Although I’m enjoying all of my classes this semester, I must confess to some challenges when tackling the readings for IST 616 – Information Resources: Organization and Access. Librarians love acronyms. Although I am generally fond of acronyms myself, I seem to have met my match in this particular class regarding the number I’m able to absorb, understand, and remember: AACR2, DC, RDA, MODS, DACS, CCO, EAD, MARC, CDWA, VRA Core, TEI, CIDOC, ONIX, etc.

Last week, I cheekily shared my opinion that reading the textbook reminded me of this (only with no Robin Williams, so much less fun):

My mind is well and truly boggled by all these acronyms. Only the well-organized lectures of the professor, weekly visits to office hours, and class discussions with other students have kept me from losing my mind. I’m in the midst of making flash cards to aid my memory, but confess that I’ve viewed the above video clip multiple times as a stress-reduction technique.

Tonight, I’ve been skimming the AACR2 section of the RDA Toolkit in preparing for my Friday morning class. In spite of being blessedly free of acronyms, the reading is not without its challenges. My brain seems determined to treat it like semi-comprehensible legalese. What’s a girl to do when confronted with instructions like:

Base the description on the first part or, lacking this, on the earliest available part. For numbered multipart monographs, the first part is the lowest numbered part. For unnumbered multipart monographs, the first part is the part with the earliest publication, distribution, etc., date.

Why… remember her Marx Brothers, of course:

Here’s hoping I don’t have to invoke the Sanity Clause before the semester is through.