Simple

Man, I remember when I thought the only thing that mattered in a library was the Dewey Decimal System.  I look up a book, find the numbers on the end of the shelves, look, and BOOM.  It's there.  Problem solved.  Life is good. 


Wow, was I ever wrong!  ISBD, pages, illustrations, reprints, different publishers, paperbacks, the 8 levels of ISBD.  Wait.....levels.  Wasn't there a story or something.....hmmmm.....written by....Dante?....was that his name?.... about several levels of hell that was later made into a slightly mediocre, but rather interesting film with Robin Williams?  Anyway, learning about the ISBD listing has been a bit taxing, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  So far, I've practiced with one of my favorite writers, Bill Simmons, and his excellent tome The Book of Basketball.  I've been reading his columns for many, many years on ESPN.com, so I'm used to his style and perspective.  My beautiful wife bought it for me when it came out in 2009, and at 715 pages, it took me quite a while to get through it. But, I thoroughly devoured it.  I tried Jerry Spinelli's Smiles to Go, but I'm stuck on it and can't figure out where to go with it, since it's a Scholastic paperback print, and it's different than the first edition. 

Learning, learning, learning about this new frontier.  I hope I get the hang of it, so I can be a librarian one day and work at a library....especially one that the Old Spice guy talks about here.

Tomes and Talismans

Sometimes, things of this world come together and make a small cosmic explosion felt all the way to Alderaan.  These cosmic explosions must include the following:  the “internets”, lots of free time by “internets” users utilizing “the Google”, and a nostalgic urge to find out things from our past.  One of these cosmic events occurred yesterday. 

I have started a Library Science graduate studies class called “Cataloging and Classification” at Middle Tennessee State University.  This class will be, according to the class syllabus, “simplified procedures for cataloging books and non-print materials, cataloging routines, and filing.”  Whenever I mention to my friends what class I am taking, they all raise an eyebrow and respond with a sarcastic word:  “riveting”.  But, to me, this is a major step toward my dream job.  My dream job is to be a middle school librarian, presumably at the high-poverty school where I currently teach 8^th grade language arts.  My goal for the future, if there are actually any librarian jobs left (the future’s not looking so rosy), is to be the first male librarian in my county and to hopefully be a positive role model for young adults. 

            However, when I read the syllabus and saw acronyms such as MARC, FRBR, and AACR2, I had no idea what these meant and I immediately thought they sounded like Star Wars characters like R2D2. I am familiar with the ISBD because of previous Library Science classes, and I am also now familiar with RFID, since the Linebaugh Public Library system in the last year recently switched over to it.  The Dewey Decimal System?  My knowledge of it began in elementary school where I had a librarian who didn’t like to read (yes, you read that right). 

Now, you are wondering, “C’mon, Seadorf, when does this cosmic explosion come in?” Right here, actually.  That librarian would show us these completely terrible videos about some kids riding around in a mobile library van and aliens taking over the world in the future and how the Dewey Decimal system could stop the destruction of the world—or something like that.  That’s all I could remember.  Lo and behold, the powers of the Google.  “Tomes and Talismans” was the name of the series that was produced by Mississippi Public Broadcasting.  

(Scroll ahead to 0:30.  It's 7:36, but you may only be able to stand about 2 minutes.  It's a train wreck)

We hated it then, but I can’t help but laugh at it now.  But, I think, I actually did learn the basics of Mr. Dewey’s system.  Therefore, my journey into “Cataloging and Classification” begins….and a whole lot of library raps to come.