"This is not rocket science"

I'm reading the next chapter in the students' guide for LIS 703 for Saturday's class, and it's on Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). There are other lists of subject headings, but LCSH is the one we're working with as it's the biggest and there are lots of examples at the Library of Congress Authorities. Fun stuff. I love that in cataloging, "authority" means who authored the work. It sounds so technical.

I love that I just read the section in the text on "How to Do Subject Cataloging" and the professor wants us to see an example of subject headings, so we're going to look at a book we know quite well—AACR2. Direct quote: "What is Anglo-American Catloging Rules (hint, hint) about? You got it! Cataloging rules. This is not rocket science."

I totally could have taken another class this semester.

Anyway, I've also got my homework assignment to do, which is a MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) record for one book, so it's 15 pages of reading to go and then the homework. I'm listening to the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" while I do this, which I think is wildly appropriate. Next up: "aboutness"!