Individual Report

Katie Flisk
LIS882

Describe how you feel about the assignment and the documents produced.
I feel good about the project. The assignment was interesting and a good way to demonstrate
how metadata schemas can be interpreted in so many different ways. A good MAP is vital to
group work. Our documents turned out well, I think the communication and MAP updates were a
big part of that.

Do you feel like your group worked well together?

We did work well together. Despite a few meeting absences everyone was able to get on the
same page and get the work done. Bridget was good about uploading meeting notes, so even if
someone missed a meeting, they would see what was talked about.

What are some areas (if any) your group could improve upon?
It might have been better if we had a group chat instead of only meeting up once a week. Since
this was a working document, it would have been nice to have more real time updates than only
when I opened the document or canvas page.

What are some areas (if any) that you could improve upon?
I could improve upon more communication of MAP changes. We had the MAP and Crosswalk
separated for ease of use and sometimes updated information would not make it onto one or the
other. Since we only met once a week, I would make changes and comment on it in the MAP but
if someone had already made their XML file based on a previous version, they might not see the
changes until the next meeting. I should have at least emailed that changes were made to the
document.

What were some of the topics of debate among your group members and how do you feel
about the outcomes?
None of our debates lasted very long, we would have some discussions in the MAP comments
then bring it to the meeting. One of the debates I remember was whether to add number of pieces
to the local schema. It seemed like a good thing to add, but someone brought up that it would not
be useful to us, as an institution that is maintaining a collection rather than checking items out to
the public. We considered that point and agreed that we would not need it. We also debated why
our institution existed. A thought brought up was board games played during COVID with
researchers as our audience, but we decided that was too niche and we would not be able to come
up with many elements that audience would want to know. I feel good about the outcomes.

If you had completed this assignment individually, would you have reached the same
conclusions?
If I had done this on my own, I would have ended up with a lot more elements that were not
necessary. Not only the number of pieces, but I also would have had many more creators for my
board game which would mean a lot more work for future catalogers looking up individuals. I
think it was good to have people to bounce ideas off.

Talk about something you feel you know more about or feel more comfortable with after
the completion of the project. Conversely, are you more unsure of or confused about any
topic?
I feel like I know more about MODS now. I looked through all our elements for MODS
equivalents, then saw group members MODS records for more options I had not considered,
such as adding “type” to origin info.

Feel free to add any further individual reflection of the project that you feel is important.