Redhaired Future Librarian

Forever

It has been forever since I’ve had the chance to blog here. We’re in the middle of a major weeding/ database cleanup project at work. It’s quite overwhelming sometimes. It has made me realize two things: that I’m going to have to do this all over again when I am in a school library (the descriptions, especially) and that I am not sure who subject headings are for.

If they’re for librarians, then they’re fine as they are. But if they’re for the average library patron to find a book about a specific subject, then they fall quite short. Of course, as soon as I started this entry, I couldn’t think of any of my examples… oh, I got one– if I wanted to find a book about spending summer with dad and his new girlfriend, it would be very difficult to figure out what search term to use. I don’t know– I don’t know enough about library patron behavior or the true purpose of subject headings to really say for certain. I know that I believe subject headings should exist not only to help librarians sort and categorize books, but to help patrons FIND books.

What would be very, very cool is if there were a safe way to allow patrons to “tag” books in a way that is combined with the OPAC so that other patrons can search for specific tags or specific tag combinations.

Military Brat Illustrator

For my developing index of military brat writer, illustrators, or characters: Janet Stevens, a Navy brat who is now a children’s book illustrator. (I’m in the Zoo Too!)