Ever get that feeling...

...like things should be harder than they are?

Then you remember you have a paper due in a week. The freak out...trying to get focused and still fiddling with other things............like blggng.

Then you remember you have passed progress review and are about halfway done with school.

...and you just found the thesis of your paper in the syllabus. Yeah!

The topics other than that paper currently taking a spin on the mental wheel of shame?
1. Information policy regime change in the private intelligence community in response to terrorism.(I'm mindmapping this one. :))
2. Ranganathan's Colon Classification: a critical annotated bibliography.(Already have all my sources together, skimmed, and ready to critique.)
3. The future of Library of Congress Subject Headings. (Currently wearing out the cut and paste on my computer.)
4. Archives in the Park plans.
5. oh and that paper I told you I forgot.

Just a post---on....Library of Congress Subject Headings

I know you see that title and you are like "I can't wait to read this blog." If anything I am writing this entry to focus myself this morning. The car wouldn't start so I had to make tons of phone calls to get everything squared away and still make it to work with enough time to push the buttons that start the computers. My index finger is throbbing.

I am currently working on a portion of a group assignment about the future of Library of Congress subject headings (LCSH).

If'ns there is a future. I felt really odd when I was saving the articles to del.icio.us and adding my own tags. So you would think that I am all about shifting the thought of LCSH from controlled vocabulary subject headings to a free-for-all tagging environment. Well not just yet, I could only imagine the nightmares this would create for librarians. Imagine how many entries you would get for the word "important" or "must read". Maybe someone out there should write a del.icio.us mashup that has a built in thesaurus that would automatically suggest words. Say for instance I tagged something 'car', this mashup would suggest 'auto' 'automobile' 'ride' etc.

Multiple entry points seems the best way to access information quickly. I don't get the sense quite yet that this happens in LCSH. If I am wrong please tell me?

I think this idea of multiple entry points is what is responsible for my current love affair with the faceted classification scheme of S.R. Ranganathan: Colon Classification. After spending the last three days reading his books, it started clicking last night. I think the key is that you have to seperate the idea of 'classification' from 'categorization'. Most look at one of the Colon Classification numbers and it confuses the hell out of them. But remember grouping still takes place in the shelving of the items in the physical world. Much like LCSH and Library of Congress Classification Numbers (LCCN). They can be interdependent or dependent. I read last night that it is not uncommon to use Dewey to classify an item, and LCCN to shelve it. Now remember this stuff is still in the diffusion stage for me, so if you think me wrong please tell me? (At least before I embarrass myself; If I haven't done that already.)

I will say that the liveliest conversation I have ever had about LCSH took place last night in a Meebo chat room started by Joshua Neff. Well lets just say it was interesting. Not quite sure I picked up any terminology I can use in my presentation, but I did learn that librarians in the field are passionate about this topic. Sandy Berman and Thomas Mann were discussed, and the participants really helped me to focus.

Now, to figure out APA citation for a chat room.

So there you have it, the longest post I have ever posted. I am not even going to proofread it.

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All a Twitter

Finally....something on the Internet that I can enjoy: Twitter.

My first reason is that you are limited to 140 characters, which means most messages are real short and get to the point. Nothing real earth shattering takes place, but you do get to hear what people are up to throughout the day.

For someone like me who has a hard time coming up with content, Twitter allows me to stay involved without having to think too hard.

Oh, and the real fun part: Twitter places your comments in amongst comments made by friends. This gives the appearance of an actual dialogue taking place. (By the way Google doesn't like the spelling of dialogue.)

Plus all those 2.0 gurus you hear about seem to be on it.

Screenshot:
Add me: roycekitts

I could see if you were a library you might have a twitter account to send patrons updates about services. Maybe even nuggets of random information.

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Wikilled!

The wiki I created for work suffered a painless death today.

Documents removed.

Account closed.

Deemed too hard to understand.

It leaves this earth as it came in.

Quietly.

Some things just make you cry....

with feelings of joy.