she teaches include Cataloging and Classification, Advanced Cataloging and Classification, Collection Development, and Information Organization.

Before moving to Texas Woman’s University, Hoffman was a professional cataloger at the University of Kansas, specializing in complex and difficult cataloging, music cataloging (scores and audio recordings), and cataloging German-language monographs. Prior to that, she worked as a professional serials cataloger at Portland State University, specializing in federal government documents.

Review

Dr. Hoffman has written a much-needed primer for understanding the basics and importance of cataloging in libraries. Students new to librarianship and practitioners looking to refresh their cataloging knowledge would benefit from reading Dr. Hoffman's straightforward, richly illustrated narrative. The end-of-chapter discussion questions and class activity suggestions make this the perfect text for information organization courses and interactive study for practitioners. (Karen Snow, associate professor, School of Information Studies, Dominican University)

As a teacher of both organization of information and cataloging in a library school program, I can confirm what she acknowledges: that this is a topic that students come to in library school with little or no knowledge of and the overwhelming number of acronyms used in this branch of LIS. So I am happy to see that the book is very straightforward in its language; it assumes no prior knowledge and explains concepts in layman's terms. (Sarah W. Sutton, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Library & Information Management, Emporia State University)

Replete with theoretical and practical knowledge for both the beginning and the professional cataloger, this book covers methods, issues, and challenges faced today in organizing library collections. As technologies advance with the semantic web and linked data, catalogers are expected to usefully organize traditional materials and digital content in ways patrons may efficiently find, identify, select, and obtain resources. This text provides current information on the rules and standards catalogers follow to create metadata, subject access, and categories for successful library collections. (Marie Keen Shaw, program coordinator, Library Technology Certificate, Three Rivers Community College, Norwich, CT)

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 153810850X
• ISBN 13: 9781538108505
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 394