The first day of school is always full of anxiety. All of the students are quiet, except for the students who are friends and enrolled together. In LIBR 248, Beginning Cataloging and Classification, the instructor, Dr. Robert Ellett, took advantage of the silence to teach students a valuable lesson. He instructed the class to remain quiet and organize ourselves into some type of order. My friends and I looked at each other with smiles as the class moseyed around with blank looks on their faces. My friend nudged me into the middle of the group and placed our other friend to the left of me, while she positioned herself on the right of me. She then conveyed through charades what I knew her age to be and I mimicked her gestures to express my age. The rest of the class caught on soon enough and we organized ourselves by age. Dr. Ellett had the class perform this task a few more times. Finally, he explained that the only way to organize anything is to apply a standard scheme and use a method to carry it out.

Understanding a system of standards and methods used to control and create information is a core skill that information professionals must possess. We are the ones responsible for organizing information and representing knowledge in a way that best makes the content available and readily usable for communities. A strong organizational foundation provides a consistent and accurate representation of material and content for use within an information or knowledge sharing system, such as a library. Libraries and information professions are built on the premise of information organization and being able to create information structures that allow patrons to find and utilize the knowledge that is accessible from an institution.

Information is everywhere. The world revolves around it. New technologies are constantly developed and information structures need to maintain their ability to access the various formats and mediums of information in today’s changing world. Information is available instantly through the Internet in addition to traditional mediums of print and audio / video items. Librarians have grown, adapted and evolved to continue to be caretakers of information in this technologically rich, information age. Just as librarians have adapted and evolved, so have the methods they use for creating consistent, well documented and understood standards for information. The methods and standards apply whether creating websites, managing electronic resources or answering reference questions. Each of these activities utilizes a standard system of creation which enables information retrieval. For these reasons, even if a librarian does not work in the technical services or collection management department, it is important to understand the need for excellent organizational skills and information structures that allow for ease of patron use and access.

After multiple conversations with my academic advisor and other librarians I have chosen to spend some time developing my skills as a librarian in technical services. Succeeding in technical services requires an ability to utilize a standard system and the appropriate methods to develop consistent information structures. Failure to master this would be perilous to my future. I am currently in charge of cataloging and acquisitions at The California Maritime Academy (CMA) Library. Through the execution of my duties, I check that my cataloging work is complete and accurate by comparing them with the standards and methods of the industry and the CMA Library practices. I am aware that any substandard records I produce will affect students’ and faculty’s ability to access information held at the CMA Library. Therefore, it is of supreme importance to me that I am familiar with and understand the systems I use along with the standards and rules that must be applied in order to correctly interpret and represent the library’s collection.

In LIBR 248, I was thrust into the complex world of cataloging and classifying information. Dr. Ellett gave many assignments that made students learn classification standards and the methods to apply them. I have combined three assignments as evidence to show my competency, because they were all similar with respect to their purpose. Each assignment was an exercise in becoming familiar with the tools catalogers use daily to create and build records. The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Library of Congress Classification Number (LCCN) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) assignments each required to me navigate a hierarchical structure to find the most accurate solution to the question. These assignments taught me that an item can have multiple possibilities to choose from when determining a DDC number, LCCN or subject heading. Catalogers are responsible for choosing which possibility most accurately describes the topic of the item. They must also take in regard how users might approach the same topic and access the information. Learning how to navigate these tools to find the most accurate description of the information was a learning process that I was able to build upon to my advantage. These assignments demonstrate my mastery of this competency by being able to successfully navigate information structures, both print and electronic, in order to build upon my own thinking about how to approach the creation of information structures. By completing these assignments, I became proficient in using controlled vocabulary, researching and synthesizing information to determine its appropriateness in relation to the development of an information structure.

The course project for LIBR 248 required that I fully catalog a number of different print and non-print material, put them in order using either the LCCN or DDC classification schemes, and provide justification for each decision made throughout the project. Completing this project allowed me to utilize what I had learned pertaining to the organization of information and how it is structured. The exercise of explaining my decisions helped me gain a clearer understanding of my choices about why I cataloged the material the way I did and gave me confidence to make future cataloging decisions on my own. Through this assignment, I demonstrated my ability to create an information structure, modify it and manipulate it as needed. I also demonstrated my ability to understand and apply the basic principles and standards used in libraries, such as those outlined in AACR2, DDC, LCCN, and LCSH.

In LIBR 284, Seminar in Archives and Records Management with Lori Lindberg, students learned the new standard method of cataloging and presenting archival collections. I learned that when dealing with archives, due to the nature of the material, there are times when traditional library cataloging methods, standards and rules are not always sufficient. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) was developed specifically to meet the needs of archives. Following EAD format rules, best practice standards and "Describing Archives: A Content Standard" (DACS), I created digital finding aids. Each of these descriptive tools provided a new level of knowledge to me in the methodology and creation of information structures. I walked away from this course having truly learned. It showed me a new facet to cataloging and classification. The purpose was the same as in cataloging items for a library. All I had to do was apply a different set of rules to achieve the same goal for an archive. Creating and building an organizational structure for information using basic practices and standards is key to the successful retrieval and access of information for patrons.

My EAD finding aid demonstrates my mastery of the competency by successfully creating and organizing an information structure that is used, accessed, and searchable in a completely different manner than a traditional library catalog. I am able to "crosswalk" or link information in the finding aid to other information structures, such as MARC, EAD, Dublin Core and ISADG. This allows information to be accessed by all types of information seekers, no longer limiting users to one set of principles and standards. I have gained a solid understanding of the common standards and types of information structures and their development.

I have been able to build upon what I have learned in LIBR 284 in the course of my job. I will be taking the paper finding aids at the CMA Historical Archives and digitizing them into EAD finding aids. This will allow the Historical Archives’ collection to be searchable through the CMA Library’s online catalog. This will contribute to the size of the collection and make the Archive more utilized on the campus. In addition, the CMA Historical Archives will be able to share the EAD finding aids I will create with the Online Archive of California. This will help to market the collection to a larger base of researchers, bring another level of prestige to The California Maritime Academy.

The foundational skills that I have learned regarding the creation and manipulation of information systems transcend beyond libraries. I am capable of learning new principles and standards and can assist in the creation of new information structures that will be useful in a myriad of other professions due to my background in cataloging and archives. My professional background deals extensively with the development of information structures and the application of principles and standards to accurately represent knowledge. I am confident in my abilities to create an information structure using basic principles and appropriate organizational techniques. An important skill that I will carry with me into my chosen profession is the ability to organize and structure information in a way that can be applied to any type of organization I may work for in the future.