Day 16

Day 16
10/21/2011
Start time: 8:00
[1 Hour Lunch]
End time: 5:00
Hours Worked: 8
Total Hours: 126

 Today I started with cataloging five microfilm theses and dissertations.  Four of the microfilm TDs had OCLC records which I merely had to go and correct any errors.  The other one did not have a record in OCLC, so I had to do completely original cataloging for it.  This microfilm TD was an education thesis titled Survey of methods and materials in the teaching of transcription in public secondary schools by Ethel Luella Mart.  Because doing in depth reading on the microfilm reading is difficult, I only read a couple of pages to determine what the subject headings were.  Both the title and those first couple of pages both gave me the idea that this thesis was simply about teaching transcription skills in secondary schools, so I used the subject heading "Transcription--Study and teaching (Secondary)."  It was pretty simple.  Everything else was pretty straightforward.  Here are the subject headings:

650 0 Transcription ǂx Study and teaching (Secondary)

Sevim liked both my subject heading and my call number. 

After finishing with the microfilm records, I started cataloging some ETDs.  The first ETD I cataloged today was a teaching, learning, and curriculum studies dissertation titled Skype™: A Portal Into the 21^st Century in a Secondary Spanish Classroom by Colleen A. Blaurock.  This thesis was a study that consisted of pairing up Non-Native Speakers (NNSs) with Native Speakers (NSs) over Skype to help the NNS learn the language.  This study researched students who were learning Spanish, but it could easily applied to other languages.  I didn't have a hard time of thinking of analyzing the concepts of this dissertation, but I did have a little difficulty chosing which subject headings I wanted.  I tried to find a subject heading for foreign language educatin, but there was not a heading for that.  Next, I tried to find a heading for second language education and found "Second language acquisition."  However this heading is only used for sociological and psychological aspects of learning a second language rather than just teaching and learning a second language.  I decided to use this heading because the dissertation talks is also about the experiences of the students who participated in the study.  To convey the educational aspect, I chose "Language and languages--Study and teaching (Secondary)."  There were many different methods in the narrower topics of that heading, and Wikipedia and a Google search helped me learn a little more about them so I could rule them out.  I also wanted to have a heading to bring out the technology aspect of this dissertation.  There were a few options.  The first one I found was "Computer assisted instruction," but this heading is more for when automated computer applications instruct people.  I also found "Educational technology" which I decided to use because the article is about using Skype as an educational technology.  The call number I chose was P53.6 which means that it's about the study and teaching of oral communication of languages.  I'm not 100% happy with this number and might change it to the general works number.  Here are my subject headings:

650 0 Language and languages ǂx Study and teaching (Secondary).
650 0 Second language acquisition.
650 0 Educational technology.

Sevim liked the subject headings I had, but she suggested that I created a subject heading for the concept of computer mediated communication.  The subject heading for that concept is "Telematics."  I also changed the call number to P53.855 to reflect that it's about technological innovation rather than oral communication.  Here are the final subject headings:

650 0Language and languages ǂx Study and teaching (Secondary)
650 0Second language acquisition.
650 0Telematics.
650 0Educational technology.

The second ETD that I cataloged was a Foundations, Leadership, and Administration dissertation titled The Third Culture Kid (TCK) Experience: Adult-TCKS’ Reflections On Their Multicultural Childhood, Its Impact On Student-Teacher Relationships In U.S. Classrooms And Their Recommendations For Multicultural Teacher Education In The United States by Gretchen L. Espinetti.  This dissertation is about the Third Culture Kid (TCK) and how adult ones can help teachers with multicultural education.  TCKs are children who are raised in a different culture than their parents and move back to their parent's country of origin at some point.  The dissertation also talks about teacher-student relationships.  This one was tough because a lot of the concepts in the book had no subject headings associated with them, so I had a hard time choosing subject headings.  Wikipedia was helpful in me gaining an understanding of some of the concepts presented like TCK, but it wasn't helpful in choosing any subject headings.  I couldn't find a heading that had anything to do with TCK or any iteration of the concept like multicultural children, trans-cultural children, and cross-cultural children.  None of them were in LCSH.  So I had to focus on other aspects of the work.  I decided to use the heading "Multicultural education--United States" since multicultural education is mentioned in the title, abstracted, and the work itself.  And since it talks about how TCKs can help multicultural teacher education, I decided on the subject heading "Teachers--Training of--United States."  The relationships between TCKs and their teachers is also discussed in the dissertation, so I decided to use the heading "Teacher-student relationships--United States" based on that.  I performed a WorldCat search on TCKs to find my last heading which is "American students--Foreign influences."  I decided to use that subject heading because I found it is the best way to give a heading to the concept of TCK.  I don't know if it'll work or not, but I thought I'd give it a try.  Here are my subject headings:

650 0Multicultural education ǂz United States.
650 0American students ǂx Foreign influences.
650 0Teachers ǂx Training of ǂz United States.
650 0Teacher-student relationships ǂz United States.

Sevim really liked this ETD and wanted to read it.  She liked the subject headings, but she thought that I should take out the "Teachers--Training of--United States" because the paper wasn't about that and only gave reccommendations for it.  She also said that I need to change the call number slightly to show that it's about the United States.  Here are the final subject headings:

650 0Multicultural education ǂz United States.
650 0American students ǂx Foreign influences.
650 0Teacher-student relationships ǂz United States.

Day 15, First Time With Microfilm

Day 15
10/18/2011
Start time: 8:00
[1 Hour Lunch]
End time: 4:00
Hours Worked: 7
Total Hours: 118

 
I started the day by getting Sevim to check the records that I did on Friday.  All the changes for those records was put in Friday's blog post.

Today, I worked on microfilm for the first time today.  I learned how to operate the machine and view the microfilm.  I learned that it hurts my eyes to look at for too long.  First, Sevim got me to read a document that introduced me to some of the things that are different about a microform record.  Then, Sevim and I looked at some theses and dissertations that were on microfilm, and she wanted me to find the information to check to see if the records from OCLC were correct.  There was one reel of mircofilm that didn't have a record on OCLC (which was actually a government document rather than a theses or dissertation), so I had to pick out the information necessary to create a record.  Then, Sevim set me to correct the other records and create an original record for the government document.  This record wasn't that hard to make except for a series statement that I didn't know what to put in.  I did some searches on WorldCat to figure out what to put in the 490 and 830 fields.  The government document was a study of art activities for mentally handicapped children.  I chose the subject heading "Art--Study and teaching" and Children with mental disabilities--Education--United States."  Sevim checked my work and said it was pretty good overall except for a couple of changes.  She suggested that I subdivide both my subject headings with "United States."  Here's what I ended up with:

650 0 Children with mental disabilities ǂx Education ǂz United States.
650 0 Art ǂx Study and teaching ǂz United States.

The first ETD that I cataloged today was a teaching, learning, and curriculum studies dissertations titled Mid-career teachers’ perspectives on the sustaining power of hope: A Q methodological study by Anita C. Levine.  This ETD was about how mid-career teachers cope with stress and burnout.  I had a lot of ideas for subject headings, but the ideas that I had which I thought fit the aboutness of the dissertation the most were not in LCSH.  Also I had trouble connecting concepts like hope and hopelessness to teachers with LCSH.  There was not a heading for teacher attrition, but there was a heading for teacher stress which is "Teacher--Job stress" which I subdivided by "United States."  I had a lot of other concepts that I wanted add.  So I added "Adjustment (Psychology)--United States" (for coping), "Burn out (Psychology)," "Hope," "Despair--United States," and "Teacher morale--United States."  I didn't need Wikipedia for this one.  Here's the subject headings that I used:

650 0 Teachers ǂx Job stress ǂz United States.
650 0 Adjustment (Psychology) ǂz United States
650 0 Burn out (Psychology)
650 0 Hope.
650 0 Despair ǂz United States.
650 0 Teacher morale ǂz United States.

When Sevim looked over this one, she like most of the subject headings I had but said that I should get rid of some and change the order of the ones left over.  She suggested that I remove "Burn out (Psychology)" because she didn't really feel that someone searching for an article on burnout would be happy to find this article and "Despair--United States" because when you have two opposite concepts, you usually chose only one.  She also suggested that I move "Teacher morale--United States" closer to the top.  Sevim wanted to remove "Adjustment (Psychology)--United States," but I convinced her to keep it since it is the subject heading for conveying the idea of coping which is what the article is about.  Here are the final headings that I chose:

650 0Teachers ǂx Job stress ǂz United States.
650 0Teacher morale ǂz United States.
650 0Hope.
650 0Adjustment (Psychology) ǂz United States.