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The American Antiquarian Society hosts informal webinars on various topics.
Help us schedule our next series of webinars by letting us know of your areas of interest.
Proposed topics include searching the catalog, book history, visual culture, and K-12 resources and instruction.
Searching the Catalog Webinars
Amy Tims, AAS Cataloging Initiatives Librarian, is hosting the following webinars on various aspects of searching and navigating AAS’s catalog (http://catalog.mwa.org/).
- Keyword & Browse -- FULL
Wednesday, July 22, at 3 pm EDT
- Introduction to MARC
Wednesday, August 5, at 3 pm EDT
Each session is standalone and includes time for an open Q & A.
The webinars are held on Zoom.
Upon signing up, participants are emailed a link to the Zoom meeting and a link to a reference sheet that they can download, take notes on, and print out at their convenience.
Topic
This session explores how to refine your searches by taking advantage of different kinds of searches that the catalog can do.
Questions addressed include
- Why am I getting this search result when my search terms aren’t in the record?
- How do I find this record again?
- There are many A. Hams -- how do I search for the one who dueled Aaron Burr?
- Can I divide these 800+ search results into smaller chunks?
- Is there an alphabetical index of the catalog?
- Can I just #AskACataloger about this?
Formally, topics include
- MARC view (a glimpse behind the scenes)
- Catalog record numbers / bibliographic identifiers
- Marks of truncation
- Library forms of name / authorized access points
- Keyword searching
- Keyword anywhere
- Name keyword
- Subject keyword
- Boolean searches
- Browse searches
- Name browse
- Subject browse
- Cross references
About Our Host
Amy Tims, Cataloging Initiatives Librarian. Amy joined the AAS staff in 2012 as a cataloger for the North American Imprints Program (NAIP), and she now takes on a variety of projects to enhance access to the Society's holdings.
This webinar is full.
Each session is standalone and includes time for an open Q & A with an AAS staff member.
The webinars are held on Zoom.
Upon signing up, participants are emailed a link to the Zoom meeting and a link to a reference sheet that they can download, take notes on, and print out at their convenience.
Images:
Searching the AAS Catalog: Introduction to MARC
Wednesday, August 5, 3:00 pm EDT
Approx. 60 minutes
Topic
The session discusses MARC, the data format underlying the catalog, and how it connects to and impacts the searches you can do in the AAS Catalog.
Questions addressed include
- Why does it matter if I choose “as a phrase” or “all of these” when keyword searching?
- What do those punctuation marks in the record mean?
- How does a cataloger see the catalog?
- What kind of information do catalogers make note of and how do they record it? (And why does this matter?)
- What information is this search actually searching? (Is it doing what I think it is?)
- What the heck is MARC?
Formally, topics include
- MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC), a very brief history and overview
- MARC fields and subfields, the structure thereof
- MARC fields and subfields, the content thereof
- Resources catalogers use for MARC fields with formally-structured content
- AAS Catalog searches and the MARC fields they’re searching
- Specialized indexing
Handouts
MARC fields in WebVoyage.xlsx
AAS Catalog Intro to MARC Reference Sheet.pdf
AAS Catalog Intro to MARC slides.pdf
AAS Catalog Intro to MARC slides powerpoint.pptx
About Our Host
Amy Tims, Cataloging Initiatives Librarian. Amy joined the AAS staff in 2012 as a cataloger for the North American Imprints Program (NAIP), and she now takes on a variety of projects to enhance access to the Society's holdings.
Each session is standalone and includes time for an open Q & A with an AAS staff member.
The webinars are held on Zoom.
Upon signing up, participants are emailed a link to the Zoom meeting and a link to a reference sheet that they can download, take notes on, and print out at their convenience.
Previous sessions:
- Foundations
Thursday, May 7, 2020
- North American Imprints Program, the Evans years (pre-1801)
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
- Keyword & Browse
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
- Introduction to MARC
Thursday, June 11, 2020
- Foundations
Wednesday, July 8, at 3 pm EDT
These webinars have been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor
