This week, I met with my mentor and the display team to discuss my ideas for the display at the end of the internship. As laid out in the previous blog post, I proposed to display several illustrated Yiddish children's books in order to showcase these items as evidence of a short-lived yet robust flourishing of Yiddish arts and culture in the Soviet Union interwar period.
The display team pushed me to consider how I might display my work with these books -- Hebraic cataloging -- in addition to showing off the items. In other words, these books are certainly interesting and beautiful, but how can I also use this display to share my work and process with the visitors so that they may learn more about my division and the work that happens behind the scenes.
I'm eager to share what I've learned so far about cataloging (and about Hebraic cataloging, specifically) with the public. There are so many details in cataloging that aren't apparent to the average user or to library staff outside of technical services, and I hope to find a way to communicate some of the meaningful intricacies of the cataloging process with them.
As I've mentioned earlier in this blog, one of the cataloger's primary goals is to ensure that a cataloged item is as findable as possible for the user. The Yiddish word for "story" or "stories" comes from Hebrew. This word (מעשה) is pronounced ma-ah-seh in its original Hebrew. In Yiddish, it's pronounced may-seh; often, though not always, the Yiddish word retains the original Hebrew spelling, breaking with the language's orthography, as is common with most words derived from Hebrew. Sometimes, however, the Yiddish word will be spelled phonetically so that it reflects the Yiddish pronunciation. Like any change in language, this shift in spelling according to pronunciation results in a variety of spellings (מייסע, מאיסע).
These variations open an interesting can of worms for the cataloger. How does the cataloger simultaneously and efficiently preserve the information displayed on the work and ensure the accessibility and findability of the item to all potentially curious users? These are some of the questions I will propose as part of my display.
The display team pushed me to consider how I might display my work with these books -- Hebraic cataloging -- in addition to showing off the items. In other words, these books are certainly interesting and beautiful, but how can I also use this display to share my work and process with the visitors so that they may learn more about my division and the work that happens behind the scenes.
I'm eager to share what I've learned so far about cataloging (and about Hebraic cataloging, specifically) with the public. There are so many details in cataloging that aren't apparent to the average user or to library staff outside of technical services, and I hope to find a way to communicate some of the meaningful intricacies of the cataloging process with them.
As I've mentioned earlier in this blog, one of the cataloger's primary goals is to ensure that a cataloged item is as findable as possible for the user. The Yiddish word for "story" or "stories" comes from Hebrew. This word (מעשה) is pronounced ma-ah-seh in its original Hebrew. In Yiddish, it's pronounced may-seh; often, though not always, the Yiddish word retains the original Hebrew spelling, breaking with the language's orthography, as is common with most words derived from Hebrew. Sometimes, however, the Yiddish word will be spelled phonetically so that it reflects the Yiddish pronunciation. Like any change in language, this shift in spelling according to pronunciation results in a variety of spellings (מייסע, מאיסע).
These variations open an interesting can of worms for the cataloger. How does the cataloger simultaneously and efficiently preserve the information displayed on the work and ensure the accessibility and findability of the item to all potentially curious users? These are some of the questions I will propose as part of my display.
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