Teaching cataloguing after RDA 3R project

Abstract

This paper describes how RDA 3R was incorporated into a two-semester cataloguing course syllabus for first-year students and investigates students’ perceptions and feelings about the courses taught. The information gathered will guide the further development and improvement of the course to fully meet the needs of students and the requirements of the market, especially with the emergence of new resource description standards. Following the course teacher’s approval, the researchers distributed questionnaires during class hours. This method ensured that all students participated. The questionnaire was completely anonymous. It included two demographic questions and the CEQ 23 instrument with a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Besides that, a self-assessment questionnaire was employed to better understand their confidence in the knowledge gained. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the data related to 63 individual students. The quantitative analysis employed the statistical package SPSS. The findings revealed that students are reasonably confident in their new skills but prefer more practice over theory. Finally, they mentioned that they would like more precise goals and an extension of the courses to three semesters, as the workload is quite heavy. Overall, students feel relatively confident about the knowledge gained and believe they can catalogue in a library setting. The CEQ 23 instrument can be used in various knowledge organisation courses. It can provide a better understanding, with the ultimate goal of changing the curriculum or repurposing information organisation courses, allowing any Library and Information Science (LIS) school to judge the future of studies and their direction.