Cataloging and Metadata Cheat Sheet

Front of the poster with definitions of what I deemed some of the most important (basic) MARC fields.

Back of the poster with notes on RDF and the 15 core elements of Dublin Core.

I have been trying to further acquaint myself with the world of cataloging and metadata, so I decided to make a poster to memorize key information. As a visual and kinetic learner, writing color-coded notes aids my retention of material, so I set off to make a large-scale version of a "cheat sheet" to hang in front of my desk for personal study.

I have learned a lot in making this poster. Mainly that MARC fields are imbalanced (0xx and 5xx have so many more fields than 4xx and 9xx!), RDF is simpler for me to understand when modeled as a graph, and Dublin Core can be as minimalist or expansive as you want it to be. It is a bit overwhelming now to think about memorizing all of this knowledge, as I plan to do with this poster. However, I am sure that over time, even the granular information will find a more permanent corner in my brain to reside.