The Future of Cataloging

The technical staff in our library recently had a meeting to discuss our library website's new interface, particularly the search functions.

One of the issues a colleague raised was the absence of the hyphen between the subject heading and the subject subdivision, e.g. Hospitality industry--Management appears on the screen as Hospitality industry Management. She then turned to me and asked me whether this bothered me at all. I matter-of-factly answered "No" although from a strictly cataloger's point of view, it does.

The way the subject term is presented is not pleasant to the eye what with the capital M in management following a small i in industry. It simply doesnt' make sense to me. It's like a sentence with a wrong punctuation. And it's confusing, too. To the average user, it may seem that the subject of the book covers the hospitality industry and management when in fact it covers the management of the hospitality industry.

I have nothing against changing the way subject headings are used to keep up with the times like tags, labels or keywords just as long as they're sensible. In fact, having been an indexer for close to a decade, I have always been for free-language indexing because it makes for simpler assignment of headings and searching. So it is with bated breath that I await the results of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) that the Joint Committee for Revision of AACR is working on, as well as that of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control.

Hazards of the Trade

In all my years as a librarian, I've always thought the library was a very safe place to work until this happened in our library this morning.

One of our librarians was shelving a book when the whole line of shelves gave way spilling the books on her. Luckily she suffered only a minor bruise on her right leg. Another good thing was that the other shelves did not domino as they were hit by the falling shelves otherwise it would have been a disaster as there are computer workstations occupied by students behind the shelves when the accident happened.

I am so glad as is all the library staff that I was nowhere near the area or I would have posed a bigger headache (am 7 mos. pregnant).

We Got Stumped!

One of the activities we had for Library and Information Week was Stump-a-Librarian and we couldn't believe that we'd actually get stumped. Not once, but twice.

We received close to a dozen questions, including two philosophical and one completely unrelated to hospitality, tourism and culinary arts, and posted them with the answers on a board (pictured above).

However, the questions that had as stumped were:

• Which Melbourne chef worked on the banquets served in the movie The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover; and
• How many vehicles did Arni drive in Terminator 2? (Though this was unrelated to the topics previously mentioned we nevertheless tried to get an accurate answer).

The answer to the first question was Graham Cappoli. The teacher who asked this question was also the one who gave the answer. As for the second question, we were not quite sure if it was four or more as one of our librarians searched in various forums. For stumping us, they have won movie passes valid for one year.

We did have a lot of fun facing up to the challenge of answerign the questions going to great lenghts as borrowing a book from another library and actually renting a video. Which only goes to prove that the Internet does not hold all the answers to the world's questions.

Saint Marie-Eugenie of Jesus and Life in an Assumption Community

St. Marie-Eugenie of Jesus was one of the new saints Pope Benedict XVI canonized last Sunday, 3rd of June. She was the foundress of the Religious of the Assumption.

The entire Assumption community - the sisters, novices, alumnae, and Friends of the Assumption - have long awaited her canonization since Pope Paul VI beatified her in 1975. In fact, former colleagues from the Assumption College in San Lorenzo, Makati are on pilgrimage in Rome to witness her canonization.

I am not an 'old girl', a term used to refer to an Assumption alumnae, but having spent some time workign at AC, I share the community's joy in her canonization. Now it can be said that I have spent some of my most meaningful experiences at AC.

I can't forget how I ended up at AC. Back in 2002, I applied at two academic libraries, Assumption College and a marine institute. I was successful in both applications and was torn between the two because both had good offers and it was just a matter of making the right choice.

On the day that I had to make my choice, I decided to seek the advice of as many colleagues as I could reach to help me decide. But their lines were busy. I was getting frantic because I haven't reached a single friend for quite some time already. And then I finally dialled Zarah's number knowing that her lunch break was over. And I was so relieved to hear her voice.

I told her of my dilemma and how she was the only person I was able to reach for the last couple of minutes. As she was listening intently, I was surprised with her reaction - she laughed - and I was, like, dumbfounded.

"Bakit ka tumatawa?", I asked. And I would never forget her reply.

"Chy, hindi mo na kelangan mag-isip. Sabi mo kanina ka pa nagtatawag wala kang makausap tapos ako lang nakontak mo..."

"Uh-huh", was all I could utter.

"Kelan ba birthday ko?", Zarah asked me.

"August 15", I answered.

"Anong araw yon?"

"Feast of the Assumption...oo nga ano!", I exclaimed. And with that realization, I profusely thanked her. So thus began my journey at AC.

I've worked at other schools ran by the religious but it was at AC that I felt right at home. At home with MME's (Mere Marie Eugenie) teachings on becoming a woman of faith and a woman of action.

AC is such a nurturing community that it was there that I had grown tremendously in my spirituality and where I found my advocacy - ICT for development. It was through the Assumption Educator's formation program that I met Fr. Ben Beltran, the parish priest of Smokey Mountain, the man who inspired me to write about how information and communication technology can help impoverished communities. He opened doors that I would never have possible known existed all because I was at the right place at the right time. Had I not left the Philippines, I would still be in the thick of things in terms of ICT development projects.

Though I miss the sisters and my colleagues at AC, I did ask for MME's intercession to be where we are now. And I wouldn't mind naming my yet-to-born baby after her, if it was a girl, because it would be an answered prayer.