Lesson 9 - Copy Cataloguing

The copy cataloguing activity shows that there are many places one can go to get catalogue and MARC records. The most reliable places are Library of Congress and Amicus. I also searched the Prince George Public Library which follows the Library of Congress records very closely. The Prince George District Resource Centre creates records that are very student friendly for ease of searching. Most of the information for cataloguing and MARC records can be obtained from the CIP page, which one does not want to solely rely on because the record could have incomplete information because the CIP cataloguing is done before the book is published. It is a good idea to check the record with the actual book in hand. Although AMICUS and Library of Congress can save time and money, if one has a lot of time, which is highly unlikely, a person would want to use Library of Congress, Amicus, and maybe cross-reference with a couple of other libraries to make the most accurate MARC and Catalogue records. The biggest question I have about this exercise was why were the ISBN numbers different from each other for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears and Puss in Boots? Fortunately, the Prince George Region has a District Resource Centre that does all the cataloguing and the MARC Records for all the school resources. I cannot imagine having to do that job as well as everything else in the library. Using WorldCat might be the way to go depending on the cost. If the cost was too high, I would use Library of Congress and Amicus to create the records.

I learned from the readings that CIP are done before the books are published and that sometimes books are not even eligle for a CIP (Cathie Norrie). Copy cataloguing is the way to go if one doesn't have the money to buy the records.