Fellow map librarians and anyone who knew or worked with Mary Larsgaard:
I write to provide a unique opportunity and fun/interesting method to honor my mentor and colleague, Mary Larsgaard. The idea comes from two leaders in the Western Association of Map Libraries organization, Julie Sweetkind-Singer and Tom Brittnacher. The specifics are in a message sent to me in early August as seen below – I will follow up with my own example descriptive bibliographic record and also a “blank” template of one, with instructions, for anyone to use:
“Hi, Paige,
I’ve been in discussions with Tom about how WAML can honor our dear friend, Mary Larsgaard. While at her memorial I proposed that we ask her cataloging compadres to create a MARC record in her honor with Mary as the “thing” that is described. I was going to ask on WAML and Maps-L for participants that would be willing to do this. They would all be published in the November issue of WAML’s IB.
Would you be willing to help us with this and create the first one as an example? I would then be able to send out a note and include your record. (All fictitious and as something like a Word document. Please let me know if you have time and interest in helping us out.
Many thanks for considering.
Julie”
So, to be helpful to some on this list who might not know what a MARC record is, MARC stands for “machine readable cataloging” and the structure of it allows for descriptive elements to be placed within fields and subfields to describe a given resource and then the records are shareable. And yes, I did create a MARC record describing Mary that one can use as a guide/example when creating your own. BUT I did not do it alone! Many, many thanks go to fellow catalogers Kathy Rankin at UNLV, Susan Moore at the Univ. of Northern Iowa, Tim Kiser at Michigan State University, and Louise Ratliff at UCLA.
The first attachment is to “my” record describing Mary. When you work on creating your own record of/about Mary many of the elements should remain (i.e., be retained) in subsequent records created by you, the next volunteer, because elements such as those appearing in the 300 field ("physical description") don't need to be changed or deleted. But, look especially at the 787 fields as you will see how they are a direct link to my personal relationship with Mary over the years. It makes sense that you will want to delete those describing my (Paige's) relationship with Mary and replace them with similar items that describe YOUR relationship(s) with her, such as co-authoring a paper or co-leading a task force.
The second attachment is to a “template” record to describe Mary – THIS is the one you should use to create your own version to share with others. Pay attention to the instructions
I have embedded. Strip out text where indicated and then replace with text that pertains to YOU and your relationship with Mary.
If the attachments don't appear, or will not open for you, please contact me at [log in to unmask] and I will send these two documents to you directly.
When completed please send YOUR description of Mary directly to:
Mr. Tom Brittnacher
Editor, Western Association of Map Libraries Information Bulletin
Geospatial Data Curator
UCSB Library
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010
If you have any questions about the process or intended outcome don’t hesitate to contact Julie Sweetkind-Singer at [log in to unmask] or Tom at the email noted above.
Sincerely,
Paige Andrew
Maps Cataloging Librarian
Pennsylvania State University Libraries